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The Best Episodes of Frontline

Every episode of Frontline ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Frontline!

Binge this in 9d 16h•Peaking at 10.0/10

Since it began in 1983, Frontline has been airing public-affairs documentaries that explore a wide scope of the complex human experience. Frontline's goal is to extend the impact of the documentary beyond its initial broadcast

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Frontline Season 23 Episode 7 - Al Qaeda's New Front
    10.0/10(1 votes)

    #1 - Al Qaeda's New Front

    S23:E7

    Al-Qaeda's New Front is PBS documentary on Islamic terrorist network in Europe and its relationship to Islam and Al-Qaeda.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Frontline Season 19 Episode 14 - Harvest of Fear
    9.6/10(21 votes)

    #2 - Harvest of Fear

    S19:E14

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Frontline Season 21 Episode 3 - The Man Who Knew
    9.1/10(18 votes)

    #3 - The Man Who Knew

    S21:E3

    When the Twin Towers fell on September 11, 2001, among the thousands killed was the one man who may have known more about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda than any other person in America: John O'Neill.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Frontline Season 14 Episode 15 - The Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson
    9.0/10(9 votes)

    #4 - The Pilgrimage of Jesse Jackson

    S14:E15

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Frontline Season 17 Episode 10 - The Triumph of Evil
    9.0/10(20 votes)

    #5 - The Triumph of Evil

    S17:E10

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Frontline Season 17 Episode 17 - Making Babies
    9.0/10(10 votes)

    #6 - Making Babies

    S17:E17

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Frontline

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  7. Frontline Season 21 Episode 7 - In Search of Al Qaeda
    9.0/10(10 votes)

    #7 - In Search of Al Qaeda

    S21:E7

    In December 2001, as American forces blasted mountain hideouts in the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan, hundreds of Al Qaeda soldiers fled seemingly disappearing into thin air. In this 2002 documentary, FRONTLINE investigates what happened to the fighters who survived.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Frontline Season 29 Episode 15 - WikiSecrets
    9.0/10(8 votes)

    #8 - WikiSecrets

    S29:E15

    The inside story of Chelsea Manning, Julian Assange (WikiLeaks) and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Frontline Season 7 Episode 5 - The Battle for Eastern Airlines
    8.9/10(17 votes)

    #9 - The Battle for Eastern Airlines

    S7:E5

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Frontline Season 12 Episode 10 - Tabloid Truth: the Michael Jackson Story
    8.9/10(49 votes)

    #10 - Tabloid Truth: the Michael Jackson Story

    S12:E10

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Frontline Season 15 Episode 16 - Hot Guns
    8.9/10(16 votes)

    #11 - Hot Guns

    S15:E16

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Frontline Season 20 Episode 3 - Looking for Answers
    8.9/10(16 votes)

    #12 - Looking for Answers

    S20:E3

    Sunday night, as U.S. bombers and cruise missiles attack targets in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden released a videotape calling on Muslims worldwide to join his war on America. Next to bin Laden was his close association, an Egyptian named Ayman al-Zawahiri, a man who is certainly as important to the terror network as bin Laden himself. Tonight on FRONTLINE, the full story of these two men, the story of how the seeds of their hatred for America were sown not in Afghanistan but in two of the U.S.'s greatest allies in the Islamic world, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, and the story of how they joined forces to pursue a common enemy.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Frontline Season 21 Episode 13 - The War Behind Closed Doors
    8.9/10(12 votes)

    #13 - The War Behind Closed Doors

    S21:E13

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Frontline Season 22 Episode 5 - Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (Updated)
    8.9/10(26 votes)

    #14 - Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? (Updated)

    S22:E5

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Frontline Season 23 Episode 11 - Israel's Next War?
    8.9/10(23 votes)

    #15 - Israel's Next War?

    S23:E11

    A shocking documentary about the growing number of Jewish extremists in Israel.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Frontline Season 24 Episode 6 - Country Boys: Part 2
    8.9/10(23 votes)

    #16 - Country Boys: Part 2

    S24:E6

    David Sutherland, acclaimed producer of The Farmer’s Wife, returns to rural America with Country Boys, an epic tale of two boys coming of age in eastern Kentucky’s Appalachian hills. Viewers meet Cody Perkins and Chris Johnson, classmates at an alternative high school who inhabit the same world yet are light years apart. Through intimate cinematography and extraordinary sound design that puts the viewer inside the skin of the story’s colorful and memorable characters, Country Boys traverses the emotional terrain of two boys who are about to become men, documenting their struggles to overcome hardship and poverty and find meaning in their lives.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Frontline Season 28 Episode 11 - Law & Disorder
    8.9/10(26 votes)

    #17 - Law & Disorder

    S28:E11

    Behind the enduring images of heroic rescues undertaken by the New Orleans Police Department in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there is another story of law enforcement in crisis, even out of control. Law & Disorder a year-long, ongoing collaboration among FRONTLINE, ProPublica and the New Orleans Times-Picayune, investigates charges that NOPD officers inappropriately used lethal force against New Orleans citizens and then tried to cover up their actions. Airing days before the fifth anniversary of one of the deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history and drawing from reports published in a real-time online investigation, FRONTLINE takes a fresh look at how the NOPD performed when the rules of civilized society collapsed.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Frontline Season 9 Episode 10 - Betting on the Lottery
    8.8/10(9 votes)

    #18 - Betting on the Lottery

    S9:E10

    Lottery fever is spreading. Twenty-nine states now raise $20 billion a year in revenues. Frontline correspondent James Reston, Jr., goes behind the scenes of state lotteries to look at the promoters selling them, the people buying the tickets, and to ask the question, ‘Who really wins and who loses?’

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Frontline Season 16 Episode 12 - Busted: America's War on Marijuana
    8.8/10(189 votes)

    #19 - Busted: America's War on Marijuana

    S16:E12

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Frontline Season 17 Episode 6 - Plague War
    8.8/10(11 votes)

    #20 - Plague War

    S17:E6

    FRONTLINE's "Plague War" investigates the ever-increasing threat of biological weapons in today's world, focusing on the rise and fall of the Soviet Union's enormous covert bio-weapons program which went undetected for almost two decades.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Frontline Season 36 Episode 14 - Myanmar's Killing Fields
    8.8/10(8 votes)

    #21 - Myanmar's Killing Fields

    S36:E14

    Secret footage and eyewitness accounts shine new light on a brutal campaign by the Myanmar military against Rohingya Muslims — an effort that has been described by both the United Nations and the United States as “ethnic cleansing.”

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Frontline Season 7 Episode 14 - Yellowstone Under Fire
    8.7/10(11 votes)

    #22 - Yellowstone Under Fire

    S7:E14

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Frontline Season 9 Episode 3 - Decade of Destruction (2): Killing for Land
    8.7/10(10 votes)

    #23 - Decade of Destruction (2): Killing for Land

    S9:E3

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Frontline Season 11 Episode 17 - Iran and the Bomb
    8.7/10(14 votes)

    #24 - Iran and the Bomb

    S11:E17

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Frontline Season 21 Episode 2 - Campaign Against Terror
    8.7/10(10 votes)

    #25 - Campaign Against Terror

    S21:E2

    No description available

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Al Qaeda's New Front" is the best rated episode of "Frontline". It scored 10/10 based on 1 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/25/2005. This episode scored 0.4 points higher than the second highest rated, "Harvest of Fear".