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Docuseries mushroomed in 2021 as streamers ramped up their offerings, and viewers were the beneficiaries. The wide array of series ran the gamut from investigative to ruminative, tackling sports, crime and music. At their best, they stood tall against the year\u2019s top TV series overall \u2014 Variety TV critic Caroline Framke chose Netflix\u2019s \u201cHigh on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America\u201d as her favorite \u2014 while Peter Jackson\u2019s \u201cThe Beatles: Get Back\u201d was hailed as one of the best rock documentaries ever.<\/p>\n
Documentaries frequently blur categories between film and TV so it should come as no surprise that there\u2019s overlap within the non-fiction realm as well. Variety staffers debated whether \u201cGet Back,\u201d originally planned as a feature-length movie, should be considered a doc feature or doc series, but the fact remains it was streamed over three nights as a miniseries. Similarly, \u201cListening to Kenny G\u201d debuted at the Toronto Film Festival, and has received kudos recognition as a feature, but aired on HBO as part of its new \u201cMusic Box\u201d series from Bill Simmons. That series also included a provocative doc about Alanis Morissette that the singer disavowed before its debut at the same fest, plus a look at the disastrous Woodstock music festival in 1999.<\/p>\n
Other selections on this list, arranged alphabetically by title, examine a seminal year in rock history, a pyramid scheme and a cursed fashion brand. They represent a fraction of the docuseries offerings available for small-screen viewing.<\/p>\n
1971
\n(Apple TV Plus)<\/p>\n
In \u201c1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything,\u201d a team of British filmmakers made the case not that \u201971 was the best year for rock \u2018n\u2019 roll and R&B, but the most socially relevant one. Can\u2019t it be both? \u201c1971\u201d was ambitious enough to try to tie together the classic albums that marked the end of the counterculture and the beginnings of glam-rock, punk, reggae and hip-hop. That the Brits managed to pull it off without any narration or on-screen talking heads was all the more remarkable \u2014 and allowed all the more time to explore deep pockets ranging from Marvin Gaye to T. Rex to the Last Poets. \u2014 Chris Willman<\/p>\n
Allen v. Farrow
\n(HBO)<\/p>\n
With unprecedented access to the Farrow family and their archives, documentarians Amy Ziering, Kirby Dick and Amy Herdy produced the definitive investigation into Dylan Farrow\u2019s 1992 allegation that her father, Woody Allen, sexually abused her when she was 7 years old. In this four-part HBO series, Dylan and Mia Farrow are interviewed, along with other family members and witnesses. Home movies and never-before-heard audio (between Allen and Mia Farrow) enhance the filmmakers\u2019 layered probe. \u2014 Kate Aurthur<\/p>\n
The Beatles: Get Back
\n(Disney Plus)<\/p>\n
Although there are those \u2013 even among Variety staffers \u2013 that consider Peter Jackson\u2019s Beatles opus to be a very long movie rather than a docseries, the fact remains that it debuted on Disney Plus as a miniseries and was released sequentially over a three-day period around the Thanksgiving holiday. There is much to be gained from digesting \u201cGet Back\u201d in pieces: the famed rooftop concert that closes Part 3 is even more rewarding after watching the band struggle to get its groove and overcome deep fissures within the group. Jackson recovers the joy that was missing from Michael Lindsay-Hogg\u2019s original documentary from the 1969 \u201cLet It Be\u201d recording sessions, rewarding Beatleologists with a spotlight on the creative process and amazing fashion of the era. \u2014 Diane Garrett<\/p>\n
The Curse of the Von Dutch: A Brand to Die For
\n(Hulu)<\/p>\n
A tale of ambition, ego, drugs and murder, all wrapped up in a fashion brand that was cursed from the start (thanks to its enigmatic namesake, the free-spirited artist Von Dutch, who, on closer inspection, was likely a racist), the three-part Hulu series is a time stamp of the early 2000s. That\u2019s when the likes of Paris Hilton and Dennis Rodman, both featured in the doc, wore the popular trucker caps in the paparazzi-abetted pages of tabloid weeklies, helping Von Dutch become the \u201cit\u201d fashion symbol \u2014 to the tune of $33 million in sales at its 2003 height \u2014 until it wasn\u2019t. As these things go, the crash is as fascinating and fantastical as the rise. \u2014 Shirley Halperin<\/p>\n
Exterminate All the Brutes
\n(HBO)<\/p>\n
Filmmaker Raoul Peck\u2019s four-part examination of the history of subjugation among mankind is proof of a polymathic genius. Peck uses literary allusions and powerful staged scenes, featuring Josh Hartnett playing an archetypal white Western man overtaking indigenous populations throughout time, in order to draw in and engage the viewer. And Peck\u2019s points, about the manner by which slavery and conquest reoccur throughout time, land with startling directness. \u2014 Daniel D\u2019Addario<\/p>\n
High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America
\n(Netflix)<\/p>\n
Four luminous episodes cover the background of how Black food traditions made their way to America in this lushly-produced series hosted by Stephen Satterfield. Starting in Benin, West Africa, the segments use the work of historian Jessica B. Harris to inform the difficult but joyful stories of the food and people from the Gullah Geechee region to Texas cowboys. \u2014 Pat Saperstein<\/p>\n
The Lady and the Dale
\n(HBO)<\/p>\n
A thrill-ride of a docuseries takes us behind the scenes of the Twentieth Century Motor Car Corporation and into the world of its founder, Elizabeth Carmichael. In the 1970s, this entrepreneur attempted to market a three-wheeled car on the basis of its fuel efficiency. Carmichael\u2019s rabid self-belief came with a sophisticated ability to reinvent; her personal history as a pioneering trans woman and a true character comes to define this odd and compelling annal of automotive history. \u2014 Daniel D\u2019Addario<\/p>\n
