Menu
© 2026 The Couch Critic
Browse 460 movies from PBS
Investigating the U.S.-led efforts to degrade and destroy ISIS. Reporting from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey, the film examines the successes, failures, and challenges of the fight, as ISIS loses ground in the region but strikes out abroad.
Oct 2016
Frontline examines the lives of mentally ill repeat offender who are struggling to make a life for themselves outside of prison.
Apr 2009
Amid violence and war, Ukrainian citizens are coming together to rescue animals that have been left behind by those forced to flee. From cats and dogs in abandoned buildings to lions and tigers in the nation’s zoos, extraordinary rescue efforts are underway to bring them to safety. The film is a tribute to the very best of the human spirit despite the horrors of war.
Apr 2024
Produced by the National Endowment for the Arts, along with the Jerome Foundation, this showcase is hour-long collection of shorts from six prominent video artists, all commissioned to the state of Minnesota.
Oct 1980
You have never seen the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Pacific Coastline like this before! Take to the skies for an exhilarating journey in the film Over California. Get a unique perspective on the vast and changing landscape of the Golden State through powerful high-altitude images that reveal Californias unique beauty. Soar through blue skies, among ancient redwood forests, around snow-capped peaks, over deserts and coastline, and above glittering cities all set to an original soundtrack. Over California features rare views and stunning cinematography of the states most celebrated landscapes, from deserts to vineyards and everything in between, including Disneyland and the Golden Gate Bridge. Enjoy the imagery as you learn all about Californias history and heritage.
Feb 1994
Leonardo da Vinci was a Renaissance genius. Not only did he paint masterpieces of art, but he was an obsessive scientist and inventor, dreaming up complex machines centuries ahead of his time, including parachutes, armored tanks, hang gliders and robots. On the 500th anniversary of Leonardo’s death, with the help of biographer Walter Isaacson, NOVA investigates the secrets of Leonardo’s success. How did his scientific curiosity, from dissections of cadavers to studies of optics, shape his genius and help him create perhaps the most famous painting of all time, the "Mona Lisa"?
Nov 2019
Explore the area of Escambrón Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico, as residents come together to protect its coastline from overdevelopment.
Apr 2025
Created by Tony Award winner Shaina Taub, this musical recorded from Broadway tells the story of the American suffragist movement and the remarkable friendships, heartbreak, and action that brought women together—or, in some cases, tore them apart. The ensemble cast features Taub as Alice Paul, Tony winner Nikki M. James as Ida B. Wells, Tony nominee Jenn Colella as Carrie Chapman Catt, and Grace McLean as President Woodrow Wilson.
May 2026
How does your brain create your reality? Are you in control, or is your brain controlling you? Discover the surprising answers based on the latest research in this eye-opening journey into the human brain with neuroscientist Heather Berlin. Your brain – for centuries a black box – is slowly giving up its secrets to modern neuroscience, shedding light on big questions that go to the very heart of who you are.
May 2023
The feud between the Hatfields and McCoys is perhaps the most famous family conflict in American history. As legend has it, two neighboring families in the backwoods of Appalachia waged a crude and bloody war against each other over a stolen hog, an illicit romance, and longstanding grudges. Yet the events that took place near the end of the 19th century between the Hatfields and McCoys are part of a much richer and more complex narrative of the American experience.
Sep 2019
In 1945, Allied troops invaded Germany and liberated Nazi death camps. They found unspeakable horrors which still haunt the world’s conscience. A film was made by British and American film crews who were with the troops liberating the camps. It was directed in part by Alfred Hitchcock and was broadcast for the first time in its entirety on PBS FRONTLINE in 1985.
May 1985
In 1846, Anthony Hope sails into London with the mysterious Sweeney Todd, a once-naive barber whose life and marriage was uprooted by a corrupt justice system. Todd confides in Nellie Lovett, the owner of a local meat pie shop, and the two become partners, as Todd swears revenge on those that have wronged him and decides to take up his old profession. (Filmed live at the Lincoln Center with the New York Philharmonic from March 5–8, 2014.)
Sep 2014
Monrovia, Indiana explores a small town in rural, mid-America and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity, and authenticity are formed, experienced, and lived along with conflicting stereotypes. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a way of life whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.
Sep 2018
A graduate student interviews the retired General and President Dwight D. Eisenhower at his Gettysburg farm, sometimes confronting him about his inaction on Civil Rights and McCarthyism.
Oct 1986
For more than thirty years, and through his television program, Fred Rogers (1928-2003), host, producer, writer and pianist, accompanied by his puppets and his many friends, spoke directly to young children about some of life's most important issues.
Jun 2018
A dramatization of the life of Juan Seguin, a heroic Mexican-Texan who became entangled in the struggle between two contrasting cultures in the turbulent decade between the Texas Revolution (1836) and the Mexican-American War (1846-1847).
Jan 1982
It was the golden age of silent film, and she was the world's most celebrated actress. Known as America's sweetheart, Mary Pickford was famous for playing darling girls and feisty young women in wildly popular films seen around the globe. Her love affair with Hollywood's leading man, Douglas Fairbanks, turned her into an icon of glamour and romance, the Hollywood dream come true. But, as Mary would learn in the most painful way, fame is fickle and life at the top is precarious.
Apr 2005
A documentary illustrating the black community's understanding of, and response to, racism in Britain. It presents from a black working class perspective, an analysis of racism within the context of British history and the post-war crisis of the British economy. At the same time the film reflects the increasingly militant response within the black community to the continuing attacks upon it, both by organised fascist elements on the streets, and by the state itself.
Jul 1978
A psychological film about coming to terms with letting go.
Dec 2017
The documentary investigates the lives and characters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as they seek the presidency. In a historic election, those who know the candidates best reveal key moments that shape how they would lead America. Award-winning filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team sat down with Trump and Harris’ friends, advisors and critics, as well as authors, journalists and political insiders to present deeply reported narrative arcs of both candidates’ lives, going all the way back to their childhoods. What emerges in FRONTLINE's "The Choice 2024: Harris vs. Trump" is the story of two fighters: One seeking vindication and promising a return to greatness, and the other seeking to move beyond the past and promising a greater future.
Sep 2024