May is full of murder (what’s new?), but in the form of surprising new shows that blend dark mystery with comedy, period drama, and sci-fi. Plus the return of some heavy-hitting, beloved streaming series.
Eliza Janssen picks the top 10 buzziest shows arriving on our small screens over the month, on services like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV+, and more.
The 8 Show
Another South Korean game-of-death black comedy that’s not Squid Game season 2! Trapping lonely losers and bubbly influencers alike in a vertical, heavily-surveilled arena, this twisted drama requires “no skill or talent” from its players—probably just a whole lot of patience, since if you turn the number 8 on its side it starts to look like the symbol for…Y’know what, just watch and find out yourself.
Bodkin
If you’re a shameless fan of true crime podcasts, you might get a kick out of this new Irish dramedy. If you can’t stand the unkillable true crime trend, you might also be into it, since it’s a story of three exploitative podcasters getting in way over their heads as they investigate a small-town disappearance. Even if the mystery doesn’t hold up, we’re totally down to listen to some beautiful Irish accents for seven episodes. And to see goofy US comedian Will Forte caught up in the chaos.
Bridgerton: Season 3
The second season of Bridgerton was somewhat of a disappointment to our critic, but if anybody can get things back on track it’s gossip maven Lady Whistledown herself—a.k.a. wallflower Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who has been exposing every Bridgerton kid’s secrets for ages now via her secret, poisoned-pen hobby. This time around, the lovely Coughlan gets to take centre stage, swept up in a friends-to-lovers arc with another hunky Bridgerton son.
Dark Matter
Are multiverses still hot? This Apple TV+ series might be a tad late to the trend, weaving a sci-fi story of a man lost amongst the landscape of lives he could’ve lived. Megastars Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly help sell the confusing concept, with Edgerton multiplied as our hero who’s at first tempted and then threatened by alternate versions of himself.
Doctor Who
Season 14 of this iconic, long-running British sci-fi series feels more like a soft reboot, with new Doc Ncuti Gatwa enjoying a bit more fanfare surrounding his intro than the last few incarnations of the time-travelling Gallifreyan. Soap star Millie Gibson is his first, spunky companion, and we can’t wait to learn what eccentricities (and fab wardrobe choices!) Gatwa will bring to one of TV’s most important roles.
Interview with the Vampire: Season 2
Anne Rice’s indulgent blood-sucking lit got a fresh injection of the red stuff with season one of this Gothic drama, and fans will be on the edge of their seats to see new vamp Louis (Jacob Anderson) and the rakish Lestat (Aussie Sam Reid) return. In the trailer for this second chapter, Louis brutally lays out the truth of his cursed life for his ward Claudia (Bailey Bass): “our life is shit. It’s been shit. It’s gon’ be shit again…we’re gonna find others like us. We can’t be the only good ones out there.”
A Man In Full
There’s serious TV pedigree behind this real estate drama, starring the great Jeff Daniels as an Atlanta mogul facing bankruptcy—one of the medium’s most dominant figures, David E. Kelley, creates the show, adapting its moneyed mayhem from a Tom Wolfe novel. Expect plenty of “oh hey that guy!” character actors, and hopefully a few hefty, stentorian monologues from JD.
Outer Range: Season 2
Ever since Lost, we’ve been let down by a plague of Mystery Box shows that can’t offer up satisfactory explanations to the tantalising, supernatural situations with which they lured us in. Let’s see how this Western-sci-fi melange muddles through, with Josh Brolin’s cowboy patriarch discovering a big dang void on his property back in season one. The cast and atmosphere are ripe with possibility, rural family drama feeding into the grander existential questions of the plot.
Shardlake: Season 1
Set during the reign of Henry the 8th, this historical murder-mystery sends a lawyer to a remote coastal monastery to uncover a homicidal web of lies. Sean Bean appears on the poster below the text “God knows who did it”, which makes me think he’s either the grand puppet-master behind a religious death plot…or, more likely, he’s probably gonna cark it on screen again and be our body?? Either way, the 16th-century setting makes this one stand out from the blood-soaked pack.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz
There are plenty of films about WWII’s concentration camps—such as Glazer’s recent, brilliant The Zone of Interest—but not many TV shows. Perhaps audiences will find it difficult to repeatedly tune in for depictions of the Holocaust’s most contained, inhumane acts? This new series is made more watchable by sequences set in the present day, with the lovely Melanie Lynskey playing author Heather Morris, who adapted survivor Lali Sokolov’s (the great Harvey Keitel, Jonah Hauer-King in flashbacks) amazing tale of oppression and unlikely romance into a best-selling novel.
