Every Ken Burns Documentary, Ranked

Early on during the pandemic, my feel-good shows stopped working. I’d watch The Office with nothing but contempt for Michael, Pam, Jim, and their non-coronavirus-infected lives. It was April, and I would’ve cut out my eyeballs with a dull butter knife if it meant I could travel back in time to live in Scranton, PA, in 2004. In desperation, I searched for a new series. Something that wouldn’t make me miss my non-coronavirus life, but would offer me perspective instead. I needed the TV show version of a curmudgeonly grandpa describing in excruciating detail the many miles he had to walk to get to school each day. That’s when I remembered I have one. We all do. In the blessed form of Ken Burns documentaries.

I am a longtime Ken Burns fan. Before the pandemic set in, I had already seen many of his films. But there were some big ones that I managed to miss. So, to cheer myself up, I committed to watching the rest of them during quarantine, starting with The Vietnam War. As I made my way through the films, my sadness receded. Relaxing into the sweet, predictable pacing of a Ken Burns docuseries eased my mind, and the history presented within the films put the current moment into perspective. Now, I'm now uniquely qualified—in so much as anyone is—to rank the efforts of the legendary documentarian.

Before we dive in, a point of clarification: For the purpose of this consideration, I only included films that Ken Burns directed, meaning the ones he produced didn't make the cut. That’s why you won’t see The West on the list. And while our lockdown days may be over, the Ken Burns catalogue will always be there for you. Ride out whatever you're going through with this totally biased and super unscientific ranking of each and every Ken Burns documentary.