Why an Alien Encounters Docuseries Is Dominating the Netflix Top 10

Going through an «alien phase» in life is just as much a rite of passage as is learning how to drive a car, which is why it’s not surprising that Netflix’s newest docuseries, Encounters, has remained within the Top 10 of television shows on the streaming service since it first dropped on September 27, 2023. The four-part series is exactly what it sounds like: real-life human encounters with UFOs and aliens, meaning that it’s the perfect bait for anyone who’s gone through a similar «alien phase» in their life, which—at this point—is just about everyone.

Each of the episodes focuses in on a specific time and place where multiple people witnessed a UFO or alien encounter, making each event that much more believable, as opposed to the single-person, debatable encounters of other alien documentaries in the past. Let’s just say this: this time around, we’re not just relying on some weird, old dude who maybe saw something in the sky back in 1968. Encounters takes hard evidence and expands on it—sure, there are definitely some dramatic reenactments of the events, but that doesn’t negate the radar reports and other undeniable factors that make each story told in this docuseries tough to dispute.

What Makes Netflix’s ‘Encounters’ Different?

We’ve seen thousands of alien and UFO documentaries throughout the years of varying degrees of accuracy, but Encounters is one of the first that actually feels compelling enough to regard as proof. Other D-List docs tend to seem more like shoddier Zapruder films filled with sketchy witnesses, making the entire genre of alien documentaries feel untrustworthy as a whole.

Right out of the gate, Encounters starts off on a specific 2008 case in Texas that found around 300 people within the area of Stephenville seeing UFOs in the sky, immediately jumping into captivating interviews with many of the people who first witnessed the encounter. Throughout the almost hour-long episode, we’re given reenactments, official military radar data, and interviews with ex-military intelligence personnel, along with the local reporters who covered the ongoing event and civilians who all had just about the same story of the encounter.

That’s the thing that really separates Encounters from other «in-depth» documentaries about aliens: this one isn’t just relying on one-off experiences with extra-terrestrials. When multiple people join together and explain the exact same encounter with a UFO at an identical time and place, it’s tougher to doubt the accuracy of their statements. And when military data acquired by a FOIA request confirms the same flight pattern that the witnesses recounted, it becomes just as solid evidence as your average criminal case. It’s easy to dismiss a few people who saw some weird things back in the 1970s, but when you get hundreds of people lining up to share their story of the same event, it’s practically impossible to not believe them.

Where Does Our Obsession With Aliens Come From?

Here’s the thing: when it comes to television and movies, aliens never go out of style. From the OG originals (The Day the Earth Stood Still in 1951 and War of the Worlds just two years later) all the way to The X-Files series in the ’90s and quite a few seasons of American Horror Story in the 2010s, aliens somehow always find a way back onto our screens. And that’s without even mentioning the slew of Alien films that began with the eponymous movie in 1979 in addition to the success of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial just a few years later, proving just how long of a ride aliens have had when it comes to our culture. Along came the re-ignition of our obsession in 2005 with the War of the Worlds remake with Tom Cruise, and just a few years later, The Day the Earth Stood Still was given a redo with Keanu Reeves: both films solidified the staying power of aliens.

Then, of course, there was the infamous shot heard ‘round the world in 2017, which reignited just about everyone’s interest in aliens once again. Military footage released by The New York Times showed UFOs swerving and moving at warp speeds around the U.S., which made it almost impossible to doubt the presence of life outside of Earth. Because it was confirmed military footage and the object was clearly not any sort of human invention judging by its speed and maneuvering, it became more widely accepted to believe in the concept of aliens. Encounters brings up this moment specifically, as it marked a major turning point for the community, especially since it was being reported on by such a trusted source as The New York Times.

Perhaps it’s the unknown that keeps us going. After being given tiny crumbs here and there over the years, more and more evidence has pointed towards the confirmed existence of aliens: it’s the feeling of being so close yet so far. It’s seeped its way into our culture—from television, film, documentaries, books, music, and more—because that’s the way that we, as humans, are able to process things. There wasn’t much solid information back in the early days of our alien obsession, meaning that the overall quality of art exploring the subject was bound to be less than ideal, which is why Encounters—with its reenactments and expert interviews—is so successful.

As a whole, Encounters makes one of the most compelling cases we’ve ever seen for the existence of aliens, and in doing so, it’s also crafted a far more superior template for other alien documentaries in the future. There’s definitely power in numbers, and between the four cases explored in Encounters, it’s frankly just more believable that these supernatural occurrences actually took place as opposed to the sketchier ones explored in past documentaries. Given the success of this docuseries, it wouldn’t be surprising to see a second season or at least another similar documentary on the streaming platform, though whether anything more will be confirmed by the U.S. government is an entirely different story.

All episodes of Encounters are available to stream on Netflix.