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The Best Episodes of VICE

Every episode of VICE ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of VICE!

Best episode
S1E10 The Hermit Kingdom
8.7167 votes
Worst episode
S6E24 Voodoo Wrestling/Big Placebo
6.721 votes
Top season
Season 1
8.0avg
Binge time
2d 8h
113 episodes
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons6

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    VICE Season 1 Episode 10 - The Hermit Kingdom
    8.7/10(167 votes)

    S1:E10

    Basketball Diplomacy: VICE makes history on a trip to North Korea to play hoops and meet with "supreme leader" Kim Jong-un.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. VICE Season 6 Episode 1 - Raised in the System
    8.7/10(88 votes)

    S6:E1

    Emmy-nominated actor Michael Kenneth Williams embarks on a personal journey to expose the root of the American mass incarceration crisis: the juvenile justice system.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. VICE Season 4 Episode 13 - State of Surveillance
    8.3/10(83 votes)

    S4:E13

    To find out the government's real capabilities regarding digital surveillance, and whether any of us can truly protect our sensitive information, VICE founder Shane Smith heads to Moscow to meet the man who started the conversation, Edward Snowden.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. VICE Season 2 Episode 11 - Heroin Warfare & The Coldest War
    8.3/10(55 votes)

    S2:E11

    "Heroin Warfare" (correspondent: Suroosh Alvi) - Since the U.S. occupation of Afghanistan, heroin production in the region has skyrocketed, making the country the number-one producer by a large margin. Though Iran, Afghanistan's neighbor, is an ultraconservative country, Afghan heroin flowing across the border has actually caused Iran to have the worst heroin use problem in the world. Suroosh Alvi gets a rare look inside Iran to meet the suffering heroin addicts, and see how the country is coping with the illegal drug trade. "The Coldest War" (correspondent: David Choe) - With the polar ice caps shrinking due to global warming, new trade routes are being exposed, along with billions of dollars' worth of natural-resource reserves. This is prime real estate and the five nations bordering the Arctic are readying themselves to fight for it. David Choe heads north to witness NATO forces participating in the largest polar military exercise in history. The problem is that there's one non-NATO country that already considers itself rightful owner of the region: Russia. With Vladimir Putin's recent military annexation of Crimea, there's a definite possibility its aggressions will boil over, returning the international community to precarious Cold War footing.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. VICE Season 1 Episode 1 - Assassination Nation/The Killer Kids of the Taliban
    8.2/10(129 votes)

    S1:E1

    Assassination Nation: Political assassinations in the Philippines; The Killer Kids of the Taliban: Taliban-supported child suicide bombers in Afghanistan.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. VICE Season 4 Episode 5 - Meathooked & End of Water
    8.3/10(47 votes)

    S4:E5

    Isobel Yeung travels to the feedlots, farms and slaughterhouses where our meat is made, to see the true costs of our burger habit. Vikram Gandhi reports from California's once-abundant farmland and the heart of Sao Paulo's reservoir system to assess the depths of the water shortage crisis, and what can be done to reverse it.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of VICE

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  7. VICE Season 4 Episode 9 - The Future of Energy
    8.3/10(47 votes)

    S4:E9

    VICE founder Shane Smith takes an in-depth look at the future of how we make and use energy, and how we can meet growing demand as we cut carbon emissions.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. VICE Season 6 Episode 8 - Printing Tomorrow/Are We Alone?
    8.4/10(29 votes)

    S6:E8

    Krishna Andavolu delves into the cutting-edge world of 3D-printing, meeting the scientists and entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries of manufacturing, material science, and even space exploration. Scientists are closer than ever to finding life beyond Earth so VICE sent Nuclear physicist Taylor Wilson to explore one of our civilization's most haunting questions: Are we alone?

