Nine of the best TV shows to watch this May (2024)

(Credit: Disney+)

1. Shardlake

The best new television detective lives in the 16th Century and grapples with the life-threatening politics of the court of Henry VIII. And the show arrives just days after the death of CJ Sansom, whose popular series of Shardlake novels inspired it. Arthur Hughes stars as Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer working for the King's right-hand man, Thomas Cromwell (Sean Bean), the historical figure now famous from Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall. Cromwell dispatches Shardlake to find who murdered the emissary he sent to shut down a monastery, in a drama full of period atmosphere. Shardlake is the smartest guy in the court, but is taunted by his enemies as "crookback" because he has scoliosis. Hughes (who has a different disability, radial dysplasia) won praise in 2022 as that other so-called crookback, Richard III, being the first actor with a disability to play the part for the UK's Royal Shakespeare Company. Anthony Boyle (Masters of the Air) plays Jack Barak, sent by Cromwell to keep an eye on Shardlake. Sansom wrote seven novels about the Tudor-era detective, which promises a potentially long run.

Shardlake premieres 1 May on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK

(Credit: Peaco*ck/Sky)

2. The Tattooist of Auschwitz

This series got a boost recently when it was announced that Barbra Streisand had recorded an appropriately named new song, Love Will Survive, to play over the end titles. Based on Heather Morris' novel of the same name, the drama tells the real-life story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who met in 1942 when both were sent to Auschwitz, where Lali was forced to tattoo identification numbers on the arms of other Jews in the camp. Jonah Hauer-King (Prince Eric in the live-action Little Mermaid) plays Lali as a young man, and Anna Prochniak (Baptiste) plays Gita. Harvey Keitel plays the widowed Lali decades later, when we see him tell his story to Morris (Melanie Lynskey). Streisand posted on social media that she recorded the song in memory of the six million Jews killed during the Holocaust, "and also to say that even in the darkest times, the power of love can triumph and endure".

The Tattooist of Auschwitz premieres 2 May on Peaco*ck in the US and Sky Atlantic in the UK

(Credit: Netflix)

3. A Man in Full

Tom Wolfe specialised in dissecting how money and ego function in society, themes that flow through this series based on his 1998 novel. Jeff Daniels, with a full-blown Southern accent, plays Charlie Croker, a real estate baron in Atlanta, Georgia, a powerful bullying type who has felt invincible but is now facing bankruptcy. His rivals are ready to pounce. Diane Lane plays his ex-wife, Lucy Liu is a business associate and William Jackson Harper the mayor of Atlanta, running for re-election in a racially tense atmosphere. The series was written by David E Kelley (Big Little Lies) who has a knack for just this kind of soapy, sprawling, well-cast show. The actress and director Regina King (One Night in Miami) stays behind the camera, directing three episodes, and Thomas Schlamme (The West Wing) handles the other three. If the trailer's scene of Daniels threatening a live snake with his clenched fist is any indication, the show has kept at least some of Wolfe's satirical edge.

A Man in Full premieres 2 May on Netflix internationally

(Credit: Apple TV+)

4. Dark Matter

Joel Edgerton outsmarts himself in this sci-fi suspense series as Jason Dessen, a Chicago physics professor who brilliantly invents a box that allows him to enter parallel worlds where there are alternate versions of him. When he is kidnapped into a strange other world and wants to come home to his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son, his parallel self is determined to stop him. Blake Crouch, who created the show based on his 2016 novel, told Vanity Fair, "There are real, concrete, scientific concepts being presented, and I always wanted those to feel true". Fortunately, he has Edgerton to ground the mind-bending story about an ordinary man second-guessing his life choices. "We'll throw a bit of word soup at you of science," Edgerton said, then it's up to the audience to "agree to agree to it" as a drama about paths not taken. Of course, most of us have never been forcibly taken to a parallel world and wondered, as Jason does, "What if the person who abducted me is me?"

