Best crime & documentary shows streaming, ranked.
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- #896
Man on Wire
2008 · Movie · 1h 34mDocumentary · Biography · Crime
1 OscarA look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century".
Prime Video - #2393
Paatal Lok
2020– · Series · Hindi · 2 seasonsCrime · Drama · Thriller
A down-and-out cop lands the case of a lifetime when four suspects are nabbed in the assassination attempt of a journalist. The pursuit leads him to 'Paatal Lok' and to shocking discoveries in the four suspects' pasts.
Prime Video - #2593

Gleason
2016 · Movie · 1h 50mDocumentary · Biography
After he is diagnosed with ALS, former professional football player Steve Gleason begins making a video diary for his unborn son, as he, his wife, and their friends and family work to raise money for ALS patients as his disease pr...
Prime Video - #3292
20 Feet from Stardom
2013 · Movie · 1h 31mDocumentary · Biography · History
1 OscarBackup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we've had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.
Prime Video - #3392
Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession
2004 · Movie · 2h 2mDocumentary · Biography · History
The story of Z Channel, one of the first U.S. pay cable stations and its programming chief, Jerry Harvey. Debuting in 1974 in LA, their eclectic slate of movies became a prime example of the untapped power of cable television.
Prime Video - #3692
Little Dieter Needs to Fly
1997 · Movie · 1h 20mDocumentary · Biography · Drama
German-American Dieter Dengler discusses his service as a U.S. naval pilot in the Vietnam War. Dengler also revisits the sites of his capture and eventual escape from the hands of the Viet Cong, recreating many events for the camera.
Prime Video - #4392
Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley's Island of Dr. Moreau
2014 · Movie · 1h 37mDocumentary · Action
A behind the scenes chronicle of how clash of vision, bad creative decisions, lack of interest and really bad weather plagued the disastrous production of the infamous The Island of Dr. Moreau (1996).
Prime Video - #6091
Birds of Passage
2018 · Movie · Spanish · 2h 5mCrime · Drama
During the marijuana bonanza, a violent decade that saw the origins of drug trafficking in Colombia, Rapayet and his indigenous family get involved in a war to control the business that ends up destroying their lives and their cul...
Prime Video - #6491
And Then There Were None
1945 · Movie · 1h 37mCrime · Drama · Mystery
Seven guests, a newly hired secretary and two staff are gathered at a manor house on an isolated island by an unknown absentee host and are killed off one-by-one. They work together to determine who the killer is before it's too l...
Prime Video - #7290
Dexter: Resurrection
2025– · Series · 1 seasonCrime · Drama · Thriller
Dexter Morgan awakens from a coma and sets out for New York City, determined to find Harrison and make things right. But when Miami Metro's Angel Batista arrives with questions, Dexter realizes his past is catching up to him fast.
Paramount+ - #7390
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street
2021 · Movie · 1h 47mDocumentary · Family · History
Take a stroll down Sesame Street and witness the birth of the most impactful children's series in TV history. From the iconic furry characters to the songs you know by heart, learn how a gang of visionary creators changed our world.
Prime Video - #8090
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story
2017 · Movie · 1h 48mDocumentary · Biography
To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story is the harrowing story of a stuntman overcoming a dehumanizing childhood filled with torment and bullying in Sparks, Nevada. After surviving a near-death burn accident, he worked his way up through Hollywood, leading to his ultimate rise as Jason Voorhees in the Friday the 13th series and making countless moviegoers forever terrified of hockey masks and summer camp. Featuring interviews with cinema legends, including Bruce Campbell (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger), and Cassandra Peterson (Elvira: Mistress of the Dark), To Hell and Back peels off the mask of Kane Hodder, cinema's most prolific killer, in a gut-wrenching, but inspiring, documentary. After decades of watching Kane Hodder on screen, get ready to meet the man behind the mask in To Hell and Back - an uniquely human story about one of cinema's most vicious monsters.
Prime Video - #9589

