While viewers are often divided regarding its original content, few can argue with Netflix’s uncanny prowess at programming when it comes to rebroadcasts.
With dozens of options regarding first-run content, viewers are left with perhaps too many choices on what to watch. These streaming companies deserve credit and exhibit business acumen when licensing their intellectual properties to Netflix, the most-watched provider of non-terrestrial programming.
This is the first of a continuing series of articles that make Epoch Times subscribers aware of content previously available only on other providers that can now be viewed on Netflix.
Presidential Documentaries
Between 2020 and 2025, the History Channel released a number of docudramas chronicling the lives of seven U.S. presidents. The series includes “Washington” (2020), “Grant” (2020), “Abraham Lincoln” (2022), “Theodore Roosevelt” (2022), “Kennedy” (2023), “FDR” (2023), and “Thomas Jefferson” (2025).
Docudramas
The “docudrama” format has an equal number of supporters and detractors. Not quite documentary and not really traditional drama, it mixes the two, like “Navy SEALs: America’s Secret Warriors.” The format takes stock video and still photos and augments them with historical recreations.
For purists, it is akin to artistic heresy, but for the majority of everyday viewers, it makes the often staid and dry traditional documentary format far more palatable. The number of 60-minute episodes per title ranges between two and six.
‘Homeland’
Produced and originally broadcast by Showtime between 2011 and 2020, the eight seasons resulted in over 90 major industry award nominations with 64 wins and 185 nominations, with 10 of them going to series lead Claire Danes.
Based on the Israeli series, “Hatufim” (“Prisoners of War”), the show was developed and overseen by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa.
Danes stars as Carrie Matheson, a headstrong CIA agent with bipolar disorder (which she successfully keeps secret, for a while) who is her own worst enemy. She has a hot and cold working relationship with her mentor, Saul Berenson (Mandy Patinkin), who will go only so far to cover for her.
The first three season’s center on Mathison’s dogged pursuit of Nicholas Brody (Damien Lewis), a Marine sharpshooter and eight-year prisoner of war. He’s just been rescued and returned home. Mathison is convinced Brody is a double agent for al-Qaeda, but her judgment is clouded by her physical attraction to him.
Once the Brody story was played out, Mathison began spending more time abroad ferreting out spies and such, but without a continuous central foil to play off of, the series lost some of its original gripping appeal.
‘Navy SEALs: America’s Secret Warriors’
This two-season, eight-episode series originally aired on USA in 2017. The SEALs are one of the most elite fighting forces in the world. The group’s formation dates back to 1962, and its predecessor group goes as far back as World War II.
This docuseries traces the history of the SEALs through the decades to the 9/11 attacks and the subsequent war on terror. This increased their workload from occasional missions to near-daily raids in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Some of the high-profile missions that are covered include rescuing Capt. Richard Phillips from pirates, rescuing kidnapped aid worker Jessica Buchanan in Somalia, and raiding Osama bin Laden’s compound.
‘Rescue Me’
When I first caught wind of this proposed series in 2003, I had high hopes. This was not so much because it was about New York firefighters in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, but rather for the participation of stand-up comedian Denis Leary.
Leary, an Irish Catholic New York native, was an early (make that immediate) supporter of relief efforts for families of police and firefighter families.
While the series leans into acerbic comedic subtext, “Rescue Me” is more of a psychological drama. Leary (also a co-writer and co-producer) stars as Tommy Gavin, a 9/11 survivor. He lost four of his co-workers in the attack, including his cousin Jimmy (James McCaffrey), who shows up in fantasy-dream sequences.
In addition to Tommy interacting with multiple ghosts, he has to come to terms with an impending divorce from his estranged wife, Janet (Andrea Roth).
From my perspective, comedians do drama far better than dramatists do comedy (for proof, see any “comedy” ever starring Robert DeNiro).
Leary’s mix of survivor’s guilt, a man tentative at coming to grips with his own possible personal failings, and his unshakeable dedication to his family makes Tommy the most interesting, conflicted, New York-based anti-hero since Archie Bunker.
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