There were a lot of true crime documentaries and docuseries in 2025, and no doubt there will be plenty more on the 2026 TV schedule. I watched a lot of them, though, admittedly, trying to keep up with all of them is a hopeless task. In all, I’ve counted at least 27 that I watched in 2025. It could be more; in fact, I’m sure there are some I’m missing in my count.
The most talked-about true crime documentary of the year has to be The Perfect Neighbor, which you can stream with a Netflix subscription. It is on many lists as a contender for an Oscar nomination, and maybe even a win. It’s a fascinating project, and I loved it, but it wasn’t my favorite. There were others I loved this year, like the nine on this list.
The Perfect Neighbor Is Remarkable
What makes The Perfect Neighbor stand out is the way it’s put together. Using almost nothing but police-worn body camera footage, the documentary tells the chilling story of a woman named Susan Lorincz’s squabble with neighborhood kids that escalates to a killing and its aftermath, including Lorincz’s conviction for manslaughter. There has never been a documentary like it, and it would not surprise me at all if it took home a gold trophy at the Academy Awards.
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish Is The Most Bonkers
I don’t mean to minimize the trauma that Unknown Number: The High School Catfish shows on its victims by calling it “bonkers,” but there is just no other way to describe how crazy the story is. It’s not something that you'd believe if it were fiction. It tells the story of a mom who cyberbullies her own daughter for years! Even after it ended, I still couldn’t believe what I had witnessed.
Trainwreck: The Astroworld Tragedy Really Freaked Me Out
This one is tricky because, to date, no one has been charged with a crime for the crowd crush that killed 10 people and injured hundreds more at the now-infamous Astroworld festival featuring Travis Scott. A grand jury didn’t indict Scott or anyone else who was involved in the planning, but it’s impossible to watch the doc and not think that someone should have faced legal consequences. This deep dive into the crush scared me as someone who goes to a lot of concerts.
The Mortician Was The Most Disturbing
The Mortician, available with an HBO Max subscription, is almost too disturbing to be believed. It is also so crazy that you can’t help but laugh at times. It’s nervous laughter, of course, but the cast of characters is wild. Crime and drugs are at the heart of this three-part docuseries about a funeral director who gets in way over her head.
Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror Was Completely Heartbreaking
I was a freshman in college when the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was bombed by Timothy McVeigh, so I remember that April 19th very well. For the 30th anniversary this year, there were a few different documentaries about the bombing and its aftermath. Oklahoma City Bombing: American Terror on Netflix was really hard to watch, but it’s an important moment in American history that we should never forget.
Predators Really Got Me Thinking About Reality TV
The most recent entry on this list is Predators, which is now available with a Paramount+ subscription. The doc goes back and examines the TV series To Catch A Predator and what the consequences are for a show like that. I found myself examining my choices in reality TV viewing in that era, which was as exploitative as it has ever gotten.
Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster Was The Freakiest
There were two documentaries this year about the Titan submarine implosion, one on Netflix, and Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster on HBO Max. Both were good, but the latter was much scarier. In the doc, you can hear the moment of the disaster, and it became something I thought about for weeks.
Gone Girls: The Long Island Serial Killer Cleared So Much Up
For years, I had followed the so-called Gilgo Beach murders, but never all that closely. As a former resident of New York City, and being fascinated by serial killers (not something I'm proud of), this was the kind of case that I always kept one eye on. I knew that the alleged murderer had been caught, but it wasn't until watching this series on Netflix that I got the full picture.
Stolen: Heist Of The Century Is My Favorite
My personal favorite true crime documentary of the year is Netflix’s Stolen: Heist Of The Century. It’s not the flashiest, and it’s unlikely to win any awards, but it’s a story I’ve followed for years. I’m so glad with how the documentary turned out. It’s about the biggest diamond heist of all time, the Antwerp diamond heist in 2003, and it’s straight out of an Ocean’s movie. Thieves lifted more than $100 million worth of diamonds from a secure vault in Antwerp, and the diamonds have never been recovered.
I read a book about it years ago, and since I love heist films, it really hooked me. I also appreciate that it’s not about a murder, or some other horrible crime; it’s almost fun, in a way. Sure, people were hurt financially, and the perpetrators eventually served their time for the crime, but it’s just so much lighter than violent crime documentaries, and I appreciate that.
There is one other movie that I’d like to mention that doesn’t really fit on this list. That is The Alabama Solution. It’s not a true crime documentary, but it is crime-adjacent, as it’s about the horrible living conditions in Alabama prisons. If there is one doc you should watch from the 2025 movie schedule, it’s this one.
Overall, there was a wide variety of great true crime docs this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the 2026 movie schedule brings too.
