Every month, streaming services add movies and TV shows to their libraries. Here are our picks for some of May’s most promising new titles. (Note: Streaming services occasionally change schedules without giving notice. For more recommendations on what to stream, sign up for our Watching newsletter here.)
New to Amazon Prime Video
‘Overcompensating’ Season 1
Starts streaming: May 15
The comedian and social media content creator Benito Skinner both created and stars in this raunchy campus comedy, about freshmen trying desperately to fit in with their peers — while hiding their actual personalities and desires. Skinner plays Benny, a former high school athlete who does not want his family or his classmates (or maybe even himself) to realize he’s gay. On the first day of college, Benny meets Carmen (Wally Baram), who is recovering — poorly — from a bad breakup. The two bond immediately, but while Carmen thinks she just met her next boyfriend, Benny thinks he has found someone who can pretend to be his girlfriend. “Overcompensating” is set in a broadly comic version of university life, where everyone is sex- and status-obsessed. But Skinner also sincerely explores what it’s like for young people to use a new environment to reinvent themselves.
‘The Better Sister’
Starts streaming: May 29
This twisty mini-series stars Jessica Biel as Chloe, a rich and successful New York City media mogul who calls the cops from her family’s summer house after her husband, Adam (Corey Stoll), is found murdered. While the homicide detectives Nancy (Kim Dickens) and Matt (Bobby Naderi) investigate the crime, Chloe seems unusually interested in keeping them from learning about certain aspects of her life — like her strained relationship with her sister Nicky (Elizabeth Banks). Nicky, a reckless free spirit, is also Adam’s ex and the biological mother of Adam and Chloe’s teenage son, Ethan (Maxwell Acee Donovan). Cocreated by Olivia Milch and Regina Corrado, “The Better Sister” (based on an Alafair Burke novel) is both a mystery with lots of red herrings and the study of a sad sibling rivalry.
Also arriving:
May 1
“Another Simple Favor”
May 6
“David Spade: Dandelion”
May 8
“Octopus!”
May 20
“Motorheads” Season 1
May 22
“Earnhardt”
May 27
“The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy” Season 2
New to Apple TV+
‘Deaf President Now!’
Starts streaming: May 16
Back in 1988, Gallaudet University’s students drew international headlines when they shut the college down for a week, angrily rejecting the appointment of yet another hearing president — at a time when the institution had never had a deaf one. For the documentary “Deaf President Now!,” the Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”) and co-director Nyle DiMarco (a Gallaudet alum) have collected rarely seen student-shot footage of those protests, and combined them with news clips, re-creations and fiery new interviews with the campus leaders. The film delivers a fascinating look back at a pivotal moment in civil rights history that doubles as a gripping political thriller, piecing together the details of the demonstration and how, day by day, these courageous young adults turned the tide of public opinion.
‘Murderbot’ Season 1
Starts streaming: May 16
Based on Martha Wells’s “The Murderbot Diaries” series, this science-fiction comedy stars Alexander Skarsgard as a cyborg who figures out a way to override its programming. This unit — which secretly names itself Murderbot — initially plans to kill all humans in the vicinity and flee to freedom. But when it’s assigned to work security for a hippie-dippy scientific commune, the new bosses seem so helpless and harmless that Murderbot figures it’s easier just to do the job and use the copious downtime to indulge in its favorite pastime: binge-watching television. The TV series’ creators, the brothers Chris and Paul Weitz, retain the surprise-filled plotting and futuristic action that have made Wells’s books such a favorite of genre fans. They have also retained the unique personality of the hero, who finds human emotions confusing.
Also arriving:
May 23
“Fountain of Youth”
May 30
“Bono: Stories of Surrender”
“Lulu Is a Rhinoceros”
New to Disney+
‘Tucci in Italy’
Starts streaming: May 19
The actor Stanley Tucci added “popular travel show host” to his résumé in 2021, when CNN debuted “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.” After two seasons of that show, Tucci has now taken his act to National Geographic for the similar “Tucci in Italy” (which is also available on Disney+ and Hulu). Like its predecessor, the new series finds Tucci eating his way across the country, spending time not just in restaurants but on farms, ranches, dairies and fisheries, speaking to the people carrying on centuries-old culinary traditions. The host helps put all these stunning images of pasta dishes and lush landscapes into context, explaining the history behind the food.
