30 Best Documentary TV Shows of 2024

Wyatt Earp’s adventures in the Wild West are the stuff of legend. Indeed, plenty of Hollywood greats have tried to recreate—or at least, emulate—his mythology, from Jimmy Stewart and Henry Fonda to Kevin Costner and Val Kilmer. But maybe non-fiction is the way to go. That’s what I gathered from watching the deeply engaging six-part docudrama Wyatt Earp and the Cowboy War. The series blends well-acted dramatic performances with expert commentary from historians, and the cherry on top is that Ed Harris (The Man in Black from Westworld! Of course!) narrates with the kind of cool and character that makes you want to listen to him forever. But the key here is that balance between drama and documentary: it never feels too played up, thanks in large part to the actors’ lived-in performances (my favorite is Thomas Fitch), nor does it feel like a droning history lesson, even though we do end up learning so much more about Earp and the legendary shootout that occurred in O.K. Corral. It’s all edited so that you get different things, too, per episode. One serves as a riveting legal drama, another is more focused on the juicy love triangle Earp is involved in. All, however, are equally educational and exciting.

If Wise Guy reads like a biography of David Chase and an oral history of The Sopranos, that’s because it is simultaneously both those things. Chase’s story is The Sopranos’ and vice versa. As Chase reveals in this two-part documentary, The Sopranos was initially based on his mother and his childhood in New Jersey. But then the show evolved into something more profound and complex than anyone could’ve imagined. Free from the reins of network TV, it relished in its R-rating creativity and quickly became a cultural phenomenon. People tuned into it every night. It was celebrated and parodied in equal measure. Most important of all, it ushered in a new era of prestige television that valued substance more than anything else. There’s no better person to guide us through the ins and outs and behind-the-scenes of The Sopranos than the showrunner himself. Director Alex Gibney parallels his interview with Chase with scenes from the show, even matching its colors and texture, to further prove how inextricable Chase is from his creation. We see never-before-seen clips of casting, script writing, reception—the works. Wise Guy must be heaven-sent to hardcore Sopranos fans, but it’s also the perfect introduction for the uninitiated.

Apple TV+’s stunning Omnivore is sleek and stylish enough to make it stand out from the usual food and travel shows you might find on TV. There are expertly shot scenes from around the world, exclusive interviews, and maybe best of all, a well-written script that’s just as colorful and delectable as the dishes onscreen. Each episode, which hones in on a specific ingredient like corn or chili, has a tight runtime at just 30 minutes, making it extremely bingeable (though ideally not on an empty stomach). That said, the show might be too polished for viewers who are expecting the gritty and immersive approach of a chef like Anthony Bourdain. Omnivore, for all its explorative language, is suspiciously idyllic at times, all too eager to paint the global food industry as a harmonious process as opposed to an enterprise that is involved in global warming, animal poaching, and deforestation, among others. Every industry has a dark side, and I just wished the show appreciated the nuance in that. Still, it’s an engaging watch with glowing moments.

Starting 5 takes some of the best players in the NBA’s current roster and follows them throughout the latest season. We follow them in their training sessions, their homes, their private jets, and even during the most intense games, where we get to hear them trash-talk their opponents through their mic’d uniforms. As to why these five specific players, one can only guess (there are certainly others in the league who lead more interesting lives, or whose rise to fame might be equally if not more promising) but they do contrast well enough to entertain. Rising stars Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards are positioned against NBA veteran LeBron James, whose only true nemesis at this point is himself. Jimmy Butler, by far the most entertaining, is the comic relief who proves there’s more to life than just ‘ball and family (everyone here is a dedicated father), while Sabonis’ patience and gentleness temper passions. The series doesn’t go too in-depth into the athletes’ lives or their psyches, but it has a template that’s enjoyable and easy to replicate. It’ll be fun to see which five it’ll deem worthy in the following seasons.

