Best new movies and series arriving on NOW in May 2022

Every month, a new slate of titles is added to NOW’s library of films and TV shows—and critic Clarisse Loughrey picks the very best among them to watch. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top Picks: TV

The Flight Attendant season 2 (May 26)

Mystery solved. Cassie (Kaley Cuoco) successfully cleared her name over the death of one of her First Class passengers, the bloodied man she woke up next to one morning in a Bangkok hotel room—with no memory of how either of them got there. So where could The Flight Attendant possibly go next? Instead of feeling bolted down by the success of its first season, the comedy-drama has instead settled into an entirely new, though not unfamiliar pace, while capitalising on Cuoco’s pitch-perfect screwball energy.

Cassie’s dealing with her alcohol addiction, relocated to Los Angeles, and found a semi-stable relationship with a man (Santiago Cabrera’s Marco). But her bad luck always finds a way to catch up with her—and, having agreed to work with the CIA as a civilian asset, she once again finds herself falsely accused after a doppelganger commits a series of murders.

The Staircase (May 5)

If you could trace the modern obsession with true crime back to a single source, it’d probably be Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s 2004 docuseries The Staircase. Its topic was confoundingly strange: the trial of crime novelist Michael Peterson, accused of murdering his wife Kathleen by pushing her down the stairs of their family home. It may have seemed simple on paper, but the details could never add up to a single, satisfying conclusion, especially not when theories about Michael’s sexuality and a potentially vicious owl were thrown into the mix.

A new dramatisation of the case certainly indulges in that lurid fascination, but creators and co-writers Antonio Campos and Maggie Cohn are interested chiefly in the question of truth. What if we never know who killed Kathleen? What then? A slippery portrayal of Peterson by Colin Firth helps complicate the question.

The Time Traveler’s Wife (May 16)

Back in 2009, Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana swooned their way through an adaptation of Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife. Though not particularly popular with critics, it made a decent amount of cash at the box office and is still fondly remembered by its fans. HBO, however, decided that it’s worth having another crack at the book—and, this time, the network has an ace up its sleeve.

The six-part series was written by none other than Steven Moffat who, thanks to his work on Doctor Who, has a good amount of experience telling tortured love stories fractured through time. Here, Rose Leslie stars as Claire, whose husband Henry (Theo James) has a genetic disorder that causes him to randomly travel through time.

Top Picks: Movies

Halloween Kills (May 20)

A continuation of 2018’s Halloween, which itself served as both a direct sequel and soft reboot of the 1978 classic, this new terror picks up right where its predecessor left off: Michael Myers has emerged from the fiery trap set for him by Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis), who’s successfully escaped with her daughter Karen (Judy Greer), and granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) by her side. But here director David Gordon Green, alongside co-writers Scott Teems and Danny McBride (of Eastbound & Down fame), have decided to pull back at look at how Michael’s murderous legacy has warped the very heart of Haddonfield, Illinois.

With several familiar faces coming back into the fold, including Kyle Richards and Nancy Stephens, Halloween Kills pushes the franchise into its future by asking what it really takes to stop evil in its tracks.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (May 13)

When it comes to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the word of the day is “legacy”. Not only does this sequel to the beloved 1984 comedy pass the proton pack on to a new generation, played by Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard, but it also sees the late Ivan Reitman hand down the mantle of director to his son Jason, known for Juno and Young Adult.

Grace and Wolfhard play Phoebe and Trevor, the children of Callie (Carrie Coon), who’s uprooted the family and moved them into the Oklahoman farmhouse of her late father. But, soon, these kids start to stumble across a few odd pieces of tech—including the Ecto-1, a pimped-up hearse that rumbles into glorious life. There’s no other way to put it: this one’s for the fans.

The Last Letter From Your Lover (May 8)

The Last Letter from Your Lover sees journalist Ellie (Felicity Jones) stumble across a collection of letters in her newspaper’s archives. It turns out to be the lost correspondence between Jennifer (Shailene Woodley), the wife of an industrialist (Joe Alwyn), and Anthony (Callum Turner), the latter having been sent to profile her husband while the couple enjoys one of their yearly jaunts to the French Riviera. As Ellie finds herself inexplicably drawn to these long-parted lovers, she’s also caught up in an unexpected romance between her and archivist Rory (Nabhaan Rizwan).

Adapted from a bestseller by Jojo Moyes, The Last Letter from Your Lover is for anyone enchanted by images of secret notes, stolen glances, and gorgeous gowns.