By Thomas Mitchell

Top streaming in March (from left): Julia Roberts in Gaslit, Netflix’s The UItimatum: Marry or Move On and Claire Danes in The Essex Serpent.Credit:Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Starz, Adam Rose/Netflix, Apple TV+

Another month, another slew of TV shows to keep you entertained across your platform of choice.

While the options can seem daunting, imagine if someone had waded through all the platforms and come up with a best-of list that covers all the major providers?

A mix of old, new, funny and true; our ‘what to watch’ list for May is guaranteed to offer something for everyone. Let us know what you think in the comments, and don’t forget to tell us what you’re watching.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

Netflix

Clockwise from main: Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Becki Newton in The Lincoln Lawyer, The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On and Rupert Friend and Sienna Miller in The Lincoln Lawyer.Credit:Lara Solanki, Jody Domingue, Netflix

Our top recommendation on Netflix is The Lincoln Lawyer, which releases on May 13.

It’s been more than 10 years since Matthew McConaughey starred as the charming Mick Haller in Brad Furman’s The Lincoln Lawyer. Released in 2011, the film is generally accepted as the start of the ‘reconnaissance’ – the resurrection of McConaughey’s career, which would peak in 2014 with his Oscar-winning performance in Dallas Buyers Club. Sadly, McConaughey doesn’t return for this TV adaptation. Executive produced by David E. Kelley (whose Anatomy of a Scandal is Netflix’s latest hit), The Lincoln Lawyer stars Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as the car-based attorney, as well as Neve Campbell and Australia’s Angus Sampson.

If you’re into high-stakes ultimatums … The Ultimatum: Marry or Move On is unmissable. Hosted by the Lacheys (as in Nick Lachey, of 98 Degrees fame), the show’s format requires couples to split up, strip down to their togs, booze it up in the pool with the others and date around. Expect drama. – Brad Newsome

If you enjoy watching toddlers run errands … The cuteness level is off the scale in Old Enough!, which follows Japanese children – some of them essentially toddlers – on solo errands for their parents. The action begins with little Hiroki (age two years, nine months) setting off on a two-kilometre round trip to a supermarket. Stay tuned to see four-year-old Tata setting out to get a drink for his mother, only to distract himself by trying to catch a dog with a butterfly net. – Brad Newsome

If you want something scandalous … Anatomy of a Scandal is Netflix’s latest must-see series. At the centre of the scandal is James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend), a handsome British MP who went to the right school, the right university and says all the right things. Seemingly untouchable, Whitehouse’s charmed life comes undone when news breaks that he has been having an affair with a researcher on his staff.

Binge

Clockwise from main: Jon Bernthal in We Own This City, Colin Firth and Toni Collette in The Staircase and Rose Leslie in The Time Traveler’s Wife.Credit:HBO/Binge

Our top recommendation on Binge is We Own This City, which gets ★★★★.

Given the number of police shows produced for TV since the invention of the medium, it is surprising there are so few good ones. As a genre, it has delivered more than its fair share of mediocrity. Against that tapestry, We Own This City lands with an ambitious thud. In a way, what sets it apart from the great masters of the genre is the extent of its swing on the ethical axis. Set in the Baltimore Police Department’s Gun Trace Task Force, We Own This City is a deep plunge into policing gone wrong. Sergeant Wayne Jenkins (Jon Bernthal) and his colleagues are the worst of the worst, a bloated mess of ethical lapses and policy breaches. Into that world comes attorney Nicole Steele (Wunmi Mosaku), who is conducting an inquiry into policing. She’s a match to Jenkins’ fuse, and the series promises all sorts of explosions to come. – Michael Idato

If you need your true crime fix … The Staircase is a gripping drama based on a real case. In December 2001, Kathleen Peterson died after falling down a staircase in her North Carolina home. Her husband, Michael, was convicted of his wife’s murder in 2003 but later re-sentenced on appeal to time already served. Watching on the sidelines was director Antonio Campos (The Sinner, The Devil All the Time). His mini-series, which begins on May 5, stars Toni Collette as Kathleen Peterson and Colin Firth as the husband charged with her murder. Read our interview with Toni Collette here.

If you’re desperately missing Kyle, Lisa, Erika, Dorit and Garcella … you’ll be delighted to know that your favourite ladies are back, with The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills returning for a drama-filled season 12 from May 12. Joining the ranks of rich women with plenty of time on their hands is Kathy Hilton, mother to Paris and Nicky.

