The best Netflix documentaries and docuseries of 2023 so far have challenged us to live better lives (Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones), angered us (Take Care of Maya, Madoff: The Monster of Wall Street), and given us a better appreciation of the world and the people around us (Emergency: NYC, Our Planet). Indeed, 2023 has been a great year for documentaries on the streaming giant, and the next several weeks show no sign of that trend slowing down.
Mixed in with the usual slew of new TV shows and movies that’ll be hitting the streamer soon — including big titles like Sex Education Season 4, coming next week — are more Netflix documentaries that, if you’re a fan of the genre like me, definitely belong on your watch list. One, in fact, has just come out: Wrestlers, from the creator of Last Chance U and Cheer.
Here’s a closer look at that one, plus two other Netflix documentaries out later this month that you don’t want to miss:
Wrestlers
The first of these three Netflix documentaries and docuseries is a seven-episode original from director Greg Whiteley and BBC Studios Los Angeles that takes viewers inside the wrestling ring.
The focus here is on Ohio Valley Wrestling in Louisville, Kentucky — a regional gym whose alumni include stars like John Cena and Dave Bautista. The gym still adheres to an old-school “storytelling” approach to wrestling, with a deep and abiding love of the sport, but it’s fallen on hard times as it struggles to stay relevant in the modern era. Which is to say, this docuseries wants you to not only feel the sweat from combatants in the ring but also to understand the drama behind a sport that looks unruly and unserious from a distance.
“It doesn’t only depict the brawls between ambitious athletes managing their stressful lives off the ring,” Netflix explains. “The fight at the center of the story is even more intense: Legendary wrestler Al Snow is attempting to keep professional wrestling league Ohio Valley Wrestling (OVF) afloat, navigating the brutal waters of mounting debt and the power struggles of new ownership.
“The seven-episode series is intimate, emotional, and offers a behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional wrestling, revealing the hardship and sacrifice that goes into creating this highly complex feat of performance art and athleticism.”
The Saint of Second Chances
The Veeck family name, Netflix says about this next upcoming documentary film, is both legendary and notorious in professional baseball.
The Veecks, including patriarch Hall of Fame baseball owner Bill Veeck, introduced all the non-baseball fun at games, including things like theme nights and giveaways. Veeck’s son Mike, who grew up in his father’s shadow, led all that to come to a sudden stop and was responsible for blowing up his father’s career. The Saint of Second Chances is about both the “how” and the “what happened next.”
“Exiled from the game he loved,” the official Netflix synopsis reads, “the younger Veeck spent the next few decades clawing his way up from rock bottom, determined to redeem himself. After receiving distressing news, what started as a journey to reclaim the family legacy, became an opportunity to appreciate that family more fully. Directed by Academy Award winner Morgan Neville (20 Feet From Stardom) and Jeff Malmberg (Marwencol), narrated by Jeff Daniels, and featuring Charlie Day as a younger Veeck, The Saint of Second Chances is wildly unexpected, full of heart, and keeps you laughing through a comeback story unlike any other.” Release date: Sept. 19.
Encounters
Finally, you may have noticed the news of alien bodies supposedly discovered in Peru that’s taken over the internet today. If these kinds of bizarre stories about extraterrestrials fascinate you, consider putting the four-episode Netflix series Encounters on your watch list when it hits the streamer later this month.
From director Yon Motskin (Generation Hustle), this series explores everything from submersible spacecraft found off the coast of a Welsh village to an alien encounter supposedly experienced by children in Zimbabwe and “nonhuman intelligence” that was discovered interfering with a nuclear power plant in Japan. Additionally, the vignettes are fleshed out with revelatory claims from whistleblowers and secret military programs. “UFOs, UAPs, nonhuman intelligence, whatever we might call it… I didn’t before, but now I think it exists,” Motskin told Netflix in a promotional interview.
“It’s out there. People are just now starting to accept it as something that’s acceptable to talk about.” Release date: Sept. 27.
