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Best History TV Shows

Discover your next binge-worthy TV show. Filter by streaming service, genres, or release year.

204 results

204 results

1. O.J.: Made in America

May 20, 2016 • Rated TV-MA

The seven-and-a-half-hour documentary chronicles O.J. Simpson's rise from the San Francisco housing projects to football fame in college and the NFL to his post-football career and infamy with the 1995 trial for the killings of his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ron Goldman. The first episode will air on ABC with the subsequent four episodes airing only on ESPN.

2. The U.S. and the Holocaust

Sep 18, 2022 • Rated TV-14

Narrated by Peter Coyote, the three-part documentry series directed by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick and Sarah Botstein examines the United States' response to the rise of Nazism and the Holocaust through interviews, first-person accounts and archival footage.

3. The Underground Railroad

May 14, 2021 • Rated TV-MA

Cora (Thuso Mbedu) and Caesar (Aaron Pierre) escape from a plantation and learn the Underground Railroad is an actual physical underground railway line. But a bounty hunter named Ridgeway (Joel Edgerton) is determined to bring Cora back in this Barry Jenkins adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel of the same name.

4. It's a Sin

Feb 18, 2021 • Rated TV-MA

The five-part miniseries written and created by Russell T Davies is set in the early 1980s where five friends (Olly Alexander, Omari Douglas, Callum Scott Howells, Lydia West and Nathaniel Curtis) move to London and find their lives forever changed by HIV/AIDS. [Premiered originally in the UK on Channel 4 on 22 Jan 2021 and in the US on HBO Max on 18 Feb 2021]

5. The Last Dance

Apr 19, 2020 • Rated TV-MA

The 10-part documentary series directed by Jason Hehir about Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls' 1997-98 championship season includes interviews and never-before-seen footage.

6. The Vietnam War

Sep 17, 2017 • Rated TV-MA

Ken Burns and Lynn Novick returns with a 10-part, 18-hour miniseries about the war features interviews, archival footage, home movies, photos, and audio clips.

7. Visible: Out on Television

Feb 14, 2020 • Rated TV-MA

The documentary series narrated by Janet Mock, Margaret Cho, Asia Kate Dillon, Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Waithe features archival footage and new interviews to look at LGBTQ characters on television and the impact of the LGBTQ movement on the medium.

8. The Hollow Crown

Sep 20, 2013 • Rated TV-14

The adaptions of William Shakespeare's plays Richard II, Henry IV part 1 and 2, and Henry V.

9. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

Sep 14, 2014 • Rated TV-14

The 14-hour documentary series from Ken Burns covers the history and influences the family had from the birth of Theodore Roosevelt in 1858 to the death of Eleanor Roosevelt in 1962.

10. Muhammad Ali

The four-part Ken Burns documentary about the life and career of the three-time heavyweight boxing champion features archival footage, photographs, and interviews with journalists, boxers, historians, as well as friends and family of Ali.

11. Mrs. America

Apr 15, 2020 • Rated TV-MA

Phyllis Schlafly (Cate Blanchett) seeks to stop the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment championed by feminists such as Gloria Steinem (Rose Byrne), Betty Friedan (Tracy Ullman), Shirley Chisholm (Uzo Aduba), Bella Abzug (Margo Martindale) and Jill Ruckelshaus (Elizabeth Banks) in the limited series created and written by Dahvi Waller. [FX on Hulu]

12. Band of Brothers

Sep 9, 2001 • Rated TV-MA

Band of Brothers is a 10-part miniseries produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks for HBO. The miniseries follows Easy Company, an army unit during World War II, from their initial training at Camp Toccoa to the conclusion of the war. The series is based on the book written by the late Stephen E Ambrose. Tom Hanks approached Steven Spielberg, who just finished production of Saving Private Ryan. Together they approached HBO with their idea. The station was willing to spend a industry record sum of $120m to realize the project.

13. The Pacific

Mar 14, 2010 • Rated TV-MA

From the creative team behind Band of Brothers comes this ten-hour miniseries tracing three American marines as they fight World War II in the Pacific. The series was shot on location in Australia, and is produced by HBO Films in association with Playtone and DreamWorks television.