Dirtbag: The Legend of Fred Beckey
2017 · Movie · 1h 36mDocumentary · Action · Biography
Fred Beckey is the legendary American "Dirtbag" mountaineer whose name is spoken in hushed tones around campfires. This rebel climber's pioneering ascents and lifestyle form an iconic legacy that continues to inspire generations.
Prime Video - #11088
The Universe
2007–2015 · Series · 9 seasonsDocumentary · History
This educational show explores many scientific questions and topics about the universe (Big Bang, the Sun, the planets, black holes, other galaxies, astrobiology etc.) through latest CGI, data and interviews with scientists.
Prime Video - #11488
The Sparring Partner
2022 · Movie · Cantonese · 2h 18mCrime · Drama
Based on a shocking case in real life, a young man partners with his friend to murder and dismember his parents. Pleading not guilty to the crime, defense attorneys face each other as nine jurors grapple with the truth.
Prime Video - #11788
A Simple Plan
1998 · Movie · 2h 1mCrime · Drama · Thriller
Two brothers and a friend, all blue-collar workers, come across millions of dollars in lost cash and make a plan to keep their find from the authorities, but it isn't long before complications and mistrust weave their way into the...
Prime Video - #11988
Lucy and Desi
2022 · Movie · 1h 43mDocumentary · Biography · Comedy
2 EmmysThis film explores the rise of comedy icon Lucille Ball, her relationship with Desi Arnaz, and how their groundbreaking sitcom "I Love Lucy" forever changed Hollywood, cementing her legacy long after her death in 1989.
Prime Video - #12088
Fiddler: A Miracle of Miracles
2019 · Movie · 1h 37mDocumentary
The origin story behind one of Broadway's most beloved musicals, Fiddler on The Roof, and its creative roots in early 1960s New York, when "tradition" was on the wane as gender roles, sexuality, race relations and religion were ev...
Prime Video - #13288
Silicon Cowboys
2016 · Movie · 1h 17mDocumentary · History
Three friends dream up the Compaq portable computer at a Texas diner in 1981, and soon find themselves battling mighty IBM for PC supremacy. Their improbable journey altered the future of computing and shaped the world we now know.
Prime Video - #13888
Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
2007 · Movie · 1h 57mCrime · Drama · Thriller
When two brothers organize the robbery of their parents' jewelry store, the job goes horribly wrong triggering a series of events that send them, their father and the wife of one brother barreling toward a shattering climax.
HuluPrime Video - #14487

George Carlin: It's Bad for Ya!
2008 · Movie · 1h 10mDocumentary · Comedy
It's Bad For Ya, Carlin's Emmy-nominated 14th and final HBO special from March of 2008 features Carlin's noted irreverent and unapologetic observations on topics ranging from death, religion, bureaucracy, patriotism, overprotected...
Prime Video - #14687
Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted
2025 · Movie · 1h 35mDocumentary · Comedy
Cult musician Swamp Dogg and housemates Moogstar and Guitar Shorty have turned their suburban LA home into an artistic haven. They journey through the turbulent music business, forming a special friendship transcending eras.
Prime Video - #14887
Fragments of Paradise
2022 · Movie · 1h 38mDocumentary
Jonas Mekas chronicled life via diary films over 70+ years, from his 1949 NYC arrival until 2019. The Lithuanian exile shaped avant-garde cinema while building indie film institutions. "Fragments of Paradise" delves into his archives
Prime Video - #15387
This Is Not a Movie: Robert Fisk and the Politics of Truth
2019 · Movie · 1h 46mDocumentary · Action · Biography
The groundbreaking and often game-changing reporting of legendary foreign correspondent and author Robert Fisk is profiled in the latest from acclaimed documentarian Yung Chang (Up the Yangtze).
Prime Video - #16087
The Men Who Built America
2012– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Biography · History
2 EmmysRockefeller, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Astor, Ford and Morgan. Their names are part of history and synonymous with the American dream. These men transformed every industry they touched: oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobiles, and fin...
HuluPrime Video - #16287
American: An Odyssey to 1947
2022 · Movie · 1h 42mDocumentary
In the early 1930s, Orson Welles ascends to unprecedented stardom while President Franklin Delano Roosevelt navigates a nation in crisis. As WWII begins, an American boy visits abroad, and an American soldier enlists in the army.
Prime Video - #17687
Citizen K
2019 · Movie · Russian · 2h 6mDocumentary
The strange case of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, who rocketed to prosperity and prominence in the 1990s, served a decade in prison, and became an unlikely martyr for the anti-Putin movement.
Prime Video - #17887
Exposing Muybridge
2021 · Movie · 1h 28mDocumentary · Biography · History
Exposing Muybridge tells the story of trailblazing 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who changed the world with his camera. Muybridge set the course for the development of cinema when he became the first photographer t...
Prime Video - #19386
The Good Wife
2009–2016 · Series · 7 seasonsCrime · Drama · Mystery
5 EmmysAlicia Florrick has been a good wife to her husband, a former state's attorney. After a very humiliating sex and corruption scandal, he is behind bars. She must now provide for her family and returns to work as a litigator in a la...
Paramount+ - #19686
Hondros
2018 · Movie · 1h 30mDocumentary · Biography · War
HONDROS follows the life and career of famous war photographer Chris Hondros by exploring the poignant and often surprising stories behind this award-winning photojournalist's best-known photos. Driven by a commitment to bear witn...
Prime Video - #20486
Life
2007–2009 · Series · 2 seasonsCrime · Drama · Mystery
Detective Charlie Crews was framed, convicted and cleared for a crime he didn't commit. Twelve years of hard time have given him a unique philosophy on life and criminal investigation. Now he's readjusting to a world that's moved on.
PeacockPrime Video - #20586

