Fire Country

A San Quentin inmate, sentenced to life without parole, writes a play that catches the interest of a reporter.

Duke Berne, former big shot but now a three-time loser, fears returning to crime because a fourth conviction will mean a life sentence. Finally, haunted by his past and goaded by his cohorts, he joins in planning an armoured car robbery.

After a group of convicts escapes from prison, they take refuge in the wilderness. While most of the crew are ruthless sociopaths, Jim Canfield is an innocent man who was jailed under false pretenses. When Canfield and his fellow fugitives reach an isolated farming settlement where the men are all away, it creates tension with the local women. Things get direr when rumors of hidden money arise, and Canfield discovers that the man who framed him is part of the community.

Half-way through his 12-year prison sentence for an incompetent armed robbery, Jimmy Hands gets a lucky break: he's transferred to a prison from which he can probably escape. He convinces the governor to stage a musical in an old chapel next to the prison's outer wall. He rounds up volunteer actors and puts his escape plan into production. Two other barriers, besides the wall, confront him: the arrival of a nasty inmate, John Toombes, who insists on joining the escape, and Jimmy's feelings of attraction for Anabel, a social worker who agrees to appear in the play. Opening night approaches: is this Jimmy's breakout performance?

While participating in a rehabilitation program training wild mustangs, a convict at first struggles to connect with the horses and his fellow inmates, but he learns to confront his violent past as he soothes an especially feisty horse.

During a 10-year sentence for murdering the leader of a rival South Central Los Angeles gang, Bobby Johnson finds religion and rehabilitation with the help of Muslim inmate Ali. Upon his release, Bobby returns home to find that his young son, Jimmie, has joined the Deuces, his old crew. Tensions rise as Bobby struggles to convince Jimmie to leave the gang that was his only family during the painful years his absent father spent behind bars.

A shy California farm girl falls head-over-heels in love with Barry Burnett, a fugitive from a chain gang building a road through the wilderness.

Walen plays Dan Sparling, a convicted embezzler who becomes editor of his prison newspaper. After serving out his sentence, he sets up an independent newspaper devoted to attacking corruption in public life, encountering various difficulties due to his being an ex-con and opposition from the incumbent administration.

SERVING LIFE documents an extraordinary hospice program where hardened criminals care for dying fellow inmates. Narrated and executive produced by Academy Award®-winner Forest Whitaker, the film takes viewers inside Louisiana's maximum security prison at Angola, where the average sentence is more than 90 years.

After his death sentence is commuted to life in prison, John Resko is transferred from Sing-Sing to Dannemora where, with the help of a humane prison guard, he becomes a rehabilitated man and a successful painter.

Boston Blackie is a former prison inmate campaigning to outlaw Warden Benton's infamous "Water Cross" torture. Benton, however, is successful in his attempt to have Blackie arrested and returned to the prison, but his evil schemes are ultimately thwarted by Mary Carter, Blackie's girlfriend, who manages to alert the governor.

Nell is a young mother convicted of accidentally killing her alcoholic husband. When given the opportunity to serve his sentence as a forest firefighter, demonstrates his courage and discipline in an exceptional way.

In 2000, a California State Prison inmate serving Life Without Parole (LWOP) approached the warden to request a dedicated yard for men serving life sentences that would break the code of violence dominating prison life. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) subsequently transformed Yard A at California State Prison into The Progressive Programming Facility, which inmates call The Honor Yard. The only one of its kind in the United States, this experimental prison yard is free of violence, racial tensions, gang activity and illegal drug and alcohol use.

A former war journalist now writing for a paper in Northern California is drawn into conflict at home.

Accountant Roy is sentenced to prison because he cooked up balances. He hopes that his companions, who profited from his cheat, will help him to a revision of his judgment. Meanwhile he has to adapt to a life in jail - which works out quite well, especially when he meets the self-conscious convicted thief Jane and falls in love. He starts to woo her. But then, while working in the prison's accounting department, he discovers that the prisoners' accounts are not properly kept. The director tries to keep him in her prison as long as possible.

Explore the high-pressure experiences of police officers, paramedics and firefighters who are thrust into the most frightening, shocking and heart-stopping situations. These emergency responders must try to balance saving those who are at their most vulnerable with solving the problems in their own lives.

After his mother's death, Jed Perry and his father move to northern California, where Jed enrolls at Evergreen Academy. Along with Jed, only two other boys attend the formerly all-girls school.

Set in the sprawling mecca of the rich and famous, Ray Donovan does the dirty work for LA's top power players, and makes their problems disappear. His father's unexpected release from prison sets off a chain of events that shakes the Donovan family to its core.

Returning from a year-long psychological leave of absence after surviving an almost-fatal gunshot wound to the head, Detective David Creegan is assigned to the FBI's Organized and Serial Crime Unit – a rapid-response, elite crime investigation squad – where he and his new partner, Detective Susan Branca, find themselves committed to saving lives and solving cases. In spite of his inability to abide by common sense and the laws he's sworn to uphold, Creegan, with the help of Branca, works on hunting down the most vicious criminals on the streets.

As California's 2016 fire season rages, brave backcountry firefighters race to put out the flames, protect homes and save lives in this docuseries.

There's not a lot of fires to fight in one of the rainiest cities in America, leaving the crew at the Tacoma Fire Department tackling the less glamorous elements of the job. Light on blazes that need extinguishing, this squad keeps itself entertained with creative competitions, friendly first responder rivalries, and bizarre emergency calls.

Death row inmates convicted of capital murder give a firsthand account of their crimes in this documentary series.

Cal Fire imbeds viewers within the largest emergency force in the country; access to all 6,100 firefighters as they work to contain California's near-constant blazes.

Guilt, violence and impossible choices – what does it take to survive? Tense, gritty and heartbreaking – Jimmy McGovern's award-winning prison drama, with an all-star cast.

In Sevier County, Arkansas, an unprecedented drug rehabilitation program gives qualified inmates a second chance at life. If they complete the three-month program, they will be released from jail. If they mess up, they will do time in state prison.

Master craftsman and woodworker Eric Hollenbeck is in the restoration business, taking historic homes and forgotten treasures around his hometown of Eureka, California, and giving them new life.

A convicted criminal is determined to turn his life around after serving more than two decades in prison. When he is released unexpectedly from prison due to the pandemic with no place to live and the world on lockdown, Jack shelters-in-place with an unlikely group of former inmates, who band together and use their criminal expertise for good.

This docuseries offers unprecedented access to the inner workings of the Los Angeles County Fire Department, documenting real calls and real drama while giving faces to the passionate firefighters who risk their lives in the name of service. These real-life heroes and their compelling stories are told alongside the unpredictable dangers they face on the front lines of life and death.

Several families in the farmland of Northern California navigate universal themes of class, immigration, culture and family.