History Channel

Get even closer to the truth about America's gangs in Season Two of Gangland. Rarely seen footage and unique access to the lives of both former and current gang members provide a solid insight into why gangs exist, how they operate, their increasingly destructive methods, and the alarming rate at which they're spreading to suburban and rural areas. Delve deep into the rich and bloody history of gangs in America, from the long-stretching tradition of the Asian Triads, to the full-blown motorcycle gang war between the Outlaws and the Hells Angels, to the growing occurrence of girl gangsters, as this season of Gangland goes to the darkest corners of America to infiltrate some of the most dangerous terrain in the world. Other gangs featured in Season Two include the Maniac Latin Disciples, the Texas Syndicate, Los Angeles' 18th Street, and the Mongols.

Hollywood has delivered more than it's fair share of memorable movie villains throughout the years, and now viewers have the opportunity to learn more than ever before about their favorite silver-screen boogiemen in this documentary featuring interviews with Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone, Halloween director John Carpenter, and Star Wars director George Lucas. Spanning over 100 years of cinema, this collection of blood-curdling clips also features excerpts from the films of the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

While he has received the most attention, Oscar Shindler wasn't the only civilian hero to arise from World War II. The History Channel profiles the men and women that meant the difference between life and death in History Undercover: Diplomats for the Damned. As the Swiss Consul in Budapest, Carl Lutz helped save over 62,000 Jewish people from the concentration camps. Aristides de Sousa Mendes defied the Germans to write over 30,000 Visas allowing citizens safe passage to Portugal. Whether hiding people in their homes or falsifying documents, these crusaders made a tremendous impact on those around them. American Hiram Bingham and German George Ferdinand Duckitz are also remembered in this one-hour program. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

Amazingly, although her name once held historians captive, Boudicca -- a Celtic queen born around the time of Christ, who assembled one of the most formidable forces ever to counter the Roman Empire -- has since fallen through the cracks of ancient history. Beaten senseless, her daughters raped by the brutish Romans, Boudicca somehow managed to assemble a vanguard against her oppressors, and thus became a symbol of British resistance for millennia. Classical scholars are less certain of how this one poor and tortured woman realized such an impressive feat. By reconstructing the period in which she lived and fought, the documentary Decisive Battles: Boudicca -- Warrior Queen goes behind the myth and the legend to investigate the historical truths surrounding this strange and enigmatic symbol of heroism. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In 1818, British novelist Marry Shelley created one of the most iconic monsters of all time, but could it be that her frightening tale of reanimation was actually rooted in horrifying fact? In this documentary, the filmmakers of Decoding the Past explore the curious case of brilliant scientist Johann Konrad Dippel, who - despite his staggering wealth of knowledge relating to the human anatomy - earned a grim reputation for dabbling in alchemy and body snatching. The prototypical "mad scientist," Dippel was born in Castle Frankenstein in 1673. In addition to conducting pioneering work that would ultimately lead to the advent of electric shock therapy, his dark scientific research would later lead him on a search for an elixir that could restore life to the dead. But Dippel still needed a subject on whom to test his elixir, his search ultimately leading him to nearby Nieder-Beerbach Cemetery. There, the scientist would dig up fresh corpses and haul them back to his laboratory deep in the bowels of Castle Frankenstein. Whether or not he succeeded in his mission of creating an elixir capable of reanimating dead tissue is still up for debate, though the fact that he was ultimately driven out of town has led countless people to wonder just what horrors truly unfolded in that sprawling gothic castle. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Each episode of MONSTERQUEST is a mini-expedition to a remote, far-flung corner of the world. Science and technology come together to give viewers a greater understanding of these mysterious monsters bones and key pieces of proof are analyzed and submitted to a battery of tests. Instead of relying on the cliché grainy archival footage usually associated with these monsters, the series goes on-location with high-tech gadgetry (special cameras, listening posts, even underwater lures) to further the quest for answers. While the monsters may not necessarily be real, each episode does feature real scientists.

Running contrary to the claims of those who believe that UFO sightings only date back to the 1940s, some theoreticians insist that extraterrestrials have existed among us for millennia - an idea allegedly underscored by a substantial amount of historical data. Witness, for example, the bizarre carvings on prehistoric sites that depict aliens - evidence that strikes many as not only convincing but definitive. As hosted by UFO authority Kenneth Arnold (author of the tome Fingerprints of the Gods), the History Channel documentary In Search of History: Ancient Aliens investigates these claims once and for all - touching on such subtopics as the universal design of skyscrapers around the world and the references to flying objects in countless ancient manuscripts and suggesting that humans may not be alone in the universe. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

For millennia, playing cards have existed as a staple of global culture -- a longevity that has imparted a wealth of stories and meanings to them. The History Channel documentary The Playing Card examines this transcontinental phenomenon by isolating and exploring the nuances of a typical card - from its controversial origins in such regions as Egypt and Persia, to the significance of the various suits and symbols, to its unusual design and the significance of Masonic imagery. The program also touches on the card's links to such practices as voodoo, the Tarot and the occult. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In retrospect, the battle of Hamburger Hill qualifies, hands-down, as perhaps the single most brutal and visceral struggle of the Vietnam War. The event in question (a veritable suicide mission) witnessed a platoon of approximately twelve men attempting to take Hill 937 in the Ashau Valley - and sacrificing most of their lives to bands of Viet Cong soldiers who continually bombarded the invaders with a hailstorm of grenades and gunshots. In the process, the Viet Cong wiped out an estimated 70% of the platoon with a relatively small number of fighters. The History Channel documentary Declassified: Viet Cong revisits this pivotal event with a myriad of personal, intimate and revealing stories from both sides of the battle - and reveals how the United States Army made one of its most colossal mistakes in Ashau by employing strategies used in World War II that were utterly inappropriate, ill-advised and futile for Southeast Asia. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide