Documentary series 12 series

Every documentary series we have reviewed that is out now, with the score and where it is streaming. How we rate.

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Documentary 1

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MPA rating 1

Service 1

A documentary series has hours to spend, and what we are judging is how it spends them. The good ones trust their material, whether archive footage, an animal or a shopkeeper with a bad idea, and let it run long enough to become uncomfortable. The weak ones tell us what to feel before we have had the chance, usually with strings. Our shelf leans two ways, towards patient British series of the 1970s and towards Nathan Fielder, and we think that is one taste: both keep the camera on after a polite person would have looked away.

Start with The World at War, 90, still the standard for archive and eyewitness testimony, and hard to file away as history. Then Life on Earth, 88, Attenborough teaching clearly and only occasionally hurrying. Then Nathan for You, 87, if you doubt a prank show belongs here; stay past the first season. After that, Planet Earth II for the cameras, or Wild Wild Country if you have six hours and a taste for communes.

12 series out now matching your filters, newest release first.Scores are Fi1m scores; critics’ and audience scores are on each page.