3 excellent Netflix documentaries to watch this weekend (September 25-27)

Published Sep 25, 2026, 11:00 AM EDT Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades. Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear. Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade. An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren. Fall is officially upon us, and as September winds down and we prepare for the changing of the leaves, Netflix's flashy conveyor belt of new documentaries and series has slowed. But that's OK, a couple of great series are still going strong on the Netflix U.S. charts—Death of the Pastor's Wife and I Survived a Serial Killer—and, as we're about to get into, it's not over yet. This weekend I'm pairing a terrifying 2025 doc that ties in well with the current No. 1 show on Netflix, Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story, with a fun travel series to lighten things up, and an adrenaline-soaked El Capitan ascent. 3 Drew Binsky: Ultimate Traveler 197 countries with this delightful world adventurer Credit: Netflix Just watch five minutes of Drew Binsky: Ultimate Traveler—or any video in his massive library of YouTube episodes—and you'll be hooked by his infectious curiosity and wonder. One of YouTube's biggest travel creators, Binsky has more than 7 million subscribers and holds two Guinness World Records, including one for visiting the most UNESCO World Heritage sites in 24 hours. And there's no sign of him slowing down his wanderlust. After finishing an ambitious quest to visit all 197 UN-recognized countries in 2021, Binsky inked a deal earlier this month to bring a curated collection of his fascinating and fun world-hopping adventures to the big red streamer. In his travelogue-style videos, Binsky explores some of the planet's most remote and hard-to-access regions, interacting with the people, cultures, and activities found in each of them, and letting them tell their own stories. A pile of Binsky's videos have made their way to Netflix as of September 19, including 30 under the heading "Best Of," in which Binsky explores everything from a woman in Ethiopia who hasn't eaten in 16 years to a series of episodes where he visits the smallest apartments in New York, London, and Hong Kong. The "Out of Bounds" tab is where you'll find Binsky's latest videos, which will drop on Netflix and YouTube at the same time. 2 Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers Aileen Wuornos tells her story from death row I have been totally obsessed with the new Netflix series Monster: The Lizzie Borden Story. And I, like many viewers, was a little irked when episode four jumped ahead nearly 100 years to the late '80s, with another notorious killer, Aileen Wuornos (played by a transformed Sarah Paulson), doing her thing. The parallel stories all made sense in the end. Still, it got me thinking about this incredible 2025 true crime documentary, Aileen: Queen of the Serial Killers, that you should definitely watch after Monster. Directed by Emily Turner, the film revisits the story of the Florida prostitute who killed seven men in 1989 and 1990, claimed self-defense, and was executed in 2002. The infamous "monster" was largely a product of a brutal childhood and upbringing of abuse, and the doc goes there before moving through the rest of the sordid story, including the recorded calls with girlfriend Tyria Moore that helped seal her fate, and her much-publicized trial. Turner skips the usual talking-head style and instead uses reels of audio tape of Wuornos, police and courtroom footage, and reporting from Dateline's Michele Gillen. But the pièces de résistance are the chilling 1997 death-row conversations with Wuornos herself. Fire TV Stick 4K Operating System FireOS Resolution 4K 1 Girl Climber One woman, one wall, 24 hours If you're an armchair adrenaline junkie who likes high altitudes and even higher stakes, there is definitely no shortage of incredible extreme climbing documentaries you can stream across several of the big streamers. As you'd expect, several of them live on Netflix, too, including Girl Climber, a newly added award-winning doc that's about as intense as it gets. The 83-minute nail-biter follows five-time U.S. national champion and Everest summiter Emily Harrington as she literally risks life and limb to be the first woman to free climb (not the same as ropeless free soloing, but still crazy) El Capitan's Golden Gate route in a single day. The route is similar to that followed by climbing poster boy Alex Honnold (of Oscar-winning Free Solo fame), who's a featured player in Girl Climber, and Harrington's belay partner. But back to the insanity of this film—it follows Harrington's journey—physical and mental—to achieve her goal, and includes the stomach-churning 50-foot drop that lands her in the hospital, a nagging question about when her and her partner should start a family, and a serious tumble that happens the day she makes history in November 2020. Director Jon Glassberg shot much of the film dangling off the wall himself, making for some pretty spectacular footage. There's never a shortage of docs on Netflix From every corner of the globe to deep within the mind of a killer to 3,000 feet straight up El Cap, this lineup of docs on Netflix goes the distance. We've also got some great what-to-watch lists for those into science fiction, thrillers, comedy, and more. Subscription with ads Yes, $8/month Simultaneous streams Two or four Live TV No Price Starting at $8/month Stream licensed and original programming with a monthly Netflix subscription.