Turning Point is a mighty feat of historical documentary storytelling. Directed by Brian Knappenberger, who also helmed Netflix’s Turning Point: 9/11 and the War on Terror, the series combines the veracity and thoroughness of a Frontline installment with the style (and, by all appearances, the budget) of a major documentary release.

Unlike his treatise on 9/11 and the War On Terror, Knappenberger has done a good job of contextualizing just how the nuclear arms race got started. The first episode of this docuseries is almost 80 minutes long, but it’s riveting because it doesn’t just recite the history you might have learned in class or while watching countless History Channel docuseries on World War II.

Talking head follows talking head, accompanied by reams of archive footage. It’s never dull – but goodness does it feel like documentary-making on autopilot.