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. VICE Season 5 Episode 22 - Controlling the Narrative & Power to Congo
    8.4/10(25 votes)

    S5:E22

    Filipino journalists risk their lives while reporting on the president's brutal war on drugs; journalist Carl Bernstein discusses press freedom; in spite of the deadly war, rangers fight to protect Congo's endangered species and natural resources.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. VICE Season 2 Episode 2 - Greenland Is Melting & Bonded Labor
    8.2/10(68 votes)

    S2:E2

    Greenland recorded its highest temperatures ever in 2013. Though some say that's not cause for concern, the equivalent of three Chesapeake Bays'-worth of water melts off the island every year, affecting sea levels around the world. Shane Smith embarks on an expedition to Greenland with climate scientist Jason Box to discover the reasons for the melting, and how the resulting sea level rise will mean devastation sooner than expected. Millions of men, women and children work as bonded laborers in Pakistan's brick kilns. This abusive practice is facilitated by the devastating disenfranchisement of workers and by the pervasive corruption of the brick kiln industry and Pakistani law enforcement. Fazeelat Aslam goes to the brick kilns to see the conditions and learn how certain organizations are fighting back by rescuing the workers from this modern-day slavery.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. VICE Season 5 Episode 29 - After ISIS & Cubs of the Caliphate
    8.3/10(23 votes)

    S5:E29

    Season 5 concludes with a report from Iraq on the aftermath of the ferocious and costly fight to retake Mosul from ISIS. Also: Isobel Yeung meets Iraqi youth who trained under ISIS, but now face an uncertain future as they try to rebuild their lives.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. VICE Season 5 Episode 10 - Taliban Resurgence
    8.2/10(36 votes)

    S5:E10

    Ben Anderson returns to the conflict he's covered for 10 years, re-uniting with several Afghans--an Army Major, a Policeman who dismantles IEDs and a family who were forced to fight to defend their home--for a shocking report that questions what America's longest war has actually accomplished.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. VICE Season 1 Episode 5 - Mormon Lost Boys/The Fat Farms of Mauritania/Mumbai Slumscraper
    8.1/10(87 votes)

    S1:E5

    Mormon Lost Boys: Exiled sons of polygamists; The Fat Farms of Mauritania: fat farms for Mauritanian women; Mumbai Slumscraper: have and have-nots in Mumbai.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. VICE Season 5 Episode 7 - Life Under Sharia & Plastic Oceans
    8.2/10(33 votes)

    S5:E7

    "Life Under Sharia" - VICE co-founder Suroosh Alvi travels to Aceh and across Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, to experience Sharia up close and investigate its relationship to terrorism, as well as meet those who are fighting back against it. "Plastic Oceans" - VICE correspondent Isobel Yeung travels to the remote shores of Hawaii and the coast of the North Sea to see the extent of our plastic addiction and the surprisingly simple ways we can solve it.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. VICE Season 2 Episode 1 - The Afghan Money Pit & the Pacification of Rio
    8.1/10(75 votes)

    S2:E1

    The U.S. has spent nearly $100 billion on reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, the most spent on any country in history. But John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, has found that much of that money has been wasted and misused, and has even fallen into the hands of the Taliban. Shane Smith heads to Afghanistan for a tour of American taxpayer dollars gone down the drain. Rio de Janeiro is working hard to remedy its reputation as a drug and murder capital in time for the upcoming World Cup and Olympics. The Special Police Operations Battalion (BOPE) has been charged with pacifying the slums (favelas), but BOPE's military occupation of increasing numbers of favelas has been criticized as heavy-handed. Some corrupt members of the BOPE, together with ex-police, have formed militia gangs of their own and are controlling many favelas by sinister means, openly extorting, torturing, killing and making criminals disappear. Still, there are hundreds of favelas, untouched by pacification, that remain under the control of drug gangs who act with complete impunity. Ben Anderson looks behind the picturesque façade of Rio's marketing campaign to reveal the dark underbelly of the city.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. VICE Season 2 Episode 12 - Surveillance City & The Forgotten War
    8.1/10(55 votes)

    S2:E12

    "Surveillance City" (correspondent: Vikram Gandhi) - Camden, New Jersey is one of the poorest and drug-ridden cities in the country, and its murder rate is 12 times the national average. In 2011, the city cut its police force almost in half, with nearly 80,000 residents regularly being policed by 12 cops at a time. The state stepped in to overhaul the department, introducing an experimental "Metro" security apparatus equipped with futuristic technologies like gunshot detecting, triangulation microphones, and automatic license-plate readers. As similar surveillance systems are implemented across the country, Vikram Gandhi goes to Camden to see how these tactics are working, how residents feel about their loss of privacy, and what the future of policing might be. "The Forgotten War" (correspondent: Ben Anderson) - A decade ago, the crisis in Darfur was a cause celebre. American politicians, activists, and celebrities took to the media to condemn Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for his brutal genocide, and to send out a call for justice and aid his victims. Yet today, world attention has waned, despite the fact that President Bashir remains in power. People continue to die, and millions of refugees remain in overburdened camps filled with malnourished children. Without sufficient aid from the international community, Sudanese rebel groups are stepping in to fight for justice on their own terms. Ben Anderson goes to the refugee camps in Chad and Sudan to meet the victims the world has forgotten, and the rebels poised for civil war.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. VICE Season 4 Episode 3 - Right to Die
    8.1/10(54 votes)

