Coming in December on FRONTLINE

This month on PBS, you’ll have the chance to revisit three FRONTLINE documentaries that give crucial context for two very different issues: the fight against ISIS, and the debate surrounding the NFL’s concussion crisis.

First, on Dec. 8, we’ll present The Rise of ISIS, our 2014 investigation into how and why the brutal jihadist group that claimed responsibility for the recent Paris attacks first came to power.

Then, on Dec. 15 and Dec. 22, we’ll bring you a special, two-part version of League of Denial — our award-winning documentary that revealed the hidden history of the NFL and brain injuries, and sparked a national conversation among fans, players and parents about the nature and future of the game.

Finally, on Dec. 29, we’ll close out the month (and the year) with Escaping ISIS — our summer 2015 documentary on a modern-day underground railroad working to rescue women and children who have been captured by ISIS.

Here’s a closer look at our December lineup:

Dec. 8: The Rise of ISIS

In a documentary that Variety called “vital” and The New York Times called “required viewing,” correspondent Martin Smith explores how ISIS developed into what one expert describes in the film as “the Al Qaeda that Osama bin Laden only dreamed of building.”

Dec. 15 & 22: League of Denial: The NFL’s Concussion Crisis

One of the key figures in both Michael Kirk’s League of Denial documentary and the book by the same name by Steve Fainaru and Mark Fainaru-Wada is Dr. Bennet Omalu. He’s the forensic pathologist who discovered the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) while conducting an autopsy of Pittsburgh Steelers legend Mike Webster — and who will be portrayed by Will Smith in the upcoming Hollywood film Concussion. Watch League of Denial to meet the real Omalu, to see how the NFL reacted to his discovery, and to explore what the NFL knew about the link between football and traumatic brain injury — and when it knew it. The two-part broadcast of the documentary will include several updates to the original 2013 version.

Dec. 29: Escaping ISIS

ISIS’ brutality is part of its brand. But the terror group’s treatment of Yazidi women has been particularly vicious: FRONTLINE uncovered accounts that ISIS fighters are raping Yazidi girls as young as nine. With undercover video found by producer Edward Watts, combined with footage filmed over the course of two months in Northern Iraq and Turkey, Escaping ISIS reveals the gripping, first-hand accounts of women and children who were held captive — and follows an underground network that’s helping them escape.

Check your local PBS listings here.