Prophet's Prey
2015 · Movie · 1h 41mDocumentary · Biography · History
When Warren Jeffs rose to Prophet of the Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints, he took control of a religion with a history of polygamous and underage marriage. In a short time, Warren managed to expand these practices and t...
Paramount+ - #21586
A.rtificial I.mmortality
2021 · Movie · 1h 14mDocumentary
If you could create an immortal version of yourself, would you? Once the stuff of science fiction, A.I. experts now see it as possible. This feature documentary explores the latest thinking and technological advancements in AI.
Prime Video - #21686
James May: Our Man in…
2020–2024 · Series · 3 seasonsDocumentary · Action · Comedy
James May embarks on a remarkable journey across Japan, from its icy north to its balmy south. He'll see the sights, meet the locals, and eat the noodles in a bid to truly understand the Land of the Rising Sun.
Prime Video - #22086
The Last Stop in Yuma County
2024 · Movie · 1h 30mCrime · Drama · Thriller
While stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop, a traveling salesman is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fort...
Paramount+ - #24685
An Old Lady
2020 · Movie · Korean · 1h 40mCrime · Drama
Hyo-jeong, a 69-year-old woman, is raped by a male nurse aide. But few people, including the police, are willing to believe her words. Most people question whether that handsome young man really would have done so. The male nurse ...
Prime Video - #25285
Satan Wants You
2023 · Movie · 1h 28mDocumentary · Crime · Horror
It tells the story of how the Satanic Panic of the 1980s was ignited by "Michelle Remembers", a memoir by psychiatrist and his patient. The book relied on recovered-memory therapy to uncover Michelle's abduction by baby-stealing S...
Prime Video - #25485
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+ - #25985
Valentine Road
2013 · Movie · 1h 29mDocumentary · Crime
On February 12, 2008 in Oxnard, California, eighth-grade student Brandon McInerney shot his classmate Larry King twice in the back of the head during first period. When Larry died two days later, his murder shocked the nation. Was...
MAXPrime Video - #26385

Buzzfeed Unsolved: True Crime
2016–2021 · Series · 8 seasonsDocumentary · Comedy · Crime
Conspiracy theory enthusiast Ryan deep-dives into mysteries surrounding notorious unsolved crimes, in order to convince his dubious friend Shane that, sometimes, the evidence isn't always as it seems.
HuluPrime Video - #26984

Antarctica: A Year on Ice
2013 · Movie · 1h 31mDocumentary · Action · Biography
A visually stunning chronicle of what it is like to live in Antarctica for a full year, including winters isolated from the rest of the world, and enduring months of darkness in the coldest place on Earth.
Prime Video - #27084

Criminal Minds
2005– · Series · 18 seasonsCrime · Drama · Mystery
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico helps police solve violent serial crimes using profiling. Team members analyze evidence and psychology to catch unknown subjects, but their demanding work affects personal lives.
HuluParamount+Prime Video - #28084
Hollywood Dreams & Nightmares: The Robert Englund Story
2022 · Movie · 2h 14mDocumentary
A classically trained actor and director, Robert Englund has become one of the most revolutionary horror icons of our generation. Throughout his career, Englund starred in many well-known movies, but shot to super-stardom with his...
Prime Video - #28184
All or Nothing
2016– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Sport
For the first time in history, Amazon and NFL Films present an unprecedented inside look at the lives of players, coaches and owners of a franchise over the course of an entire NFL season. Witness the real life, behind the scenes ...
Prime Video - #28684

Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
2008 · Movie · 1h 26mDocumentary · Biography
The Murrow, Polk, and IDA Award-winning documentary Boogie Man is about Lee Atwater, a blues-playing rogue whose rise from the South to Chairman of the GOP made him a political rock star. He mentored George W. Bush and Karl Rove w...
Prime Video - #29084
Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary
2021– · Series · 1 seasonDocumentary · Biography
Multi-platinum country music superstar and recent Academy of Country Music Awards "Entertainer of the Year" recipient, Luke Bryan, as he experiences the ups, downs, triumphs and tragedies along the road to unprecedented success.
Prime Video - #29384
The Wolfpack
2015 · Movie · 1h 30mDocumentary · Biography
Confined in an apartment from a New York housing project, the six Angulo brothers learned everything they know about the world through watching films and spend their time reenacting their favorite movies with intricate homemade co...
Prime Video - #30484
Code Black
2014 · Movie · 1h 18mDocumentary · Drama
A notorious trauma bay in an inner-city E.R. earns its keep as the 'hurt locker of medicine' as new, idealistic and adrenaline-seeking doctors train in an environment akin to a war zone. When the hospital moves to a swank new buil...
Prime Video - #30584

