The Best Episodes of Frontline Season 33

#1 Fan Favorite
8.4/10(61 votes)
#1 - Secrets, Politics and Torture
S33:E85/19/2015
From veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk (United States of Secrets, Losing Iraq, Bush’s War, The Torture Question) comes the dramatic story of the fight over the CIA’s controversial interrogation methods, widely criticized as torture. Based on recently declassified documents and interviews with key political leaders and CIA insiders, the film investigates what the CIA did — and whether it worked.
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8.1/10(78 votes)
#2 - Being Mortal
S33:E32/10/2015
FRONTLINE follows renowned New Yorker writer and Boston surgeon Atul Gawande as he explores the relationships doctors have with patients who are nearing the end of life. In conjunction with Gawande’s new book, Being Mortal, the film investigates the practice of caring for the dying, and shows how doctors — himself included — are often remarkably untrained, ill-suited and uncomfortable talking about chronic illness and death with their patients.
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7.9/10(31 votes)
#3 - Outbreak
S33:E65/5/2015
FRONTLINE tells the vivid, inside story of how the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak began, and why it wasn’t stopped before it was too late. Filmmaker Dan Edge spent months on the ground in West Africa, tracing the outbreak’s path through Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and uncovering the hidden story of what happened before the world started paying attention. With exclusive access to key global decision-makers and health responders, and gripping firsthand accounts of victims from the jungles of Guinea to the slums of Monrovia, Outbreak exposes tragic missteps in the response to the epidemic.
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7.8/10(228 votes)
#4 - Putin's Way
S33:E21/13/2015
FRONTLINE investigates the accusations of criminality and corruption that have surrounded Vladimir Putin's reign in Russia. Tracing his career back over two decades, "Putin's Way" reveals how the accumulation of wealth and power has led to autocratic rule and the specter of a new Cold War.
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7.8/10(102 votes)
#5 - Growing Up Trans
S33:E116/30/2015
Just a generation ago, it was adults, not kids, who changed genders. But today, many children are transitioning, too — with new medical options, and at younger and younger ages. In Growing Up Trans, FRONTLINE takes viewers on an intimate and eye-opening journey inside the struggles and choices facing transgender kids and their families.
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7.8/10(50 votes)
#6 - My Brother's Bomber (1)
S33:E149/29/2015
When filmmaker Ken Dornstein was 19 years old, his older brother David was one of 189 Americans killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some 25 years later, only one suspect, a Libyan man, was ever convicted of the terror plot, which killed 270 people in total. He was sentenced to life in prison but later released. Who else was involved remains an open case. Who was really responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks on Americans before 9/11? In My Brother’s Bomber, an emotional and suspenseful three-part series, Dornstein embarks on a quest for answers.
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7.6/10(110 votes)
#7 - Gunned Down: The Power of the NRA
S33:E11/6/2015
FRONTLINE investigates how the NRA uses its unrivaled political power to stop gun regulation in America. With first-hand accounts of school killings in Newtown and Columbine, and the shooting of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, "Gunned Down" examines why, despite the national trauma over gun violence, Washington hasn't acted.
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7.6/10(53 votes)
#8 - American Terrorist
S33:E54/21/2015
FRONTLINE investigates American-born terrorist David Coleman Headley, who helped plan the deadly 2008 siege on Mumbai. In collaboration with ProPublica, the film — an updated and expanded version of A Perfect Terrorist — reveals how secret electronic surveillance missed catching the Mumbai plotters, and how Headley planned another Charlie Hebdo-like assault against a Danish newspaper.
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7.6/10(41 votes)
#9 - Escaping ISIS
S33:E127/14/2015
Using undercover footage, FRONTLINE presents the gripping, first-hand accounts of women who escaped the brutal reign of ISIS — and follows an underground network that’s helping them escape.
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7.6/10(41 votes)
#10 - My Brother's Bomber (2)
S33:E1510/6/2015
When filmmaker Ken Dornstein was 19 years old, his older brother David was one of 189 Americans killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some 25 years later, only one suspect, a Libyan man, was ever convicted of the terror plot, which killed 270 people in total. He was sentenced to life in prison but later released. Who else was involved remains an open case. Who was really responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks on Americans before 9/11? In My Brother’s Bomber, an emotional and suspenseful three-part series, Dornstein embarks on a quest for answers.
