Not sure what you need to watch in May? There are several shows returning with new seasons, along with a handful of new shows that you might want to add to your watch list. Bridgerton fans will be delighted to know that the record-breaking series is returning with the first part of its third season, while sci-fi fans will be intrigued with the premise of the Apple TV+ show Dark Matter, especially if you’ve read the book on which it’s based.
The five TV shows you need to watch in May are available on top streaming services, like Max, Disney+, Netflix, and Amazon Prime Video. Keep track of the premiere dates and plot them on your calendar so you don’t miss out, or wait until the end of the month to binge as many episodes as you can, since many of these shows’ episodes are released on a weekly basis.
The Emmy-winning comedy-drama Hacks returns for its third season this month. Jean Smart stars as fictional legendary stand-up comedian Deborah Vance and Hannah Einbinder as Ava Daniels, a young comedy writer who has been “canceled” by the industry because of a questionable social post and a bad reputation. The two are in their own ruts, and when Ava is tasked with working as Deborah’s new head writer, the pair initially clash. But together, they begin to help one another through both their personal and professional lives.
With the third season featuring a time jump, fans can expect a refreshed story as the pair continue working through their respective challenges. The show has earned the rare achievement of maintaining a 100% critic score on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes for its first two seasons. The Guardian’s Rebecca Nicholson praises the show’s “emotional heft” combined with the ability to be “vicious at the same time.” With sharp writing and jokes that hit, Vance is one of Smart’s best roles yet, while Einbinder has proven to be a rising star.
As the latest in this animated anthology series, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire follows Tales of the Jedi, which was released in late 2022 and centered around Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein) and Count Dooku (Corey Burton). Star Wars: Tales of the Empire shifts focus to Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and Jedi Barriss Offee (Meredith Salenger), with the episodes separated into different arcs for each character. The new stories follow the two warriors on different paths. Elsbeth is the Imperial Magistrate of Calodan on the planet Corvus who helped build the Imperial Fleet (and who contracted The Mandalorian to find Ahsoka). Offee, meanwhile, is the Jedi apprentice and close friend of Ahsoka who later betrays her.
Each prequel-era episode is short at just 13 to 17 minutes long, but for fans of the franchise, Star Wars: Tales of the Empire will be a quick and satisfying binge. The first season received widespread praise for its animation, writing, and musical score, and this one is set to be just as gripping and exciting for Star Wars fans.
Stream Star Wars: Tales of the Empire on Disney+.
Based on the Blake Crouch novel of the same name, with Crouch himself serving as the series creator, Dark Matter is a chilling sci-fi tale about a physicist who is kidnapped and sent to an alternate version of his life. His trajectory is very different in this parallel world, all because of a single decision he made 15 years prior. Getting back home to his real life is crucial because his alternate version threatens to harm his family.
Starring Australian actor Joel Edgerton (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Jennifer Connelly (Snowpiercer), Alice Braga (Queen of the South), and Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Pachinko), the packed cast of Dark Matter alone sparks intrigue about this nine-episode series.
Stream Dark Matter on Apple TV+.
Husbands, boyfriends, and fathers, prepare for the TV to be occupied for the next little while as the ladies (as well as many men) immerse themselves in the first part of the third season of this widely popular historical romance series. Delivered by Shonda Rhimes as her first scripted show for Netflix, Bridgerton is set in the Regency era during the social season of the early 1800s. Young nobility and gentry are introduced into society, ready to make their debuts and prepare for marriage.
The record-setting show has already been renewed for a fourth season ahead of the third season premiere. It also spawned a spinoff called Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story. Season 3 is likely to continue the momentum and bring in massive viewership numbers for Netflix once again. The first four episodes will be released in May, followed by four more in June.
Stream Bridgerton on Netflix.
Josh Brolin returns as Royal Abbott in this sci-fi neo-Western series. The Dune: Part Two actor stars as a rancher desperate to save his land and his family. The situation takes a supernatural turn when he discovers a black void that appears just as a mysterious drifter named Autumn (Imogen Poots) begins to camp out on his land. When the family’s daughter-in-law Rebecca (Kristen Connolly) goes missing and a rival family tries to make their play for the land, Abbott is tested to his limits.
Like Yellowstone with a sci-fi twist, Outer Range features interwoven subplots to keep you interested the entire way through. New York Post’s Michael Starr points to the sci-fi twist, in particular, as being the angle that makes this show watchable, along with the consistent desire to find out how it all ends.
Stream Outer Range on Amazon Prime Video.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.