George Carlin: Doin' It Again
1990 · Movie · 1hDocumentary · Comedy
George Carlin brings his comedy back to New Jersey and this time talks about Offensive Language, Euphemisms, They're Only Words, Dogs, Things you never hear, see or wanna hear, Some people are stupid, Cancer, Feminists, Good Ideas...
Prime Video - #32083
The Coming War on China
2016 · Movie · 1h 53mDocumentary · History
From award winning journalist John Pilger, reveals what the news doesn't - that the world's greatest military power, the United States, and the world's second economic power, China, both nuclear-armed, may well be on the road to war.
Prime Video - #32183
Randy Rhoads: Reflections of a Guitar Icon
2022 · Movie · 1h 25mDocumentary
Randy Rhoads one of the greatest guitar players who ever lived was taken too soon and his story remains a mystery. We experience the life of Randy Rhoads from his time with Quiet Riot to becoming an icon with Ozzy Osbourne.
Prime Video - #33683
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
2018 · Movie · 1h 56mDocumentary · Sci-Fi & Fantasy
A documentary exploring the legacy of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the reasons it went from the black sheep of Star Trek to a beloved mainstay of the franchise, and a brainstorm with the original writers on what a theoretical eighth season of the show could look like.
Prime Video - #33783

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+ - #33883

He Ran All the Way
1951 · Movie · 1h 17mCrime · Drama
Nick and his partner Al stage a payroll holdup. Al is shot, and Nick kills a policeman. Nick hides out at a public pool, where he meets Peg Dobbs. They go back to her apartment, and he forces her family to hide him from the police...
Prime Video - #35782
4x4
2019 · Movie · Spanish · 1h 30mCrime · Thriller
Buenos Aires, Argentina. A luxurious van is parked on the sidewalk. A man enters with the purpose of stealing whatever he can find, but when he wants to leave, he cannot. The doors do not open, the control panel does not respond: the van has become an armored box and he is trapped like a mouse.
Prime Video - #35882
1
2013 · Movie · 1h 52mDocumentary · Action · History
Set in the golden era of Grand Prix Racing '1' tells the story of a generation of charismatic drivers who raced on the edge, risking their lives during Formula 1's deadliest period, and the men who stood up and changed the sport f...
Prime Video - #36482
The Thief Collector
2022 · Movie · 1h 36mDocumentary · Crime
In 1985, Willem de Kooning's "Woman-Ochre," one of the most valuable paintings of the 20th century, was cut from its frame at the University of Arizona Museum of Art. 32 years later, the painting was found hanging in a New Mexico ...
Prime Video - #36682

The Long Season
2023– · Series · Mandarin · 1 seasonCrime · Drama · Family
Wang Xiang meets a person he fears in Hualin. A mystery involving a lost father, deceased lover, and old friend spans 20 years. Characters search for truth across time and space. When mystery is solved, fate remains.
Prime Video - #37182

Klitschko
2011 · Movie · German · 1h 58mDocumentary · Biography · Sport
A documentary encompassing the lives of world heavyweight boxing champions, Vitali & Wladimir Klitschko. The first time in history two brothers have shared all the heavyweight world titles, this film explores their humble beginnin...
Prime Video - #38182
Super Dark Times
2017 · Movie · 1h 43mCrime · Drama · Thriller
Teenagers Zach and Josh have been best friends their whole lives, but when a gruesome accident leads to a cover-up, the secret drives a wedge between them and propels them down a rabbit hole of escalating paranoia and violence.
Prime Video - #38282
He Dreams of Giants
2019 · Movie · 1h 25mDocumentary
The culmination of a trilogy of documentaries that have followed film director Terry Gilliam over a 25 year period. Charting Gilliam's final, beleaguered quest to adapt Don Quixote, this documentary is a potent study of creative o...
Prime Video - #38382
Trumbo
2007 · Movie · 1h 36mDocumentary · Biography
Through a focus on the life of Dalton Trumbo (1905-1976), this film examines the effects on individuals and families of a congressional pursuit of Hollywood Communists after World War II. Trumbo was one of several writers, directo...
Prime Video - #38582

Fresh Dressed
2015 · Movie · 1h 30mDocumentary · History
Fresh Dressed chronicles the history of Hip-Hop <> Urban fashion and its rise from southern cotton plantations to the gangs of 1970s in the South Bronx, to corporate America, and everywhere in-between. Supported by rich archival m...
Prime Video - #39681
I Am Richard Pryor
2019 · Movie · 1h 32mDocumentary · Biography
I Am Richard Pryor tells the story of the legendary performer and iconic social satirist, who transcended race and social barriers by delivering his honest irreverent and biting humor to America's stages and living rooms until his...
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