The Best Episodes of American Experience Season 28

Episode Rankings

1. #1 Fan Favorite
   

   8.1/10(349 votes)

   #1 - Bonnie & Clyde

   S28:E11/19/2016

   Though their exploits were romanticized, the Barrow gang was believed responsible for at least 23 murders, including two policemen, as well as numerous robberies and kidnappings. Discover the true story of the most famous outlaw couple in U.S. history -- Bonnie and Clyde.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Unknown

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2. 

   8.1/10(245 votes)

   #2 - The Mine Wars

   S28:E21/26/2016

   The story of small people going up against very big forces for a better nation. In the first two decades of the 20th century, coal miners and coal companies in West Virginia clashed in a series of brutal conflicts over labor conditions and unionization.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown
3. 

   7.2/10(87 votes)

   #3 - Murder of a President

   S28:E32/2/2016

   The story of James Garfield, one of the most extraordinary men ever elected president, and his assassination by a deluded madman named Charles Guiteau. The story follows Garfield's unprecedented rise to power, his shooting only four months into his presidency, and its bizarre and heartbreaking aftermath.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown
4. 

   7.6/10(176 votes)

   #4 - The Perfect Crime

   S28:E42/9/2016

   The shocking story of Richard Leopold and Nathan Loeb, two wealthy college students who murdered a 14-year-old boy in 1924 to prove they were smart enough to get away with it.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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5. 

   7.4/10(143 votes)

   #5 - Space Men

   S28:E53/1/2016

   In the 1950s and early '60s, a small band of high-altitude pioneers exposed themselves to the extreme forces of the space age long before NASA's acclaimed Mercury 7 would make headlines. Though largely forgotten today, balloonists were the first to venture into the frozen near-vacuum on the edge of our world, exploring the very limits of human physiology and human ingenuity in this lethal realm.

   Director:Amanda Pollak

   Writer:Amanda Pollak

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   Director:Amanda Pollak

   Writer:Amanda Pollak
6. 

   7.9/10(138 votes)

   #6 - The Boys of '36

   S28:E68/2/2016

   The story of nine working-class young men from the University of Washington who took the rowing world and America by storm when they captured the gold medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Their unexpected victory, against not only the Ivy League teams of the East Coast but Adolf Hitler's elite German rowers, gave hope to a nation struggling to emerge from the depths of the Great Depression.

   Director:Margaret Grossi

   Writer:Aaron R. Cohen

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   Director:Margaret Grossi

   Writer:Aaron R. Cohen
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7. 

   8.0/10(263 votes)

   #7 - Tesla

   S28:E710/18/2016

   Meet Nikola Tesla, the genius engineer and tireless inventor whose technology revolutionized the electrical age of the 20th century. Although eclipsed in fame by Edison and Marconi, it was Tesla's vision that paved the way for today's wireless world.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:David Grubin

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   Director:Unknown

   Writer:David Grubin
8. 

   7.3/10(221 votes)

   #8 - The Battle of Chosin

   S28:E811/1/2016

   View the intense battle in intimate detail in this vivid narrative of combat and survival in the first major military clash of the Cold War.

   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown

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   Director:Unknown

   Writer:Unknown