Also arriving:
May 1
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse”
May 2
“Genghis Khan: The Secret History of the Mongols”
May 4
“Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge”
“Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance”
“Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld”
May 11
“Secrets of the Zoo: Down Under” Season 5
May 20
“Minnie’s Bow-Toons: Pet Hotel” Season 1
May 23
“Missing Presumed Dead”
New to Hulu
‘Summer of 69’
Starts streaming: May 9
In this sweet, sexually frank high school comedy, Abby Flores plays a socially awkward senior determined to hook up with her longtime crush, Max (Matt Cornett), before graduation. Completely inexperienced in the art of love, she hires a savvy stripper named Santa Monica (Chloe Fineman) to teach her how to become more confident. Before long, the two become friends, moving beyond the silly superficialities of their business deal and helping each other realize some deeper truths. The “Summer of 69” director Jillian Bell steers a cast of skilled comedians (including Paula Pell, Nicole Byer, Natalie Morales and Charlie Day) through a heartfelt and funny homage to sexy ’80s movies.
‘Adults’ Season 1
Starts streaming: May 29
This sitcom follows the well-trod path of shows like “Friends” and “Girls,” following a group of young people living and working in New York, and — in many ways — struggling to grow up. The core cast (Malik Elassal, Lucy Freyer, Jack Innanen, Amita Rao and Owen Thiele) is made up of relative unknowns, which is not unusual for this kind of project, where part of the point is to introduce a new generation of future stars. The “Adults” co-creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw — writing partners who have worked on “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” — offer lightly absurdists riffs on common 20-something problems like getting ahead at the office, becoming popular on social media and navigating everyday adult responsibilities.
Also arriving:
May 2
“Pita Hall”
May 7
“Kun by Agüero”
May 15
“The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” Season 2
May 16
“Matteo Lane: The Al Dente Special”
“Welcome to Wrexham” Season 4
May 21
“Nine Perfect Strangers” Season 2
“Nine Puzzles”
May 23
“The Last Showgirl”
May 27
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”
New to Max
‘Duster’ Season 1
Starts streaming: May 15
Set mostly in Arizona in 1972, this high-energy crime drama stars Josh Holloway as Jim Ellis, a skilled driver who runs errands for one of the most powerful criminal organizations in the American southwest. Rachel Hilson plays Nina Hayes, a rookie F.B.I. agent and the first Black woman in the bureau, who has a personal grudge against the mob’s boss, Ezra Saxton (Keith David). When Nina gets some leverage over Jim, she pressures him into becoming an informant. Soon they are both in danger — not just from gangsters, but from the bigoted boy’s club that is the F.B.I. Cocreated by LaToya Morgan and J. J. Abrams, “Duster” (named for Jim’s cherry red muscle car) has the retro feel of a ’70s detective show, but with an HBO level of adult content.
‘Pee-wee as Himself’
Starts streaming: May 23
Before Paul Reubens died in 2023, the performance artist and comedian, best-known to the world as the antic children’s show host “Pee-wee Herman” sat for over 40 hours of interviews with the documentary filmmaker Matt Wolf. Always a private person, Reubens spoke at length for the first time about his childhood, his early years in show business, his reaction to becoming an internationally known star, and the scandal that derailed his career. Throughout the two-part, nearly four-hour “Pee-wee as Himself,” Reubens often rebels against the whole idea of revealing himself so openly in a documentary — but always with a puckish smile, never making it clear whether he is truly upset or just playacting at being difficult. The result is a riveting celebrity profile, where the subject’s competing agendas — to control what people know about him and to be completely honest — produce an entertaining tension.
Also arriving:
May 1
“100 Foot Wave” Season 3
May 2
“Adult Best Friends”
May 8
“Conan O’Brien Must Go” Season 2
May 16
“The Brutalist”
May 24
“Jerrod Carmichael: Don’t Be Gay”
May 29
“And Just Like That …” Season 3
May 31
“Mountainhead”
New to Peacock
‘Poker Face’ Season 2
Starts streaming: May 8
Season 1 of this clever comic mystery series was an overt throwback to classic ’60s and ’70s TV shows like “The Fugitive” and “Columbo,” with Natasha Lyonne playing Charlie Cale, a scruffy, good-hearted human lie detector who drifts from town to town, doing odd jobs and solving crimes. Not much changes in Season 2, which continues with the “case of the week” format, peppered with high-profile guest stars. (Episodes this season feature Cynthia Erivo, John Cho, Alia Shawkat, Giancarlo Esposito, David Alan Grier, John Mulaney, Awkwafina and many more.) But because Season 1 ended with Charlie angering a powerful mob boss, her vagabond ways this season have a bit more urgency, as she tries harder than ever to stay completely off the grid.
Also arriving:
May 2
“Black Bag”
May 9
“Love Hurts”
May 14
“Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute – Extended & Uncensored”
#Movies #Shows #Streaming #Poker #Face #Murderbot
