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Season guide

Frontline: Season 30

24 episodes Premiered Oct 10, 2011 Updated Sep 25, 2026
Previously on Frontline

Season 30 Lore Primer

Key plot threads, lore context, and character stakes you need to remember before diving into this season.

  • ⚡ Directly follows the overarching narrative developments of Frontline Season 29.
  • ⚡ Faction dynamics and core character alliances shift under escalating external stakes.
  • ⚡ Crucial mysteries introduced previously reach key turning points and narrative reckonings.
  • ⚡ Sets up serialized story arcs that build directly toward the climactic season finale.
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Season 30 Episodes

Episode Guide

🛡️ SPOILER SHIELD

Season 30 Progress Shield

Future titles & synopses blurred. Tap "Reveal" on any card to peek.
Binge Efficiency Engine

Season 30: Filler vs. Essential Canon

Filter episodes by narrative weight. Focus on essential mytharc and skip standalone side quests.

21%
79%
Mytharc (5): Crucial lore & season climaxes
Core (19): Character development & subplots
Side Quest (0): Standalone / filler
S30·E1 Mytharc

The Anthrax Files

Oct 11, 2011

Frontline, with ProPublica and McClatchy Newspapers, takes a hard look at the FBI's investigation of the country's most notorious act of bioterrorism.

S30·E2 Core

Lost in Detention

Oct 18, 2011

Frontline investigates President Obama's enforcement strategies and immigrant detention - who is being detained and what is happening to these detainees.

S30·E3 Core

Syria Undercover

Nov 8, 2011

Reporter Ramita Navai goes undercover for a rare look at the uprising from inside Syria. Plus a profile of the dictator who has managed to hold on longer than any amidst the Arab u

S30·E5 Core

Opium Brides

Jan 3, 2012

Frontline reports on the unexpected collateral damage of the counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan.

S30·E6 Core

Nuclear Aftershocks

Jan 17, 2012

It’s been almost a year since a devastating earthquake and tsunami crippled Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex, leaving the country’s once popular energy program in shambles

S30·E7 Mytharc

The Interrupters

Feb 14, 2012

The Interrupters presents unforgettable profiles in courage, as three former street criminals in Chicago place themselves in the line of fire to protect their communities. The two-

S30·E9 Core

Murdoch's Scandal

Mar 27, 2012

Accounts of bribery, blackmail, and privacy invasions has prompted criminal investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.

S30·E10 Core

The Real CSI

Apr 17, 2012

How reliable is the science behind forensics? A Frontline investigation finds serious flaws in some of the best-known tools of forensic science.

S30·E12 Core

Cell Tower Deaths / Six Billion Dollar Bet

May 22, 2012

Learn about the hidden cost of better and faster cell phone service, and about unreliable medical evidence in several child death cases. Six Billion Dollar Bet: Jon Corzine, forme

S30·E13 Core

Al Qaeda in Yemen

May 29, 2012

Frontline travels into the heart of Yemen's radical heartland, and shows how Al Queda is taking control of towns and cities in an attempt to establish its own state.

S30·E14 Mytharc

Dollars and Dentists

Jun 26, 2012

Dental care can be a matter of life and death. Yet millions of Americans cannot afford a visit to the dentist. An investigation by Frontline and the Center for Public Integrity rev

S30·E15 Mytharc

Endgame: Aids in Black America

Jul 10, 2012

Nearly half of the one million people in the United States infected with HIV are black men, women and children. Trace the history of the AIDS epidemic through the experiences of in

S30·E17 Core

The Battle for Syria

Sep 18, 2012

Frontline takes you inside the heart of the insurgency, where rebel groups are waging a full-scale assault on the forces of President Bashar al Assad.

S30·E18 Core

Alaska Gold

Jul 24, 2012

Frontline probes the fault lines of a growing battle in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska, home to the world's last great wild sockeye salmon fishery-and enormous mineral deposits.[

S30·E20 Core

Dropout Nation

Sep 25, 2012

What does it take to save a student?

S30·E21 Core

The Choice 2012

Oct 9, 2012 · 114 min

A journey into the places, people, and decisive moments that made the men who are competing for the presidency. Hundreds of hours of research and dozens of original interviews reve

S30·E22 Core

Climate of Doubt

Oct 23, 2012 · 113 min

Four years ago, climate change was a hot issue and politicians from both sides seemed poised to act. Today public opinion on the climate issue has cooled considerably. Politicians

S30·E23 Core

Big Sky, Big Money

Oct 29, 2012

FRONTLINE travels to the remote epicenter of the campaign finance debate for a tale of money, politics, and intrigue. How has the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision changed c

S30·E24 Core

The Suicide Plan

Nov 13, 2012 · 83 min

FRONTLINE explores the underground world of assisted suicide and takes viewers inside one of the most polarizing social issues of our time – told not only by the people choosing to

S30·E26 Mytharc

Poor Kids

Nov 20, 2012

Through the stories of three families told over the course of half a decade, FRONTLINE explores what poverty means to children in America.

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