Best documentary & drama shows streaming, ranked.
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- #1295
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
2020 · Movie · 1h 23mDocumentary · Biography
3 EmmysIn this documentary David Attenborough, the celebrated naturalist, reflects upon both the defining moments of his lifetime and the devastating changes he has seen. The film provides a snapshot of global nature loss in a single lif...
Netflix - #2791
Jim Gaffigan: Obsessed
2014 · Movie · 1hDocumentary · Comedy
Jim Gaffigan bursts back on the scene with this eagerly anticipated fourth comedy special. Dubbed the "King of Clean Comedy" by The Wall Street Journal, Jim's obsession with all things food comes to fruition on "Obsessed" as he ta...
Netflix - #3391

Arrival
2016 · Movie · 1h 56mDrama · Mystery · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
1 OscarLinguist Louise Banks leads a team of investigators when gigantic spaceships touch down around the world. As nations teeter on the verge of global war, Banks and her crew must find a way to communicate with the extraterrestrial vi...
Paramount+ - #3790
Twenty Five Twenty One
2022– · Series · Korean · 1 seasonDrama · Romance
In a time when dreams seem out of reach, a teen fencer pursues big ambitions and meets a hardworking young man who seeks to rebuild his life. At 22 and 18, they say each other's names for the first time, at 25 and 21, they fall in...
Netflix - #4390
Heartstopper
2022–2024 · Series · 3 seasonsDrama · Romance
Charlie, a high-strung, openly gay overthinker, and Nick, a cheerful, soft-hearted rugby player, one day are made to sit together in class. Their friendship becomes something more for Charlie, but he does not believe he has a chance.
Netflix - #4690
City of Joy
2016 · Movie · 1h 14mDocumentary · Crime · Drama
This film follows the first class of students at a remarkable leadership center in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a region often referred to as "the worst place in the world to be a woman." These women have been through...
Netflix - #5989
Blue Is the Warmest Color
2013 · Movie · French · 3hDrama · Romance
Adèle's life is changed when she meets Emma, a young woman with blue hair, who will allow her to discover desire and to assert herself as a woman and as an adult. In front of others, Adèle grows, seeks herself, loses herself, and ...
HuluNetflix - #6189
Hidden Love
2023– · Series · Mandarin · 1 seasonDrama · Romance
Sang Zhi falls in love with Duan Jia Xu, the boy who often comes to her house to play with her brother. Years after she joins the university in the city he now lives, and during their day-to-day interactions, they slowly fall in l...
Netflix - #7388
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom
2015 · Movie · 1h 42mDocumentary · History
A documentary on the unrest in Ukraine during 2013 and 2014, as student demonstrations supporting European integration grew into a violent revolution calling for the resignation of President Viktor F. Yanukovich.
Netflix - #8688

Hell on Wheels
2011–2016 · Series · 5 seasonsDrama · Western
The Civil War is past, but former Confederate soldier Cullen Bohannon can't put it behind him. Fresh are the memories of the death of his wife, killed at the hands of Union soldiers, an act that sets him on a course of revenge.
Paramount+ - #9787
Stay on Board: The Leo Baker Story
2022 · Movie · 1h 12mDocumentary
Follows celebrated competitive skating icon Leo Baker as they try to make space for themselves in the gendered world of pro sports and build a more inclusive skate culture, which leads them to doing the punkest thing imaginable.
Netflix - #9987
Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War
2024– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary
The series chronicles the creation of the atomic bomb and the spread of nuclear arms over the following decades. It continues past the dissolution of the Soviet Union to Vladimir Putin's ascent and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Netflix - #12286
Once Brothers
2010 · Movie · 1h 19mDocumentary · Biography · History
Drazen Petrovic and Vlade Divac were two friends who grew up together sharing the common bond of basketball. Together, they lifted the Yugoslavian National team to unimaginable heights. After conquering Europe, they both went to A...
Netflix - #13686
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
2024 · Movie · Norwegian · 1h 43mDocumentary · Animation · Biography
Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around th...
Netflix - #14086
Fellow Travelers
2023– · Series · 1 seasonDrama · Romance
Decades-long chronicle of the risky, volatile and steamy relationship between the charismatic and ambitious Hawk and the pious and idealistic Tim, two political staffers who fall in love at the height of the 1950s Lavender Scare.
Paramount+ - #14286
Our Beloved Summer
2021–2022 · Series · Korean · 1 seasonDrama · Romance
A coming of age, romantic comedy revolving around ex-lovers who broke up with a promise never to meet again. But the documentary they filmed ten years ago gets the fame and they are by compulsion facing camera once more.
Netflix - #14685
The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez
2020– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Crime
Filmmaker Brian Knappenberger investigates the tragic death of an 8-year-old California boy who endured horrific abuse by his mother and her boyfriend, along with the fractured and complex systems that failed to protect him.
Netflix - #14885
The Stringer: The Man Who Took the Photo
2025 · Movie · 1h 43mDocumentary · Biography · History
A two-year investigation uncovers a scandal behind the making of one of the most-recognized photographs of the 20th century. Five decades of secrets are unraveled in the search for justice for a man known only as "the stringer."
Netflix - #15985
Sunderland 'Til I Die
2018–2024 · Series · 3 seasonsDocumentary · Sport
Highlights the unfailing passion Sunderland residents have for their beloved football club, taking viewers through the highs and lows of SAFC's 2017-18 season in the Championship following its relegation the previous year.
Netflix - #16185
Belushi
2020 · Movie · 1h 48mDocumentary · Biography
Using previously unheard audiotapes recorded shortly after John Belushi's death, director R.J. Cutler's documentary examines the too-short life of once-in-a-generation talent who captured the hearts and funny bones of devoted audi...
Paramount+ - #16985
And Breathe Normally
2018 · Movie · Icelandic · 1h 35mDrama
Two women's lives will intersect while trapped in circumstances unforeseen. Between a struggling Icelandic mother and an asylum seeker from Guinea-Bissau, a delicate bond will form as both strategize to get their lives back on track.
Netflix - #19884
Elena
2013 · Movie · Portuguese · 1h 20mDocumentary · Biography · Drama
Elena, a young Brazilian woman, travels to New York with the same dream as her mother, to become a movie actress. She leaves behind her childhood spent in hiding during the years of the military dictatorship. She also leaves Petra...
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