Best war & documentary shows streaming, ranked.
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- #3283

Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough
2015–2016 · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary
David Attenborough revisits the Great Barrier Reef after nearly 60 years. His visit takes him from the most exposed part of the reef as well as down to 300m below the surface discovering corals never seen before.
Paramount+ - #3681

Top Gear: The Perfect Road Trip
2013 · Movie · 1h 25mDocumentary · Comedy
Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond go on a seven-day road trip from Venice, Italy, to Pau, France, in this special episode from the BBC motoring series. Along the way the pair visit the Autodromo Nazionale Monza race track and ta...
Peacock - #4679
We Need to Talk About Cosby
2022– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Biography · Crime
Writer/director W. Kamau Bell's exploration of Bill Cosby's descent from "America's Dad" to convicted sexual predator. Comedians, journalists and survivors have a candid, first of its kind conversation about the man, his career an...
Paramount+ - #5278
60 Days In
2016– · Series · 9 seasonsDocumentary · Crime · Reality
"60 Days In" offers an unprecedented look at life behind bars at Indiana's Clark County Jail. Seven ordinary people volunteer to live among its general population for 60 days, without fellow inmates or staff knowing their secret.
Disney+HuluPeacock - #5378
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
2019 · Movie · 1h 34mDocumentary · History
An exploration of the history and emotional power of cinema sound, as revealed by legendary sound designers and visionary directors, via interviews, clips from movies, and a look at their actual process of creation and discovery.
Peacock - #6077
American Greed
2007–2023 · Series · 15 seasonsDocumentary · Crime
Documentary series focusing on history's largest financial crimes ranging from Ponzi schemes, murder, card counting, generating fake currency and goods, extortion, online dating, identity theft, drug distribution, and insider trad...
PeacockPrime Video - #7774

John Wayne Gacy: Devil in Disguise
2021– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Biography · Crime
The chilling story of one of the world's most notorious serial killers told through the words of Gacy himself, those who were forever changed by his unspeakable deeds and those who believe that the full truth remains concealed to ...
Peacock - #8374

Curiosity
2011–2014 · Series · 2 seasonsDocumentary
This program is made by the Discovery Network, and the show's 'full-name' has the suffix phrase of "The Questions of Our Life", after curiosity. The show tries to answer mysteries and certain queries within diverse fields like the...
PeacockPrime Video - #8973
Sid & Judy
2019 · Movie · 1h 35mDocumentary · Biography · History
Revealing new look at Judy Garland fifty years after her tragic, untimely death. Fusing the unpublished recollections of producer, manager and third husband, Sid Luft, with film clips, rare concert footage and Judy's own inimitabl...
Paramount+ - #9473
Nöthin' But a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal
2024– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary
Follow the wild, excessive '80s hard rock scene's insanity and ambition that enthralled generations. Uncensored behind-the-scenes look at an iconic musical era's influence on culture through candid insights from renowned rock jour...
Paramount+ - #10272
Kyle Kinane: Whiskey Icarus
2012 · Movie · 1hDocumentary · Comedy
In his first hour-long Comedy Central special, Kyle Kinane contemplates the existence of God, and the true meaning of being delivered an unsliced pizza. This special is extended and uncensored with all sorts of extra Kyle.
Paramount+ - #10372
Inside the Factory
2015– · Series · 10 seasonsDocumentary · History
How our favorite foods and products are made? Cherry Healey and Gregg Wallace go into the factories to figure out, while Ruth Goodman tell us about the historical development of the manufacturing process of these products.
Paramount+ - #10472
The Day Kennedy Died
2013 · Movie · 1h 32mDocumentary · History
Captures the frantic rush to the local hospital, the public chaos that ensued, the quickly mobilized manhunt by law enforcement looking for a suspect after witnesses identified the source of the gunshots as the Texas Book Deposito...
Paramount+ - #10672
The Spymasters: CIA in the Crosshairs
2015 · Movie · 2hDocumentary · Drama · War
Documentary revealing the inner workings of the world's most powerful intelligence organization, with unprecedented access to America's spy network, all 12 living CIA directors and top agency operatives, who talk candidly about to...
Paramount+ - #11171
Lynching Postcards: Token of a Great Day
2021 · Movie · 15mDocumentary
During 1880-1968 over 4,000 African Americans were lynched at the hands of white mobs. These lynchings were commemorated through souvenir postcards that would ultimately be subverted by Black activists to expose racist violence in...
Paramount+ - #11971
Secrets of the Morgue
2018–2019 · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Crime
"Secrets of the Morgue" explores high-profile murder cases from the perspective of the medical examiner, as they work alongside homicide detectives to bring justice to murder victims and their families. A victims body tells a hidd...
HuluPeacockPrime Video - #13170
The Last Expedition
2024 · Movie · Polish · 1h 20mDocumentary
The true story of Wanda Rutkiewicz, the first woman in the world and the first person from Poland to climb the highest peaks on earth - told by herself. Wanda entered the men's world of high-mountain expeditions without an invitat...
Paramount+ - #13869
Pathological: The Lies of Joran van der Sloot
2024 · Movie · 1h 33mDocumentary · Crime
Delves into Joran van der Sloot's lifelong pattern of violence and pathological lying through rare interviews and new insights years after he brutally murdered American Natalee Holloway and Peruvian Stephany Flores.
Peacock - #14069
The Mountain Lion and Me
2018 · Movie · 51mDocumentary
On the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park is Paradise Valley, Montana, home to bears, wolves, elk, and an animal so secretive, few ever get to see it: the mountain lion. Wildlife filmmaker Casey Anderson became one of those lu...
Paramount+ - #14569
Mystery in Yellowstone
2015 · Movie · 46mDocumentary
Yellowstone National Park is home to a vast array of landscapes and a huge diversity of animals, united in a fascinating ecosystem, one that is currently in severe trouble. The area once contained over 19,000 elk, but its numbers ...
Paramount+ - #14669
Americans Underground: Secret City of WWI
2017 · Movie · 44mDocumentary
An amazing discovery has been made beneath a farm field in Northern France: a vast underground city where World War I soldiers, on both sides of the conflict, took refuge a century ago. Even more remarkable, it is one of hundreds ...
Paramount+ - #14769
Madagascar: Africa's Galapagos
2019 · Movie · 50mDocumentary
It's the 10th of May 1836, Charles Darwin leans on the beaten wooden gunwale of The Beagle. He's yet to start writing his "Origin of the Species", but he's already forming his theories about evolution. Locations like the Galapagos...
Paramount+ - #15369
Miles To Go Before I Sleep
2016 · Movie · 35mDocumentary
35 minute documentary about musicians and the relationships they have with their roadies. Features Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Chris Shiflett (Foo Fighters) and Jim James (My Morning Jacket), who talk about their time on t...
Paramount+ - #15669
Surviving Mormonism with Heather Gay
2025– · SeriesDocumentary
Heather Gay explores the secrets and sins behind the Mormon church, fracturing the church's seemingly perfect veneer to expose secrets. Heather has impactful conversations with abuse survivors, ex-Mormons and former LDS church lea...
Peacock - #16069
Unbelievable Flying Objects
2007 · Movie · 52mDocumentary
In the history of aviation, there were some ideas that didn't quite...fly. From the bizarre vertical "Pogo" plane to the disastrous Goblin, nicknamed the "Flying Egg," we take an in-depth probe of some magnificent men and their no...
Paramount+ - #16169
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison
2021 · Movie · 27mDocumentary
Angola Do You Hear Us? Voices from a Plantation Prison gives us a window into playwright Liza Jessie Peterson's performance in 2020 of her acclaimed play The Peculiar Patriot performed at Angola, the Louisiana State Penitentiary, ...
Paramount+ - #16269
Uphill Climb: The Women Who Conquered the Impossible Race
2023 · Movie · 35mDocumentary
The inspiring story of the first women to compete in the Tour de France. These pioneering "hidden figures" of cycling defied those who said women could never finish the toughest bicycle race in the world. They proved them wrong.
Peacock - #16669

