Best Netflix documentaries to watch right now

A celebrity who was famous for being herself long before such things became the norm, Anna Nicole Smith had 15 years in the limelight before her early death in 2007. The model, actor and TV presenter was much talked-about, chiefly for her marriage to octogenarian oil tycoon J Howard Marshall, but was never someone the public could say they knew well.

This feature documentary aims to correct that, looking behind the blonde-bombshell exterior and talking to those who actually knew Smith first-hand. It paints a picture of a lonely life.

Jack Seale

It’s 30 years since the world watched in horror as a 51-day stand-off between the FBI and a cult led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas ended in a fiery massacre. This three-part documentary has the tools to offer a new angle on a heavily analysed event, boasting interviews with people who had been inside the cult, news footage that is only now being released to the public, video recordings taken inside the negotiating room where the authorities drew up their much-criticised plan of attack, and digital re-creations of the Koresh compound. You can feel the chaos simmering.

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This three-parter dives into the competing theories that attempt to explain what happened in 2014 when a Boeing 777 took off from Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing, but never arrived. The crew and passengers’ loved ones give their thoughts, as do a plethora of journalists, internet sleuths and amateur experts whom some might call conspiracy theorists. Every possible explanation is unlikely; it’s up to you to decide which one is true.

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A family of attorneys who wield a little too much power, brought down by a series of mysterious deaths? It sounds like the premise for a prestige drama but it’s real, and the history of the Murtaugh clan’s dominance of coastal South Carolina’s 14th district gives this true-crime documentary plenty to chew on.

The intrigue begins with the death of a young family friend in a 2019 boating accident, but when the Murtaughs themselves are hit by violent tragedy, more than one historical incident is re-examined. Local observers are only too willing to speculate on camera about the family’s many secrets.

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The website Pornhub is one of the major online phenomena of the past decade. It helped to pioneer free pornography on the internet, putting traditional producers and distributors out of business and making billions in the process. But as with so many things digital, the lack of regulation has caused problems in an industry already known for unethical practices. This documentary tracks Pornhub’s rise while asking whether it has the will or ability to tackle serious problems such as non-consensual material featuring victims of human trafficking.

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This Netflix docuseries boasts a very peculiar plot line. It tells the bizarre story of a German Shepherd named Gunther, who inherited $400 million from his owner Karlotta Liebenstein, a rich German countess. Following Karlotta’s death, she appointed her family friend Maurizio Mian to be Gunther’s caretaker and manage the multi-million dollar fortune – or at least that’s the story we’re told at the beginning of the documentary.

Packing a lot into just four episodes, and with multiple twists and turns to what was already advertised as an incredibly bizarre story, and bold characters to match, Gunther’s Millions is sure to keep you entertained.

Grace Henry

Last year, Pamela Anderson was the subject of the hit series Pam & Tommy on Disney Plus – and now the former Baywatch star is telling her story on her own terms in a brand-new Netflix film.

Directed by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Ryan White – whose previous credits include The Keepers and The Case Against 8 – Pamela, A Love Story is described by the streamer as “an intimate and humanising portrait of one of the world’s most famous blonde bombshells.”

Patrick Cremona

The Netflix documentary F1: Drive to Survive is so good, you can watch it even if you don’t like motor racing; the same team are behind this series, which reveals just how tough life is as an elite tennis player. In a first season that happens to capture the retirement of Ashleigh Barty and Roger Federer, interviews (including with enfant terrible Nick Kyrgios) and behind-the-scenes footage gives a flavour of what it’s like to be competing for Grand Slams – or battling up the ranks, hoping to win a big title some day. As with the F1 show, we witness the adverse effects of intense pressure but also a lot of laughs.

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His arrest in 2008 and subsequent conviction anointed New York financier Bernie Madoff as one of the biggest con artists of all time: his investment advice firm was in fact the largest Ponzi scheme of all time, worth nearly $65bn before the financial crash brought it down. This four-part documentary uses close access to the late Madoff’s associates, as well as the journalists who brought him down and dramatic reconstructions of the man in his pomp in his Manhattan offices, to tell a pacy tale about someone whose charisma and ambition were never compromised by any feelings of guilt.

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Mere weeks after Netflix dropped the third season of this controversial documentary, here’s a fourth. The concept is simple and stark: convicted murderers in the US are allowed to tell their own stories. Get past the fact that this means people guilty of horrendous crimes are portrayed more positively than normal, and you find compelling stories of remorse, or an absence of it, often combined with revelations about the adverse life circumstances that preceded the murderer’s actions.

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Forty-seven people were on Whakaari aka “White Island”, a volcanic isle in north-eastern New Zealand, when it erupted on 9 December 2019. Twenty-two did not survive the event. This feature-length documentary painstakingly knits together smartphone footage taken by the tourists themselves, in addition to more traditional archive video and interviews, to create a minute-by-minute account of the disaster. Often, it captures quick decisions that saved lives; before that, it puts the island and its visitors into context to complete a full picture of an extraordinary, tragic day.

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This documentary series made its name covering college American football, but has successfully transitioned to basketball, a less spectacular but more intimate and intense sport. In both cases, the placing of cameras inside unglamorous local institutions, where talented players with difficult family lives know sport is their best shot at a better life, creates fine drama. This year we’re back at the East Los Angeles College, where an extraordinary coach named John Mosley continues to do his damnedest to give the kids in his charge a chance of achieving life-changing success.