If you like your romance stories with a sci-fi twist … The Time Traveler’s Wife is based on the 2003 bestselling novel by Audrey Niffenegger. The series, which premieres on May 16, stars Rose Leslie as Claire Abshire and Theo James as Henry DeTamble. Claire and Henry are in a relationship, but there’s a problem: Henry is a time traveller. While Leslie and James may not have the same chemistry as that of Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams in the 2009 film version, this is still worth checking out.

Amazon Prime

Clockwise from main: Claire Foy and Paul Bettany in A Very British Scandal, Sasha Lane and Alison Oliver in Conversations with Friends and Miles Guiterrez-Riley in The Wilds.Credit:Alan Peebles/Amazon/BBC/Sony Pictures Television, Enda Bowe, Kane Skennar/Amazon Studios

Our top recommendation on Amazon Prime is A Very British Scandal which gets ★★★★.

After Claire Foy’s defining performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown (Netflix), it’s hard not to think of this three-part mini-series as The Dirty Crown. Once again, Foy plays a real-life posh period Brit, but it’s a very different one this time. Margaret Whigham, a London-based member of the Scottish gentry, became especially famous in 1963 for the sensational revelations and allegations about her sexual infidelities aired in court during her divorce from her second husband, Ian Campbell, the Duke of Argyll (Paul Bettany). – Brad Newsome

If you loved Normal People … then you’ll be counting down to this mini-series based on an earlier Sally Rooney lit hit. Conversations With Friends is released on May 16 and follows 21-year-old college student Frances (Alison Oliver) as she navigates a series of relationships and confronts her vulnerabilities for the first time.

If you’re a Bosch fan … then you’re in luck; we’re finally getting a spin-off. Titus Welliver returns for Bosch: Legacy as the hard-nosed detective who, in this next stage of his career, finds himself working with one-time enemy Honey Chandler (Mimi Rogers). Available from May 6.

If you loved the first season of The Wilds … then the wait for new episodes ends on May 6. More test subjects arrive on the island in this second season, while the stranded girls discover an identical island, complete with stranded boys, nearby.

Stan*

Clockwise from main: Sean Penn and Julia Roberts in Gaslit, Busy Philipps in Girls5eva and RuPaul.Credit:Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Starz, Stan

Our top recommendation on Stan is Gaslit, which gets ★★★★.

Julia Roberts and Sean Penn’s prosthetic head will hog the headlines, but this new look at the Watergate scandal has plenty of other compelling reasons to tune in. First and foremost is the unusual but highly pertinent focus on Martha Mitchell (Roberts), wife of Richard Nixon’s attorney-general and re-election committee boss, John Mitchell (the completely unrecognisable Penn). There’s Nixon’s rogues’ gallery of political zealots, grifters and dirty tricksters, epitomised by the deranged G. Gordon Liddy (a particularly mesmerising Shea Whigham). And there’s the wild tumult of Washington in 1972 as highlighted in an early scene in which young Nixon lawyer John Dean (Dan Stevens), slightly high on sex and pot, fangs his mustard-coloured Porsche through the city, weaving past a homeless man defecating on the street and a noisy throng of anti-war protesters – all to the raucous new sound of the Stooges. – Brad Newsome

If you haven’t had enough Busy Philipps … the much anticipated second season of musical comedy Girls5Eva returns on May 6. In the new season, Girls5Eva are doing what any self-respecting one-time popular group must: embarking on a comeback tour.

If you’re ready for more RuPaul (and who isn’t?) … season seven of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars sashays its way onto screens on May 20. In this season, previous Drag Race winners will compete for a grand prize of $200,000 and the title of Queen of Queens.

If you’d like to place a bet … Bust Down is a dark but goofy comedy about four black friends who work dead-end jobs in a crummy casino and have to contend with issues of race, class, sexuality and general idiocy. The comedic performances of series creators Sam Jay, Langston Kerman, Jak Knight and Chris Redd are note-perfect and their absurd set-ups allow for a thought-provoking commentary on subjects that other shows wouldn’t touch with a barge pole. – Brad Newsome

Disney+

Temuera Morrison in The Book of Boba Fett and, right, Pamela Adlon in Better Things.Credit:Francois Duhamel / Lucasfilm, Suzanne Tenner/FX

Our top recommendation on Disney+ is Disney Gallery: The Book of Boba Fett, which drops on May the fourth (naturally).