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7.6/10(41 votes)
#11 - My Brother's Bomber (3)
S33:E1610/13/2015
When filmmaker Ken Dornstein was 19 years old, his older brother David was one of 189 Americans killed in the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Some 25 years later, only one suspect, a Libyan man, was ever convicted of the terror plot, which killed 270 people in total. He was sentenced to life in prison but later released. Who else was involved remains an open case. Who was really responsible for one of the worst terrorist attacks on Americans before 9/11? In My Brother’s Bomber, an emotional and suspenseful three-part series, Dornstein embarks on a quest for answers.
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7.6/10(37 votes)
#12 - Taliban Hunters / ISIS in Afghanistan
S33:E2011/17/2015
Inside a counter-terrorism unit in Karachi, Pakistan that’s dedicated to tracking down Taliban suspects. ISIS is on the rise in Afghanistan — and they say they’re getting young kids to join the jihad. In a special report, FRONTLINE correspondent Najibullah Quraishi reveals on film the degree to which ISIS is gaining a foothold in the country, and how they’re focusing their efforts on training a new generation of jihadists.
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7.5/10(39 votes)
#13 - Terror in Little Saigon
S33:E1911/3/2015
FRONTLINE and ProPublica team up to investigate a wave of terror that targeted Vietnamese-American journalists. Uncovering a trail that leads from American cities to jungles in Southeast Asia, FRONTLINE and ProPublica shine new light on a series of unsolved murders and attacks.
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7.4/10(63 votes)
#14 - Inside Assad's Syria
S33:E1810/27/2015
The world’s eyes have been fixed on the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing war-torn Syria for Europe. But what is life like for those left behind? Correspondent Martin Smith goes Inside Assad’s Syria to report from government-controlled areas as war rages, with on-the-ground reporting and firsthand accounts from Syrians caught in the crisis.
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7.3/10(50 votes)
#15 - The Trouble with Chicken
S33:E75/12/2015
FRONTLINE investigates the spread of dangerous pathogens in our meat -- particularly poultry -- and why the food-safety system isn't stopping the threat. Focusing on an outbreak of salmonella Heidelberg at one of the nation's largest poultry processors, the film shows how contaminants are evading regulators and causing more severe illnesses at a time when Americans are consuming more chicken than ever.
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7.3/10(73 votes)
#16 - Obama at War
S33:E95/26/2015
Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith goes inside the Obama administration’s struggle to deal with ISIS and the deadly civil war in Syria. With interviews from key military and diplomatic leaders, the documentary examines the hard choices facing the president as he tries to defeat the Islamic State without dragging America into a prolonged regional conflict.
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7.2/10(35 votes)
#17 - The Fight for Yemen
S33:E44/7/2015
As recently as September, President Obama was pointing to Yemen as a model for the U.S.’s counter-terrorism strategy. But now, the country is being torn apart in a violent conflict led by an anti-American rebel movement known as the Houthis. With the Yemeni president ousted from the capital, and Saudi Arabia leading a coalition of regional forces against the Houthis, FRONTLINE in conjunction with BBC Arabic brings this special report from inside the war zone, exposing the violent feuds tearing the country apart, the rival anti-American and Al Qaeda-aligned forces fighting for control and the dangerous consequences for the region and the world.
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6.6/10(35 votes)
#18 - Rape on the Night Shift
S33:E106/23/2015
A joint investigation into the sexual abuse of immigrant women who clean the malls where you shop, the banks where you do business and the offices where you work.
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6.3/10(25 votes)
#19 - Immigration Battle
S33:E1710/20/2015
Why has it been so hard for Washington to fix our country’s broken immigration system? In “Immigration Battle,” a special two-hour feature film presentation from FRONTLINE and INDEPENDENT LENS, acclaimed independent filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini take viewers behind closed doors in Washington’s corridors of power to explore the political realities surrounding one of the country’s most pressing and divisive issues.
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5.9/10(20 votes)
#20 - Drug Lord: The Legend of Shorty
S33:E137/21/2015
A feature documentary about two filmmakers who set out to interview El Chapo Guzmán, leader of one of the biggest drug cartels in history. Before his capture in 2014, El Chapo had been on the run from the US and Mexican governments for over a decade — and after his July 2015 escape from prison, he’s now on the lam once again.
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