Documentary · 2010s
The 2010s account for 33 of the 190 documentary shows here, and 34 opening sequences.
Netflix carries the most, with ten.
One rebuilt its titles mid-run: Ink Master, with two sequences.
33 shows34 sequences
1 sequence
The Great British Bake Off
Bunting, a tent and a xylophone — twenty seconds of deliberate gentleness, and one of the most effective pieces of format branding on British television.
- Season 1
1 sequence
Storage Wars
Abandoned storage lockers auctioned unseen, with the bidders introduced like a heist crew.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDance Moms
A Pittsburgh dance studio, the children in it, and the mothers watching from behind the glass.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Jinx
Andrew Jarecki's Robert Durst films, opened by a sequence that tells you nothing and implies everything.
- Season 1
1 sequenceQueer Eye
Two minutes of the five hosts introduced one at a time, in the format's own house style of relentless warmth.
- Season 1
1 sequenceMaking a Murderer
Manitowoc County in winter over a plucked string figure — the sequence that defined what a Netflix true-crime series would look like for the next decade.
- Season 1
1 sequenceLast Chance U
Junior college football players with one season left to be recruited, and a marching-band cue for a theme.
- Season 1
1 sequenceSomebody Feed Phil
Phil Rosenthal eating his way around the world, with a theme song written and sung about him by his friends.
- Season 5
1 sequenceGogglebox
People watching television, filmed watching television, which turned out to be the format of the decade.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Vietnam War
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's ten-part account, scored by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
- Season 1
1 sequenceChef's Table
Food shot in extreme close-up to classical strings — a cookery series that opens like a perfume advertisement and means it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Keepers
The unsolved killing of a Baltimore nun, and what her former pupils found when they investigated it themselves fifty years on.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAn Idiot Abroad
Karl Pilkington sent to the wonders of the world by two people enjoying it more than he is.
- Season 3
1 sequenceO.J.: Made in America
Nearly eight hours on one trial and a century of Los Angeles, opened in sixteen seconds because there is no time to spare.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBlue Planet II
Hans Zimmer and Radiohead scoring the ocean — the first natural history series to hire a film composer and a rock band for its titles.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDirty Money
One corporate fraud an episode, opening on money being counted by a machine that never stops.
- Season 1
1 sequenceFrozen Planet
Ice filmed as architecture, and George Fenton again — twenty-six seconds with no animal in them at all.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHip-Hop Evolution
Shad interviewing the people who were actually in the room, decade by decade.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAbstract: The Art of Design
One designer an episode, with a title sequence rebuilt each time in that designer's own idiom — the rare series whose titles are the argument.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAdam Ruins Everything
A comedian interrupting people to explain, with citations on screen, why what they believe is wrong.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Amazing Race Canada
The format run entirely inside one country, which turns out to be quite large enough for it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceAmerican Pickers
Two dealers driving across America buying things out of other people's barns.
- Season 1
1 sequenceBar Rescue
A consultant shouting a failing bar back into business over three days.
- Season 1
1 sequenceThe Curse of Oak Island
Two brothers digging a Nova Scotian island for treasure, across more than a decade of not finding it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceDuck Dynasty
A Louisiana family who got rich making duck calls, and then considerably richer being filmed doing it.
- Season 1
1 sequenceGeordie Shore
Jersey Shore relocated to Newcastle, and the format that gave British reality its next decade.
- Season 1
1 sequenceHardcore Pawn
A Detroit pawnbroker and the arguments across his counter, which are most of the programme.
- Season 1
2 sequences
Ink Master
Tattoo artists competing on other people's skin, which raises the stakes over most craft contests.
- Season 2
- Season 5
1 sequenceThe Only Way Is Essex
Structured reality built around a group of Essex friends, and the format most British television copied afterwards.
- Season 2
1 sequencePenn & Teller: Fool Us
Magicians performing one trick each for two men who will say afterwards whether they worked out how it was done.
- Season 1
1 sequenceRuPaul's Drag Race All Stars
Returning queens competing again, in the spin-off that handed the eliminations to the contestants.
- Season 1
1 sequenceVanderpump Rules
The staff of a Los Angeles restaurant, most of whom would rather be famous than employed.
- Season 12
1 sequenceWormwood
Errol Morris on Frank Olson's death, told half as interview and half as drama, with titles for both halves at once.
- Season 1