Among all the crime documentaries on Netflix, there are always some good ones, and among all the documentaries looking for answers to what’s happening in the world, there are always some pointing us in the right direction and worth spending time with to learn from and get a new perspective on life.

Here are our picks for the ten must-watch documentaries from 2025.

10.) This Is the Tom Green Documentary

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Someone making their own documentary is usually a bad idea, but Tom Green making his own seemed only right. And in This Is the Tom Green Documentary the man who was at the heart of a lot of the 90s culture movments from skate culture, pranks, to live internet shows, all while constantly wanting to push the boundaries is able to reflect on his career, the highs and lows, and contectalise his life with a vulnability many wouldn’t have seen from the Freddy Got Fingered star.

– Dylan

9.) SNL50: Beyond Saturday Night

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Released as part of the celebrations around the famous live sketch show’s 50th season, this series doesn’t just give a historical recap of the show’s history. Instead, each episode focuses on a different story or element of the show. The first episode, about the audition and casting of the cast members, and the second episode, which focused on the writers of the show, are more standard behind-the-scenes fare, but the other two episodes take much more unconventional choices. The third episode is entirely devoted to the “More Cowbell” sketch starring Will Ferrell and Christopher Walken, which became a seminal pop culture moment for the show, while the fourth episode delved into the mostly forgotten eleventh season of the show, which almost resulted in its cancellation. Well worth your time if you’ve ever been a fan of the show!

– Ashley

8.) The White House Effect

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The White House Effect does a sensational job of reframing the decades of climate crisis discussion within and around the White House as ones that began to move in a positive direction, until the winds of greed, money, and power overrode doing what’s right to sit in the office of power. Now the narrative within the office is clearly one that’s not willing to do anything to help our planet, but it didn’t, shockingly, start there, and there’s little sign anything could move it back in the right direction. It’s a sad documentary, but a well-made one with a clear message and some fantastic use of archival footage and editing to tell its story.

– Dylan

7.) Thoughts & Prayers

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After every mass shooting in America, the same group of politicians and high-profile social figures offer up the same “thoughts and prayers” as condolences for the families and friends of those who have been killed. Why more effective solutions aren’t offered up is at the heart of this documentary, and the answer is simply: money.

– Dylan

6.) The Perfect Neighbor

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Rather than overproducing the story and shaping the viewer’s narrative and views on what’s happened in a crime, The Perfect Neighbor lets the police-cam footage and some from the interview rooms all play out in order, letting the viewer see how the events of this crime played out over the course of months. It’s an unsettling fly-on-the-wall style at times, and one that effectively builds dread in the viewer until the emotionally draining final thirty minutes, but also the year’s most powerful true-crime documentary.

– Dylan

5.) Jaws @ 50

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One of the most influential and important films in history got a 50th-anniversary documentary that looks at everything from how a young Steven Spielberg was nearly washed away by the stress and complexities of the film to the groundbreaking decisions made in creating it. The film doesn’t ignore how Jaws affected worldwide discourse and the public image of sharks after its release, and how some of those involved tried to do everything they could to reshape that image.

– Dylan

4.) Hurricane Katrina: Come Hell and High Water

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Rather than a documentary that focuses on the hurricane itself and first responders, the series explores the devastating Hurricane Katrina through the lived experiences of those who were there. It also looks at how the disaster was marked by neglect from those in power, how racial tensions played a huge role in the aftermath, and shines a light on those who were willing to step up and do what was right.

– Dylan

3.) The Yogurt Shop Murders

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Grief, injustice, and unanswered questions sit at the centre of this devastating true-crime examination. The Yogurt Shop Murders tells the story of the 1991 Austin yogurt shop killings, in which 4 teenage girls were killed in one night. Using archival footage, previously unused documentary footage and new interviews, it carefully unpacks a case defined as much by investigative failure as by tragedy, leaving a lingering sense of anger and sorrow in its wake.

– Ashley

2.) Unknown Number: The High School Catfish

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This unsettling true-crime story tells a tale of deception, vulnerability, and the terrifying reach of anonymity. Unknown Number tells the story of a teenage couple in a rural American town who become subjected to a campaign of harassment from an unknown number, which changes both their lives and the lives of many others around them as the investigation plays out. The documentary unpacks how trust is manipulated and lives are disrupted, creating a chilling portrait of modern obsession that feels disturbingly plausible long after it ends with a reveal that will come as a shock to those unfamiliar with the story.

– Ashley

1.) Sean Combs: The Reckoning

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While it would be easy just to call this 50 Cent’s thesis statement on why everyone should hate Diddy as much as he does, this is much more than a hit piece. This documentary takes a sobering look at Sean Combs’ life and examines the power and control that he was able to obtain over others during his career. While certainly sensational at times, like when it uses footage Diddy seemed to be making right before he was arrested, the series chooses to focus on witnesses’ stories and context over spectacle, creating a tense, confronting watch that forces viewers to grapple with how influence can shield behaviour, and what it takes to finally challenge it.

– Ashley

Find all of Explosion Network’s Best of 2025 coverage right here, and be sure to let us know your thoughts on any of our lists in the comments section.