    S4:E3

    VICE explores the moral, political and personal questions raised by how and when we end our lives.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. VICE Season 5 Episode 3 - When the Earth Melts & The Displaced
    8.1/10(35 votes)

    S5:E3

    “When the Earth Melts” - VICE Correspondent Ben Anderson travels across the Arctic to examine the devastating impact of thawing permafrost--and the astonishing solution that might keep it frozen. “Displaced” - VICE Correspondent Gianna Toboni follows the journey of refugees journeying across the Mediterranean Sea who have been left in limbo due to the tightening borders of an increasingly nationalist Europe.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. VICE Season 4 Episode 8 - Afghan Women's Rights & Floating Armories
    8.1/10(33 votes)

    S4:E8

    With the Taliban gaining ground again, Isobel Yeung reports from Kabul on the fight for dignity and rights of women in Afghanistan. VICE co-founder Suroosh Alvi reports from a private military contractors' floating armories in the Gulf of Aden to take a closer look who's protecting global commerce today.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. VICE Season 5 Episode 15 - Future of Firearms & Russia “Wins” Climate Change
    8.1/10(30 votes)

    S5:E15

    “Future of Firearms” - With the political landscape fundamentally changed, the firearms industry, and gun rights advocates, are looking for new ways to expand upon their 2nd amendment rights and the bottom line -- with some surprising results. VICE takes a closer look at the future of firearms in America. “Russia 'Wins' Climate Change” - Climate change is causing catastrophic changes to our planet, but it may be an economic blessing for Russia. As the Arctic ice melts, petroleum and mineral resources are more accessible, shipping lanes are opening up and the frozen Siberian tundra could become arable. In fact, the Russian government and people seem to be welcoming the warming temperatures. And with America pulling out of the Paris Agreement, perhaps this is a glimpse into our own future.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. VICE Season 5 Episode 9 - Medical Détente & Bananas
    8.1/10(29 votes)

    S5:E9

    “Medical Détente” - VICE correspondent Gianna Toboni travels to Cuba to witness potential treatments and cures that flourished in the country's biotech industry despite the decades-long US embargo. “Bananas” - VICE heads to the heart of banana country in Latin American and the Philippines to see the devastating effects of the disease and to investigate what the loss of the banana would really mean besides a less colorful lunchbox.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. VICE Season 6 Episode 27 - A Living Hell in Yemen/MDMA for PTSD
    8.2/10(16 votes)

    S6:E27

    Ben Anderson returns to Yemen to witness the devastating effects of four years of war and indiscriminate bombing of civilians. Anderson investigates trials using MDMA-assisted therapy for veterans and first responders suffering from PTSD.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. VICE Season 3 Episode 1 - Our Rising Oceans
    8.0/10(75 votes)

    S3:E1

    A report on climate change that features a visit to Antarctica to observe melting glaciers and a report on rising sea levels in Bangladesh. Then an interview with Vice President Joe Biden.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. VICE Season 1 Episode 9 - Gangs & Oil
    8.0/10(72 votes)

    S1:E9

    Chiraq: Failed state on the south side of Chicago; Nigeria's Oil Pirates: oil drilling in the Niger River Delta.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. VICE Season 6 Episode 15 - After the Fall
    8.1/10(24 votes)

    S6:E15

    Isobel Yeung returns to Syria to tell the stories of those who were caught in the crossfire between the most feared terror group on Earth and the U.S.-backed coalition, whose collateral damage destroyed most of the city.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Hermit Kingdom" is the best rated episode of VICE. It scored 8.7/10 from 167 votes. Written and directed by Unknown, it aired on June 14, 2013.

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