Out of the Rubble
2016 · Movie · 17mDocumentary
This is a fine short film neatly pulling together post-war archive to tell a story of the modernisation of Britain through architectural change, town planning, immigration and attitudes towards all this. All done in less than 20 minutes. There's such a good flow to the editing that it probably won't even feel its running length. There's a few contemporary additions including interviews with some of the subjects from the archive, which help to pull of the social commentaries together, but none detract from the flow or style of this piece of documentary cinema. All in all it's a good use of the BFI's archive so hopefully there'll be more similar efforts like this in the future.
Paramount+ - #16769

Songs & Stories with Kelly Clarkson
2025– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary
The three-time Grammy winner will chat with Gloria Estefan, Jonas Brothers, Lizzo, and Teddy Swims about music as well as their personal lives, giving viewers a “a front-row pass” at their “unfiltered” conversations. The four-episode special will also feature musical performances in an “intimate, unplugged setting.
Peacock - #16869
Hunting the Hammerhead
2016 · Movie · 46mDocumentary
The tropical waters of Bimini in the Bahamas are the hunting grounds for a large, yet elusive predator - the Great Hammerhead Shark. After 7 years research into the hunting senses of the Great White Shark, sensory biologist Dr. Cr...
Paramount+ - #17469
Ari Shaffir: Paid Regular
2015 · Movie · 1h 13mDocumentary · Comedy
Stand-up comic Ari Shaffir discusses inappropriate subjects like taking shrooms while camping, unusual new racial stereotypes, morning blowjobs, oddities of some of the ten commandments, and his profound hatred towards TSA.
Paramount+ - #17569
China's Emperor of Evil
2016 · Movie · 46mDocumentary
In China's Valley of the Kings, there stands a tall, carved stone. It honors the resting place of a woman named Wu Zetian, who rose from concubine to become China's only female emperor. For more than a millennia, history claimed s...
Paramount+ - #18369
Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland
2024– · SeriesDocumentary
Billy juggles his music career with The Smashing Pumpkins, reviving his wrestling promotion National Wrestling Alliance, family life with his fiancée Chloe Mendel and their two kids, in a multitasking whirlwind that tests his limits.
PeacockPrime Video - #18569
Battle of Little Bighorn
2020 · Movie · 45mDocumentary · Action · Biography
The U.S. expands westward after the Civil War displacing the last of the free-roaming Native Americans onto Reservations. This show focuses special attention on General George A. Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn and Buf...
Paramount+ - #19268
Police: Suspect No.1
2020–2024 · Series · 2 seasonsDocumentary · Crime
Documentary series following the work of Norfolk police as they attempt to identify those responsible for crimes, exploring the intricacies of producing irrefutable evidence, conducting interviews and getting the guilty to confess.
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