Building on the foundation laid by ESPN’s excellent “30 for 30” series, Netflix launched its own franchise of films about unusual sports stories in 2021 under the banner “Untold.” With an intent to tell unique sports stories with the insight and visual language of documentary filmmaking instead of just a basic cable TV special, the first series of films took different angles on both famous stories, like Caitlyn Jenner and the brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills, and largely unheard ones like the saga of the Danbury Trashers. With the drop this week of the final chapter of the sixth series, it’s the right time to look back at the entire franchise and pick out the ones you really need to see.
By and large, the most interesting “Untold” films have lived up to the meaning of that word. Too often, especially from the third series on, it felt like the producers were sacrificing insight for access, telling stories that had been very, very told. For example, 2023’s “Swamp Kings” about the Florida Gators was so clearly vetted by Urban Meyer’s lawyers that it had all of its potential edge completely sanded away. (This year’s “Jail Blazers” falls victim to a similar sanitizing that drains its possible impact.) Chapters about Brett Favre, Connor Stalions, Victor Conte, and even Hope Solo suffered because they felt so very told.
These are the eight that have avoided that trap, and with two from the most recent series, there’s reason for hope for the future of this Netflix team.
8. “Operation Flagrant Foul” (2022)
David Terry Fine’s unpacking of the story of Tim Donaghy arguably lets its subject off the hook a bit more than it should (and some who know the story well have illuminated what it excludes), but the reason this one justifies inclusion on this list is simple: It feels prescient. As gambling becomes more and more a part of the sports landscape and headlines are made about NBA players getting caught in its net, it’s feeling more and more like Donaghy was the canary in the coal mine. Gambling is too profitable at this point to be eliminated from professional sports; it is undermining the integrity of professional sports more every day. How we reconcile these two things will shape so much of what “Untold” fans love going forward.
7. “Johnny Football” (2023)
Right around here is when “Untold” started to feel a bit too sanitized and “told,” but this chapter from season three features such a captivating subject that his personality overcomes the sense that we’re only getting a specific version of the story. Johnny Manziel was the first freshman to win the Heisman Trophy, someone who seemed like a generational player, but off-field behavior and on-field inconsistency ended his career before it began. In “Johnny Football,” Manziel is a fascinating interview subject, someone who is unapologetically himself but also seems increasingly aware that he fumbled the ball.
6. “The Death & Life of Lamar Odom” (2026)
Yes, our esteemed critic Richard Roeper is right that this one ends with kind of an incomplete shrug, ignoring the problems that its subject has continued to battle since filming concluded, but it’s captivating before then in a way that recent chapters of “Untold” have failed to be largely because it actually digs its nails underneath a story that had been so superficially told. Everyone thinks they know the story of Lamar Odom, especially the drug-fueled chapters he wrote while married to Khloe Kardashian, but the titular subject, his ex-wife and even a brothel owner who was there when Odom almost died are surprisingly open about the details of exactly how bad things got when Odom’s addiction overtook everything else in his life.
5. Chess Mates (2026)
The best installment in the “Untold” series since season two is this unforgettable unpacking of the saga of Hans Niemann, an American chess grandmaster accused of cheating by both Chess.com and World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. This is one of those stories that sped through the social sphere when it unfolded in 2022, but enough time has passed that it’s a perfect fit for “Untold.” Niemann, Carlsen, and the Chess.com guys sit down to take the story beyond the anal beads that made headlines, highlighting the larger-than-life personality at the center of this film without really letting him off the hook. Did Hans Niemann cheat? The film argues there’s significant evidence that he did it regularly online, but you’ll have to watch to decide for yourself if he did it at a table. And how.
4. Crimes & Penalties (2021)
It’s time for a run of the first and easily best series of “Untold” films, this one ranking high on the list because it felt like a story that had never been told at all. Outside of the people in its region, who had heard of the United Hockey League team, the Danbury Trashers, before “Untold”? Directed by Chapman and Maclain Way (“Wild Wild Country”), this film is so out there that it’s surprising no one has tried to do a narrative version of it yet. Paul Walter Hauser seems like a good fit for James Galante, a Genovese crime family figure who bought the Danbury Trashers and gave them to his 17-year-old son A.J., who, well, didn’t do a great job.
3. Breaking Point (2021)
Also directed by the Ways, this is arguably the most important episode of “Untold” because it casts a spotlight on an issue in professional sports that often gets swept under the rug: mental health. Mardy Fish was one of the rising stars of tennis in the 2000s before his severe anxiety derailed a career that once seemed more promising than his old friend Andy Roddick. In 2011, Fish was ranked as the best American tennis player in the world. In 2012, his anxiety impacted his play so much that he had a catheter ablation because he felt like his heart was going to burst out of his chest. By 2015, he left tennis entirely. For generations, pro sports haven’t addressed mental illness, depression, or anxiety enough, and Mardy Fish’s courageous interviews in this film helped correct that.
2. Malice at the Palace (2021)
The first film in the “Untold” series laid the foundation for what this franchise could be by taking a story most sports fans knew in some capacity and digging into the headlines. Anyone old enough to watch TV in 2004 probably heard about the Malice at the Palace, a brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons that spilled into the stands. Director Floyd Russ doesn’t just replay the salacious footage of the unexpected violence; he digs into how it was reported and the impact it had on the people involved. It’s a great documentary, “Untold” or otherwise.
1. The Girlfriend Who Doesn’t Exist (2022)
The same thing that worked about the first episode of “Untold” is at the core of why the premiere of the second series tops this list: A story you think you know told with more insight and new depth that you hadn’t considered. In 2012, everyone was captivated by the story of Manti Te’o’s girlfriend, which turned out to be an elaborate catfishing by someone named Ronaiah Tuiasosopo. Catfishing as a concept was such a timely one that how Te’o was fooled became all anyone talked about after Deadspin broke the story, especially given how the death of his imaginary girlfriend had become such a talking point the year before. To this day, there are people who still believe Te’o played a role in the hoax. This film not only corrects so many of the bad headlines, but it also humanizes Te’o in a way that likely helped facilitate his comeback as a current NFL Network analyst.