14. When They See Us

May 31, 2019 • Rated TV-MA

Ava DuVernay's four-part limited series based on the Central Park Five case where five Harlem teenagers--Antron McCray (Caleel Harris/Jovan Adepo), Kevin Richardson (Asante Blackk/Justin Cunningham), Yusef Salaam (Ethan Herisse/Chris Chalk), Raymond Santana (Marquis Rodriguez/Freddy Miyares) and Korey Wise (Jharrel Jerome) were accused of raping a white woman in 1989 and were only finally exonerated in 2014.

15. Prohibition

Ken Burns' latest documentary series focuses on the origins of the 18th Amendment and the eventual end of Prohibition.

16. Wolf Hall

Apr 5, 2015 • Rated TV-14

The adaption of Hilary Mantel's novels about the rise of Thomas Cromwell (Mark Rylance) during the reign King Henry VIII (Damian Lewis).

17. The Black Church: This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song

The four-hour, two-part miniseries hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the history of black churches that began when slaves were brought from Africa to the Americas.

18. Prehistoric Planet

May 23, 2022 • Rated TV-PG

Spanning five-nights, the nature documentary narrated by David Attenborough and scored by Hans Zimmer, explores how dinosaurs lived in different environments 66 million years ago.

19. Hemingway

Apr 5, 2021 • Rated TV-14

The three-part Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary narrated by Peter Coyote explores the life and work of the author with interviews with other writers, academics, biographers, and his son, Patrick.

20. Deadwood

Mar 21, 2004 • Rated TV-MA

In an age of plunder and greed, the richest gold strike in American History draws a throng of restless misfits to an outlaw settlement where everything - and everyone - has a price. Welcome to Deadwood...a hell of a place to make your fortune. From Executive Producer David Milch ("NYPD Blue") comes DEADWOOD, a new drama series that focuses on the birth of an American frontier town and the ruthless power struggle that exists in its lawless boundaries. The story begins two weeks after Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn, combining fictional and real-life characters and events in an epic morality tale. Located in the Black Hills Indian Cession, the "town" of Deadwood is an illegal settlement, a violent and uncivilized outpost that attracts a colorful array of characters looking to get rich - from outlaws and entrepreneurs to ex-soldiers and racketeers, Chinese laborers, prostitutes, city dudes and gunfighters.

21. Show Me a Hero

Aug 16, 2015 • Rated TV-MA

Based on Lisa Belkin's nonfiction book of the same name, a mayor (Oscar Isaac) faces a federal court decision forcing his city to build low-income housing in white neighborhoods during the 1980s.

22. Six by Sondheim

Dec 9, 2013 • Rated Not Rated

Newly filmed performances from Darren Criss, Jarvis Cocker, America Ferrera, Jackie Hoffman, Jeremy Jordan, Audra McDonald, Laura Osnes, and Will Swenson, are featured in the documentary directed by James Lapine that focuses on six of Stephen Sondheim's songs: "I’m Still Here" from The Follies, “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story; “Opening Doors” from Merrily We Roll Along; “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music; “Being Alive” from Company; and “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George.

23. Shogun (2024)

Feb 27, 2024 • Rated TV-MA

In feudal Japan, Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), British captain John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) and translator Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai) are brought together as a civil war looms in this limited series adaptation from Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks of James Clavell's novel of the same name (that was also made into a 1980 miniseries).

24. The Normal Heart

May 25, 2014 • Rated TV-MA

Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo) faces conflicts with his brother (Alfred Molina), his lover Felix (Matt Bomer), and Bruce Niles (Taylor Kitsch), a closeted investment banker, as he tries to organize awareness about a new disease killing gay men. While Ned's doctor and friend, Dr. Emma Brookner (Julia Roberts) does her best to council her patients in this adaptation of Larry Kramer's Tony-winning play about the early days of the AIDS crisis.

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Titles with fewer than 7 critic reviews are excluded.