You’ve probably binged the first season of The Book of Boba Fett by now, so it’s the perfect time to find out what goes into making a series about the most famous bounty hunter in a galaxy far, far away. This documentary will explore the behind-the-scenes story of the legendary bounty hunter’s return to Tatooine. It also includes exclusive interviews with the cast and never-before-seen clips.

If you’re not too squeamish … then Something Bit Me! is a fascinating show about individuals who been bitten by different animals in the wild. It sounds like a weird concept, but Something Bit Me! is both educational and terrifying, proving that often the smallest animals can do the most damage.

If you’re a fan of Pamela Adlon … the comedian is at her very best in Better Things, a dramedy in which she plays a working actress and ferociously funny single mother raising three teenage daughters in Los Angeles.

Apple TV+

Clockwise from main: Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston in The Essex Serpent, Now & Then and Niv Sultan in Tehran.Credit:Apple TV+

Our top recommendation on Apple TV+ is The Essex Serpent, which begins on May 13.

A period drama with a mythical twist, The Essex Serpent takes us back to 1893. It’s here we meet London widow Cora Seaborne (Claire Danes) who moves to the picturesque town of Essex after becoming infatuated with rumours of a mythical serpent. After relocating to the village, she crosses paths with Will Ransome (Tom Hiddleston), the local vicar. The pair hit it off, but things quickly turn sour when Cora’s fascination with the serpent becomes all too real, much to the confusion of Will and his parish. Things go from bad to worse when locals start going missing, with Cora public enemy number one.

If you want a thriller that’s caliente and heavy … bilingual thriller Now & Then is raising temperatures in May. Set in Miami, the eight-episode series was shot in Spanish and English and is part coming-of-age story and part crime thriller. Six best friends find their lives changed forever after a weekend escape ends with one of them dead. Fast-forward twenty years and the remaining five are reunited by a threat that puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk. Debuts May 20.

If you loved the first season of Tehran … then get ready for the next instalment on May 6. The espionage thriller ups the star power in season two with Glenn Close joining the cast as Marjan Montazeri, a British woman living in Tehran. Niv Sultan returns as Mossad agent Tamar Rabinyan, along with Shaun Toub and Shervin Alenabi.

Paramount+

Clockwise from main: Viola Davis as Michelle Obama in The First Lady, Ethan Peck as Spock in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds and Michael Dorman in Joe Pickett.Credit:Jackson Lee Davis/Showtime, James Dimmock/Paramount+

Our top recommendation on Paramount+ is The First Lady, which gets ★★★½.

“A woman is like a teabag,” explains Gillian Anderson’s Eleanor Roosevelt. “You’ll never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water.” And if the former first lady of the United States has a look of self-satisfaction as she delivers this pithy maxim, well, she has undoubtedly earned it. Roosevelt, Betty Ford (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Michelle Obama (Viola Davis) were very different women living in very different times, but common threads quickly emerge in this engrossing new series. It seems fitting that Roosevelt is depicted as the grande dame of the three – and that Anderson delivers her lines in measured tones that border on the regal. We first meet her in 1921, playing croquet at her and hubby Franklin’s summer home. Then Franklin (Kiefer Sutherland) is unexpectedly struck by polio at the age of 39 and left paralysed from the waist down. It would be Eleanor that would encourage him to keep pursuing his political ambitions – first to become governor of New York, and then to become president. – Brad Newsome

If you’re a Trekkie … Star Trek: Strange New Worlds beats a path back to the core of the half-century-old franchise. A television series, episodic in nature, set on the iconic starship which started it all, the USS Enterprise, going boldly where no one has gone before to seek out new life forms and visit strange new worlds. If you find the long-form storytelling of the newer Star Trek shows too ponderous, then this is your show; the Star Trek franchise’s The Mandalorian. Begins May 6. – Michael Idato

If you want a brooding drama with a familiar face … Kiwi Michael Dorman delivers another tough, melancholy performance in the unheralded but involving Joe Pickett. Dorman plays a game warden trying to keep himself and his family alive as a murderer stalks the lonely hills of Wyoming. Part of the problem is that Pickett is what Americans call a hard-ass. The old warden would let things slide but Joe doesn’t, which puts him at odds with desperately poor locals who poach wildlife to make ends meet and might just be desperate enough to kill him. – Brad Newsome

ABC iview

Clockwise from main: Sean Keenan and Sophia Forrest in Barons, Debi Marshall and Natalie Bassingthwaighte.Credit:ABC

Our top recommendation on ABC iview is Barons, which gets ★★★.

