Documentary AreaSimply the best Documentaries

New Zealand - 850 years ago New Zealand was the last major land mass to be discovered and colonised by humans. A mere 850 years ago, Polynesian seafarers arrived in a land with no terrestrial mammals. New Zealand was a land of birds, and its avian rulers were giants: huge herbivorous moas were hunted by Haast's eagle - the largest eagle the world has ever seen. But within the space of only 100-400 years, the eagle, all the moas and over 20 other species of birds were gone. Had mankind become the monster?

What begins as a fascination with rare and dangerous reptiles grows into a lucrative global underground built on smuggling, obsession and rivalry. From the eccentric dealers who helped create the exotic animal trade to the investigators determined to stop it, the series exposes a hidden world where protected species, major zoos, criminal networks and enormous sums of money collide. At its center are men such as Tommy Crutchfield and Hank Molt, whose bitter feud reveals how quickly passion for reptiles can turn into betrayal, trafficking and environmental damage. The documentary also shows how this trade helped reshape ecosystems and drove entire species closer to extinction.
In the first three episodes, the story traces the rise of the reptile-smuggling world from the 1970s onward. The obsession with owning animals no one else could obtain fuels a booming illegal market, while authorities begin taking notice of dealers operating across borders. In Florida, Ray Van Nostrand enters the business and becomes entangled with Miami’s darker underworld of drug trafficking and gun-running, drawing the attention of the DEA. Later, his son Mike attempts to transform the family operation into a legitimate international import-export empire, only for old criminal connections and his father’s return to threaten everything he has built.

In the final two episodes of the series, the reptile trade enters a new and even more lucrative era. After prison, Tommy Crutchfield returns to find an industry transformed by the rise of genetically altered “morphs”, rare colour and pattern variations that can sell for enormous sums. What appears to be a more legitimate breeding business quickly collides again with illegal trafficking, as Operation Chameleon begins to expose the international network linking collectors, dealers and even major zoological institutions.
The investigation then closes in on Anson Wong, the Malaysian trafficker described as one of the most powerful figures in the global reptile trade. As U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents work undercover to penetrate his organization, the story expands from rare snakes and lizards to critically endangered species such as the ploughshare tortoise, whose extraordinary black-market value has helped drive it toward extinction in the wild. These final episodes reveal how obsession, vast profits, corruption and international demand can turn the pursuit of exotic animals into a criminal empire with devastating consequences for wildlife.

Zachary Quinto sets out to research the strangest creatures dug up from the depths of the ocean and to see how much they lend to the monsters that are depicted in myth and legend. Starting in Australia, he meets with a teenager who was savagely attacked by a swarm of mysterious flesh-eating monsters, only to jump into the water himself the next day amongst highly venomous sea creatures.
From the carnivorous fish of American rivers to the eyeless monsters of the Atlantic Ocean, Zachary finds some merit in these old monster stories and is starting to understand just what we mean when we say that we know less than 1% of what waits in the depths below.

The center of our galaxy is one of the most nightmarish places in the cosmos. It's the home to some of the most incredible forces the universe has to offer. Gas streaming everywhere, stars are being born and dying and exploding, radiation blasting out. And at the very heart is the super massive black hole, 4 million times the mass of the sun. But also the Milky Way, is our safe harbour, our island in this vast, cosmic ocean. And so to understand the heart of our galaxy, is to understand our home in this cosmic void.

As Michelle's loved ones cope with her sudden death, her work to unmask the Golden State Killer lives on. After inheriting Michelle's 37 boxes of case files, Paul Haynes and Billy Jensen work alongside Patton Oswalt, to finish her book.