Dark Matter premieres 8 May on Apple TV+ internationally

(Credit: Netflix)

5. Bodkin

The first fictional series from Barack and Michelle Obama's production company, Higher Ground, is a send-up of true-crime podcasts. Netflix describes it as a "darkly comedic thriller" but from the trailer it also seems goofy-funny, with Will Forte as Gilbert, a podcaster from the US who travels to Ireland to explore the disappearance of three men more than two decades before. Along with a tough-minded investigative journalist named Dove (Siobhan Cullen), who is consulting on the podcast, and his researcher, Emmy (Robyn Carr), he travels to the picturesque coastal town of Bodkin, where the locals want them to mind their own business. Forte, who played plenty of wide-eyed, hapless characters during his time on Saturday Night Live, gives Gilbert endless enthusiasm. He arrives in Bodkin eager to trace his Irish roots and ready to be enraptured by the least little thing. "There's an island of nuns teaching yoga!" he cries. "It just keeps getting better!" The poor innocent has apparently never seen one of Martin McDonagh's acerbic portrayals of Ireland, but Gilbert has his own winning charm.

Bodkin premieres 9 May on Netflix internationally

(Credit: BBC)

6. Doctor Who

After a brief appearance on a 60th Anniversary episode with David Tennant's Doctor, his own Christmas special, and a galaxy worth of publicity, Ncuti Gatwa's 15th Doctor is here for real, along with his sidekick, Ruby Sunday (Millie Gibson). Returning showrunner Russell T Davies, who first rebooted the BBC sci-fi show in 2005, promises the new series will take advantage of a bigger budget – the result of it now being a co-production with Disney – as the Doctor and Ruby zip around time, from Regency England into the future. "Finally we can afford for different members of an alien race to have different faces," he told EW, also hinting at a bond between the two main characters without revealing too much. Both the Doctor and Ruby were foundlings as infants – he turned up from another universe and she was left on a church doorstep – and now they are curious about their origins. "That story is going to be the spine of the whole show," Davies has said.

Doctor Who premieres 10 May on Disney+ in the US and 11 May on BBC1 and BBC iPlayer in the UK

(Credit: Netflix)

7. Bridgerton

Bridgerton fans have known for some time that Lady Whistledown, author of the tell-all scandal sheet revealing the secrets and lies of Regency high society, is Penelope Featherington (Nicola Coughlan, also known for Derry Girls). Season 3 focuses on the gossip-monger herself and her slow-burning romance with her good friend Colin Bridgerton (Luke Newton), whom she overheard at the end of season 2 saying he would never consider her as a wife. But as the love affair of Anthony Bridgerton (Jonathan Bailey) and Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley) demonstrated last season, such declarations mean nothing in Bridgerton world. Bailey and Ashley return for this series as the newly married Viscount and Viscountess, along with Julie Andrews as the voice of Lady Whistledown and much of the original cast. The season will be divided in two, with four episodes coming in May and four more in June, with a fourth season in the works and plenty of other Bridgertons to marry off.

Bridgerton premieres 16 May on Netflix internationally

(Credit: Apple TV+)

8.The Big Cigar

Andre Holland stars as Huey P Newton in an outlandish story based on one of the lesser-known, least probable episodes in the life of the Black Panther Party's founder. Sought by the FBI in 1974, Newton fled the US with the help of Bert Schneider (Alessandro Nivola), the politically active Hollywood producer of films including Easy Rider and the anti-war documentary Hearts and Minds. Schneider's scheme, according to the series: smuggle Newton to Cuba in the guise of working on a movie, totally fake, called The Cigar. The show is based on a magazine article by Joshuah Bearman, whose other article about a bogus movie became the 2012 Oscar-winning film Argo. The large cast includes Tiffany Boone as Newton's girlfriend and Glynn Turman as his father. The first two episodes of six were directed by Don Cheadle, in a brash, kinetic style that captures the period.

The Big Cigar premieres 17 May on Apple TV+

(Credit: Netflix)

9. Eric

For a series with a high-profile star, Benedict Cumberbatch, and creator, Abi Morgan, Eric is oddly under the radar. Cumberbatch stars as Vincent, a puppeteer on a television show called Good Day Sunshine, whose young son disappears, leaving behind a drawing of a monstrous blue creature. As Vincent begins to unravel, he creates a puppet called Eric and believes that if he gets Eric on television his son will return. Morgan (whose engaging series include The Hour and The Split) set this idiosyncratic emotional thriller in the gritty New York of the 1980's. "Eric is a dark and crazy journey into the heart of 1980s New York – and the good, bad and ugly world of Vincent," she has said. Cumberbatch has taken a broader view, saying of the show, “It is rooted in a lot of real-world issues, looking at parenthood, looking at marriage, looking at mental health, looking at the Aids pandemic, but also the ongoing crises of hom*ophobia, of racism in institutions.”

Eric premieres 30 May on Netflix internationally

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