Like most things counterculture, the surfing lifestyle of the early 1970s, based around the free-spirited adventures of “beach bums” chasing waves, women and pot and sticking it to the man, inevitably intersected with capitalism, and the surfwear industry that grew out of it became a global billion-dollar industry. Barons is a fictionalised beaches-to-boardroom tale of two rival brands begun by two friends, echoing the real-life stories of brands such as Quiksilver and Billabong. Set in the fictional town of Woogonga on the NSW Central Coast, it’s the story of a group of diehard surfers, with two best mates, Snapper (Ben O’Toole) and Trotter (Sean Keenan) at the heart of the action. Snapper has his own small company, Bare Feet, and he and Trotter work together making bespoke wetsuits for surfers. Snapper is content with their laidback business model of selling the suits out of the back of a car – as long as he has enough cash for beer and drugs, and time to surf each day, he’s content to “stay salty” – but Trotter has grander visions. He’s also unimpressed with Snapper’s method of bringing in extra money, smuggling drugs inside surfboards from Indonesia. – Kylie Northover

If you want a hard-hitting docuseries … Walkley-winning crime journalist and author Debi Marshall examines a shocking series of bombings and shootings that rocked the Family Court system during the 1980s in The Family Court Murders. Starts May 10.

If you’re feeling curious … Space 22 is a six-part Australian documentary series that examines the benefits art and creativity can have on mental health. Hosted by former Rogue Traders lead singer Natalie Bassingthwaighte, the series begins May 17 and on includes experiments to test if a simple act of creativity can help heal invisible wounds.

SBS On Demand

Brian Markinson and Jessica Matten in Tribal.Credit:SBS

Our top recommendation on SBS On Demand is Tribal, which gets ★★★★.

This Canadian police procedural puts a fresh spin on the genre by drawing on real stories affecting First Nations people. Set in an unnamed city – but filmed around Calgary and on the Tsuut’ina Nation – it follows police chief Sam Woodburn (Jessica Matten), appointed the tribal force’s interim Chief after her predecessor, Daniel Crowchild (Julian Black Antelope), was suspended amid allegations of corruption. The first season had her partnered with old-school detective Chuck Bukansky (Brian Markinson, Fargo), a Major Crimes Unit veteran who was sexist, racist and decidedly unhappy with the new extension of the force’s powers beyond the reserves. In this second season, as the crimes they investigate escalate, so too does their partnership. Tribal isn’t the most slickly produced series, and is occasionally victim to some leaden dialogue, but its portrayal of Indigenous people is nuanced and the drawn-from-real-life crimes make for compelling – if sobering – viewing. – Kylie Northover

If you like your lawyers Swedish and edgy … then it’s time to check out gripping legal drama Stella Blomkvist, in which Heida Reed plays the titular Stella. Season two picks up two years after the season one finale. Stella is pregnant but finds herself swept up in a conspiracy involving Prime Minister Dagbjört (Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir).

If you’re hanging out for a moody crime drama … Bang is another in a long line of strong Welsh dramas. The bilingual series centres on a small town (don’t they all?), which is upended when the shooting of a local businessman raises questions about a murky family past.

Other free streamers

Clockwise from main: Dating Naked, Judge Judy Sheindlin and Frank Grillo in Kingdom.Credit:AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, Supplied

Our top recommendation is Dating Naked on 9Now, which gets ★★★★.

There are few shows that sum up their entire premise in two words as well as Dating Naked. For the most part, the American reality show is your typical dating program: two strangers meet and see if there might be a connection. The only major difference is … well … that they’re dating naked. While the show likes to justify its gimmick with some misguided belief that ‘by stripping back the layers’ the two people can really get to know each other, the reality is far less noble. We’re all tuning in to see classic dating scenarios happening without clothes: riding horses, eating dinner, going to the beach. It’s not as sexy as you think, but it’s funnier than you could ever imagine.

If you like a bit of swift justice … bingeing a few episodes of Judge Judy should appeal. Judge Judith Sheindlin dishes out justice like she dishes out one-liners: with remarkable ease. 10Play

If you love UFC and hard-hitting family dramas … Kingdom offers the best of both worlds. Frank Grillo stars as Alvey Kulina, the hardened owner of a mixed martial arts gym. Sons Nate (Nick Jonas) and Jay (Jonathan Tucker) are aspiring fighters, but personal demons haunt them in and out of the ring. 7Plus

* Nine is the owner of Stan, 9Now and this masthead.

Find out the next TV, streaming series and movies to add to your must-sees. Get The Watchlist delivered every Thursday.

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