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You can’t have escaped the media frenzy over the arrival of controversial documentary series Harry & Meghan, which promises unprecedented insight into the events that caused the wronged*/attention-seeking* (*delete depending on your point of view) couple to break away from the royal family.

Acclaimed director Liz Garbus is behind the six-part series, which chronicles the early days of their relationship and the key factors that influenced their headline-making decision. The show includes interviews from friends and family, many of whom are speaking publicly for the first time, as well as commentary from historians on the royal family’s relationship with the press.

Morgan Freeman grandly narrates a six-parter made by BBC Studios, which promises to meld wildlife footage with dazzling special effects to create a cosmic overview of how the natural world fits together. Beginning its tale with the birth of the Sun, it uses animation to explain how the Solar System came into being, while using the latest filming techniques to see animals up closer than ever. Prepare to be comprehensively wowed.

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Following on from Netflix’s Jeffrey Epstein: Filthy Rich, this documentary looks at the most senior person in the late Epstein’s sex trafficking network to be held to account. Ghislaine Maxwell, an English socialite and daughter of newspaper tycoon Robert Maxwell, was sentenced to 20 years in prison back in July, having lured girls and women into abuse at the hands of Epstein and his associates. Here, while survivors tell their stories, observers give their view of a woman whose compulsion to please the monstrous men in her life meant she couldn’t or wouldn’t see that she was doing anything wrong.

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In 1995, Pepsi ran a promotion where cans and bottles contained tokens, in return for which you could “buy” merchandise. The company made two statements it would come to regret: tokens could be purchased for ten cents, and seven million tokens would get you a Harrier jump jet.

A man called John Leonard noticed that this effectively meant Pepsi was selling jets for a fraction of their real cost – when Pepsi insisted the offer was obviously a joke, a landmark legal battle began. It’s covered in a fizzy four-part doc that will have you laughing as much as debating the outcome.

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“Storm chasing” used to be just an adrenalised pursuit for danger addicts, but as climate change causes more extreme weather around the world, it’s become a serious business. This series captures that change, meeting people who no longer merely film tornados or visit erupting volcanos for a thrill – they are there as floods, tidal waves and hurricanes devastate people’s lives. Tracking and documenting powerful natural forces still involves stunning sights, but is now an essential part of trying to keep those in the firing line safe – making this show sobering as well as spectacular.

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The 2019 fire at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris caused shock and dismay around the world when we saw footage of the flames, but the event is cleverly parlayed here into a mosaic of smaller dramas, as disparate lives are profoundly affected. Firefighters balance the desire to preserve a priceless landmark with the need to preserve life, especially those who have lost colleagues or loved ones in the past. Among the wider circle of people facing epic decisions is a TV reporter who has seen terrible trauma on the job before. That emotional heft gives the spectacular fire-fighting scenes extra piquancy.

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As chilling Netflix documentaries go, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is definitely up there, with the four-parter looking into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) and its leader Warren Jeffs, who is serving time in prison on two counts of child sexual assault.

Directed by Rachel Dretzin, the Netflix series features interviews with those who grew up in the FLDS community in Utah, documenting Jeffs’ rise to power, the coercive rules he introduced and his eventual conviction. Disturbing and heartbreaking, Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is a captivating docuseries that hooks you in right from the very start.

For those unfamiliar with the Netflix documentary’s subject, computer programmer John McAfee hit headlines in June last year after being found dead in his Spanish jail cell, shortly after the country’s court had authorised his extradition back to the US for tax evasion charges. However, the 75-year-old, who founded anti-virus software company McAfee back in 1987, had been on the run for nearly 10 years prior, with the Belize authorities wanting to question him over the murder of his neighbour Gregory Faull back in November 2012.

Directed by BAFTA-winning documentarian Charlie Russell, the film tries to dive into who exactly McAfee is and whether he was a killer, following him as he bounces between various countries while speaking to the journalists and girlfriends that he dragged along the way. With some of the best documentaries being examinations of complicated characters, this film is a fascinating insight into an intelligent but dangerous man that’ll leave you wanting to run with the devil a little longer.

The most talked-about documentary of 2022 so far, The Tinder Swindler tells the astonishing story of Simon Leviev – an Israeli conman who used the dating app Tinder to manipulate his dates into sending him money.

The film speaks to victims of Leviev, who would be charmed by gifts and private jet trips before the fraudster told them he was being targeted by “enemies” and needed financial help. The headline-making documentary is simply a must-watch and will have you thinking twice before you swipe right.

One of the more recent docuseries to air on Netflix, The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel is also one of the most chilling. Elisa Lam, on holiday from Canada, disappeared at the hotel and was last seen acting strangely in the lift in footage that has been circulating since 2013.

With so many possible explanations as to what happened to her, from the sinister to evil forces taking control of her, this show looks at them all and does its best to come up with a conclusion as to what happened. It actually ends up being a sad, tragic story rather than a sensational one and this mini-series is all the better for it. It also recounts the history of the hotel that was known as a dangerous place long before Elisa ever checked in.