The so-called “Octopus,” that is the eight powerful but sketchy individuals journalist Danny Casolaro believed to be in control of the entire country, is already a complex topic. Crazy, but impressively complex. Equally interesting is the series of mysterious deaths allegedly committed by the Octopus, which includes what looks to be Casolaro’s framed suicide. This four-part documentary by Netflix efficiently dives into all of that with the added bonus of duo Zachary Treitz and Christian Hansen’s perspectives. The former is the director who expertly weaves all the tangles into a coherent web, while the latter is our guide into it, a researcher who wishes to follow in Casolaro’s footsteps despite the multiple signs that he should maybe stop, if not out of fear of what lurks in the shadows then out of fear of insanity. Not only do Treitz and Hansen relay the information in an accessible and intriguing way, they also effectively reproduce that paranoid feeling of falling deep into a conspiracy rabbit hole. If you’re not a fan of true crime, this is worth the watch if only for that feeling.

The Program starts small and intimate, with director Katherine Kubler sharing the story of how she got into a school that turned out to be, in everything but name, a prison. In Ivy Ridge, Kubler and her peers were physically assaulted and subjected to cult-like practices, with most of the kids leaving the institution worse off than better. But soon the diaristic approach gives way to a complex and well-researched investigation of what is known as the “troubled teen industry.” As it turns out, there are plenty of other institutions like Ivy Ridge that scam desperate parents into spending thousands of dollars to incarcerate their kids and hand them over to faux educators. There are times when Kubler’s anger (understandably) gets the better of her and the storytelling, but ultimately, this is a well-made and important account of an overlooked atrocity.

It’s not news that child actors don’t have it easy in an industry that’s more interested in exploiting than protecting them. Theirs is a story of trauma and difficult adulthoods, but it’s also often told in a sensationalist way that dehumanizes them. “Child Actor Goes Rogue” continues to be a headline favorite in tabloids, but maybe all that is set to change with the release of Quiet on the Set. This four-part documentary is by no means revolutionary—in fact, it’s as straightforward as any true-crime series out there. But it importantly lets the now-grown-up victims (or their loved ones) tell their story on their own terms. The misdeeds covered here range from degradingly misogynistic behavior in the writers’ room to outright child pedophilia and rape. Though it sometimes feels like the directors could have handled these issues more delicately, instead of jamming them all in bite-sized episodes, you still come away from it knowing and wanting to do so much more.

Directed by Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom, Won’t You Be My Neighbor), Steve! is an appropriately fun and artistic documentary capturing its subject matter’s fun and artistic spirit. It’s a delight to see Martin’s other personas, such as his early magician self, his philosophy major self, and his quietly humorous cartoonist self. We’re so used to seeing his fast-paced zaniness that these parts of the documentary are almost shocking to see. But maybe the most illuminating role Martin plays is that of his current self. In equal measure, he cracks jokes and offers wise words about aging which, at 75, he takes in enviously great stride.

In Restless Dreams is comprised of two parts. The first, a walk down memory lane, will likely be everyone’s favorite. It stitches old clips of Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, way back when the two performed as the doo-wop band Tom and Jerry in the ‘50s, and follows Simon all the way to England and back in the US for most of the ‘60s when he wrote classics like The Sound of Silence and Mrs. Robinson. This is brought to life by wonderful editing, the thoughtful and tasteful kind that makes you sigh in awe and go, at peak moments, “Oh, so that’s what that song is about!” It supplements Simon’s narration which, thankfully, isn’t too on the nose. The second part follows 80-year-old Simon in the present as he tries to realize a dream of a song he’s had, called Seven Psalms. Witnessing an artist as gifted as Simon still chip away at his craft isn’t just inspiring; it feels like a sacred treat, a special and almost intrusive look into the inner workings of a musical genius.

The series offers a rather refreshing take on true crime coverage, putting the spotlight on the callous unsung heroes: the detectives and crime scene workers. It is still true crime, which means everything in it is still an uncomfortable story to learn about. But a bigger part of the series offers a cold, emotionally distant retelling of events by the unenviable professionals—a look at how detectives solve these puzzles, why they use certain interrogation tactics, and more. While learning about these cases with a lesser focus on the casualties feels wrong (and more like a baptism of fire in the crime-solving world), the series does a good enough job humanizing the work force, the other victims in this perpetually traumatizing industry.