Genre: Documentary
Actor: Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, William Byron
They say art imitates life, but nothing gets to the heart of humanity like documentary filmmaking. Whether you want to flex your history knowledge or binge a true crime, here are the best documentaries and docuseries available to stream now.
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Bubba Wallace, Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Ryan Blaney, William Byron
More a recounting of the matches and key moments of the 2023 Six Nations season (albeit from a more personal point of view) than a more analytical documentary series, Full Contact nevertheless delivers where it matters most. By never privileging one team's experience over another, the series establishes a different set of stakes for every match, and helps even non-rugby fans get the gist of what each national team was working towards or against during their respective runs. This is still a show that should hold more value for rugby diehards than casual viewers, of course, but it should be a reasonable enough diversion for anybody curious.
Genre: Documentary, Reality
Actor: Dan Biggar, Ellis Genge, Freddie Steward, Marcus Smith, Stephen Varney
In the style of a handbook, How to Be A Cult Leader chronicles the manipulative tactics of infamous cult leaders, from their upbringing and early interests to the failures that honed their charismatic pull. Each episode profiles a leader (Charles Manson and Jim Jones for the first two episodes) with ex-followers and specialists that break down how the cults were sustained and eventually toppled tremendously. The overall tone is unsettling at first, and as the lies and crimes of these leaders are exposed, the lessons of the handbook mostly manage to be warnings. News (and stock) footage, meme-esque inserts, and animated renditions of events round out Peter Dinklage's narration and keep this unorthodox docuseries dynamic — but to what end?
Genre: Documentary
Actor: Peter Dinklage