LuLaRich
\n(Amazon Prime Video)<\/p>\n
With \u201cLuLaRich,\u201d Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason \u2014 the directors behind the 2019 Hulu documentary \u201cFyre Fraud\u201d \u2014 delved into the fertile territory of LulaRoe, the clothing company\/billion-dollar pyramid scheme. The centerpiece of the four-part series, which includes interviews with the retailers the company scammed, is a wild interview with company co-founders, DeAnne and Mark Stidham. Their brightly lit cheer stands in stark contrast with footage of the Stidhams being deposed by the state of Washington in its successful lawsuit against their company. \u2014 Kate Aurthur<\/p>\n
Music Box series
\n(HBO)<\/p>\n
HBO has been making waves with documentary series created by Bill Simmons and produced by The Ringer. It kicked off this summer with \u201cWoodstock \u201899: Peace, Love and Rage,\u201d an outgrowth of a podcast about the disastrous music festival, then resumed in November with a slate including \u201cJagged,\u201d a documentary about Alanis Morissette that the singer disavowed prior to its Toronto International Film Festival debut, and \u201cListening to Kenny G,\u201d a comic look at the smooth jazz musician\u2019s popularity that also debuted in Toronto. \u201cMr. Saturday Night\u201d looks at \u201cSaturday Night Fever\u201d impresario Robert Stigwood, while additional installments spotlight DMX and Juice WRLD. Each feature length documentary has its own filmmaker, and the series was recently renewed for a second season. \u2014 Diane Garrett<\/p>\n
Nuclear Family
\n(HBO)<\/p>\n
So much of indie director Ry Russo-Young\u2019s life has been captured on film, but all those home movies \u2014 plus an earlier doc, Meema Spadola\u2019s \u201cOur House,\u201d in which she talks candidly about being raised by a lesbian couple \u2014 tell a much different story from her scripted features. Now, with this intensely personal three-part HBO project, the filmmaker unpacks her own upbringing, interrogating her two moms about their precedent-setting legal battle. Rather than being \u201ctoo close\u201d to the subject, Russo-Young challenges the narrative of her own origins while exploding myths about same-sex parenting in the process. \u2014 Peter Debruge<\/p>\n
Philly DA
\n(PBS\/Topic)<\/p>\n
This series looks at the contentious political career of Larry Krasner, a reform-minded lawyer whose mission to reimagine how justice is served in one of the nation\u2019s largest cities has inspired both praise and harsh criticism. We see Krasner\u2019s approach play out in his office, in the local news media, and on the streets, getting a prismatic understanding of just how challenging it is to arrive at a new, less punitive society, and of the sort of personality that tries to push for it. \u2014 Daniel D\u2019Addario<\/p>\n
Pretend It\u2019s a City
\n(Netflix)<\/p>\n
This bittersweet ode to Manhattan debuted on Netflix in early January, when so much of the country was once again hunkered down due to a surge in the pandemic, and struck a chord among viewers who welcomed Fran Lebowitz\u2019s nostalgic stories about New York City. Lebowitz, famously afflicted with writer\u2019s block for decades, made the series with her pal Martin Scorsese, an appreciative audience behind the camera and sometimes before it in this series. Lebowitz\u2019s book sales took off around the world following the series debut but told Variety she attributed that to love of the city \u2013 and what it has meant to viewers over the years. \u2014 Diane Garrett<\/p>\n
This Is a Robbery: The World\u2019s Biggest Art Heist
\n(Netflix)<\/p>\n
The four-part series revisits the enduring mystery of the 1990 robbery of Boston\u2019s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and the priceless art works, including a Rembrandt, that were stolen. \u201cThis Is a Robbery\u201d does a good job of recounting the details of the crime that unfolded when two men dressed as police talked their way into the museum after hours. Producers also made a smart choice of embracing the fact that there are no explosive new revelations about the crime. \u201cThis is a Robbery\u201d is a study of past investigations gone wrong, the criminal underbelly of New England in that era and the holes in various theories of the case that have emerged over the past 30 years. The episodes also reflect how the jolt of the theft forever changed the lives of those who were involved in the museum. \u2014 Cynthia Littleton<\/p>\n
Watch the Sound With Mark Ronson
\n(Apple TV Plus)<\/p>\n
Mark Ronson is a companionable, erudite guide to the world of music-making on this series. The producer and songwriter walks viewers through various aspects of the recording process, drawing in celebrity guests who speak with knowledge and passion about their work. By the end, music seems at once somewhat demystified and endlessly more intriguing than one might have imagined: Who might have guessed that so many moving parts go into making the songs we hear sound precisely the way they do? \u2014 Daniel D\u2019Addario<\/p>\n
The Way Down<\/p>\n
(HBO Max)<\/p>\n
Marina Zenovich\u2019s series focuses on two obsessions in this country \u2014 weight and religion \u2014 and Gwen Shamblin, who made millions off a diet plan (\u201cThe Way Down\u201d) that told people they were fat because they had turned their backs on God. It worked incredibly well and built the lucrative foundation for Shamblin-led Remnant Church. The series delves into Shamblin\u2019s and the church\u2019s alleged cult-like practices, with shocking twists that make the \u201cLion King\u201d guys look like amateurs. \u2014 Carole Horst<\/p>\n
View this article at Variety<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Best Documentary Series of 2021: Docuseries mushroomed in 2021 as streamers ramped up their offerings, and viewers were the beneficiaries. The wide array of series ran the gamut from investigative to ruminative, tackling sports, crime and music. At their best, they stood tall against the year\u2019s top TV series overall \u2014 Variety TV critic
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