You’ve already got a career, so when you come home, the last thing you want is finding something good to watch on Paramount+ to feel like a second job.

I’m really into music-related docs, and not just ones about artists; I’m fascinated by the industry, how it’s changed, and how technology changes it. On this week’s list, I’ve found a great docuseries and a biopic that cover both. But I’m also a sucker for weird and wild little facets of life, so I’ve also included a crazy film about the invention of the bulletproof vest that will drop your jaw.

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How Music Got Free

A deep dive into the history of digital music piracy

For better or for worse, I’m just old enough to have had a stack of vinyl records when I was a kid, graduated to cases full of cassettes, and then replaced them all with tower shelves and Case Logic binders full of CDs. Physical media formats have evolved since the beginning of recorded music, but nothing could have prepared us for the massive disruption and change that digital music and piracy would have on the music industry—it almost destroyed it while simultaneously revolutionizing it.

All this and more is covered in Paramount+’s detailed two-part documentary from 2024, How Music Got Free, in which director Alexandria Stapleton (Sean Combs: The Reckoning) teams up with journalist Stephen Witt, the author of the definitive book of the same name. Narrated by Method Man, and executive produced by Eminem and LeBron James, part one of this fascinating account goes back beyond Napster and Limewire to Dell Glover, a CD-factory worker in Shelby, North Carolina, who is widely considered the “patient zero” of internet music piracy, who notoriously leaked more than 20,000 albums online, including Eminem’s The Eminem Show and Jay-Z’s The Blueprint. Profits dive, and in part two of the series, the music industry starts to fight back, the FBI starts hunting pirates, and things change forever.

How Music Got Free features interviews from the likes of Eminem, 50 Cent, Timbaland, and high-ranking members of the music industry, as well as voices from both the pirate community and the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to tell this bonkers story that has a solid 71% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

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2nd Chance

Richard Davis shot himself 192 times developing the bulletproof vest

This is a good one that you’re not going to want to miss. A story so bizarre and entertaining, and with one of the oddest and most charismatic protagonists of any doc I’ve seen, 2nd Chance is a total blast (pardon the pun). This hour-and-a-half feature tells the wild story of Richard Davis, a former Marine and Detroit pizzeria owner who is credited with the invention of the modern bulletproof vest in the late 1960s. Chief among the taglines for his remarkable story is that, to do so, he notoriously shot himself 192 times developing it.

After being shot during a robbery of his pizza parlor, the larger-than-life Davis spent years perfecting his invention to protect himself, and building up his company, Second Chance Body Armor, to huge success. The company would eventually supply Kevlar vests to law enforcement agencies across the country, saving thousands of lives. But when a police officer dies wearing one of Davis’ vests, and a whistle-blower emerges, the story spirals.

Director Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes, The White Tiger) peels back the layers of the enigmatic Davis—largely through letting him tell his own story on camera, archival footage, and other key interviews—revealing some glaring contradictions and questionable claims in the case. It’s a head-shaking and unsettling story you won’t be able to turn away from, and it more than earns its 91% Rotten Tomatoes score.

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Let the Canary Sing

A colorful portrait of pop star Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper’s feminist anthem Girls Just Want to Have Fun is, unapologetically, my wife’s go-to karaoke song (I prefer The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough, personally). Whether you’re a fan of the eccentric, neon-haired singer, songwriter, and actress or not, her status as a pop-culture icon is unmistakable, making her more than deserving of this flattering documentary portrait, Let the Canary Sing.

Directed by documentarian Alison Ellwood (The Go-Go’s), Let the Canary Sing chronicles Lauper’s life and career, from growing up in Queens, her working-class upbringing, and her early rebellious nature to her early singing career and the legal trial after the failure of her band Blue Angel, where the judge declared, “Let the canary sing!” Of course, the doc then joyfully covers Lauper’s meteoric rise to superstardom, Grammys, and millions of albums sold.

Ellwood, who specializes in music-history docs, uses rare archival footage from Lauper’s early years and beyond, as well as candid interviews with friends and celebrities like Boy George, Patti LaBelle, and more, not only shining a spotlight on Lauper’s career achievements, but on her life as an activist and outspoken supporter of the LGBTQ+ community. Let the Canary Sing has a reputable 83% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Whether you’re in the mood for a nostalgic trip through the ’80s or a gripping look at corporate secrets, these Paramount+ documentary picks deliver for your weekend viewing. Also, check out our lists of the best Paramount+ shows you can watch each week, too

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