New on streaming, May 2023: Disney+, Netflix, Apple TV+, NOW

Before the releases of Wednesday, Stranger Things 4 and DAHMER, the silly and sexy Bridgerton was right at the top of the Netflix charts. Maybe the new spin-off series Queen Charlotte will achieve something similar, especially given the current obscurity around the release of Bridgerton, season 3.

This prequel focuses on the titular queen as a younger woman (played by India Amarteifio), beginning with her marriage to King George (Corey Mylchreest). In Bridger-verse lore, the royal pairing spread racial diversity across upper-class English society – thus creating the colourblind aristocracy of the Ton. Golda Rosheuvel and Adjoa Andoh return as the older Queen Charlotte and Lady Agatha, with new additions including Michelle Fairley as Princess Augusta and Ruth Gemmell as Lady Violet Ledger Bridgerton.

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Netflix stand-up specials are often mired in controversy: think of Jimmy Carr, Dave Chappelle, and Ricky Gervais. But thankfully, there are some progressive voices on the platform. Hannah Gadsby became a key player in the latter after their sensational and heartbreaking show Nanette, which cascaded comedy barriers around LGBTQI+ rights and sexual assault. Its follow-up, Douglas – designed like an art-history lecture – covered autism and anti-vaxxers (pre-Covid).

Now, Gadsby is embarking on their third show: Something Special. They call it ‘feel good’, which feels almost incongruous with their usual blend of jokes and trauma. They talk about their ADHD, their recent wedding, and a weird encounter with a bunny.

One difficulty with having a disability is the ableist motivation to hide it. It's even harder when you’re one of the biggest screen stars on the planet. Michael J Fox was and is an unforgettable presence in movies and TV, shooting the time-travelling classic Back to the Future and the Emmy-winning sitcom Family Ties at around the same time. At the age of 29, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and went into several years of denial before finally going public in 1998. Since then, he’s started the Michael J Fox Foundation – raising over $1.5 billion for Parkinson’s research.

This new documentary, directed by Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth), looks at Fox’s story: capturing his glorious heyday in the 1980s and leading into the secrecy and gradual acceptance of his disability.

Recognise Wyatt Oleff? He played the ill-fated Stanley Uris in the IT movies and also starred in the underrated teen drama I Am Not Okay With This. Now, he takes a leading role in this new and strange Apple TV+ drama City on Fire, based on the novel by Garth Risk Hallberg.

Moving Hallberg’s premise from the 70s to the early noughties, the series adaptation examines the shooting of NYU student Samantha (Chase Sui Wonders) on 4 July 2003 in Central Park. Her murder connects together seemingly disparate elements, including a recent string of citywide fires, the downtown music scene, and an affluent real-estate family with plenty of secrets to keep. Also stars Jemima Kirke (Conversations with Friends, Sex Education).

Disney+ and the American streamer Hulu clearly have a liking for anything culty. Last year, they delivered the murderous Mormon drama Under the Banner of Heaven with Andrew Garfield and Daisy Edgar-Jones; this year, the platforms travel to Australia for The Clearing starring Guy Pearce (Mare of Easttown), Miranda Otto (The Lord of the Rings) and Teresa Palmer (A Discovery of Witches).

Inspired by The Family and its leader Anne Hamilton-Byrne – operating in Victoria from the 1960s to the late 80s – this psychological thriller follows a secret cult that kidnaps children in order to facilitate its master plan. Palmer plays a woman confronting her past to stop the apocalyptic round-up.

Watching the representations of Watergate on screen delivers a detailed history of the scandal. Cinematically and chronologically, you’d start with Steven Spielberg’s The Post – about the Pentagon Papers – and then watch the Alan J Pakula classic All the President’s Men. The HBO satire White House Plumbers serves as a great in-between, following the men responsible for perpetrating the infamous, presidential burglary.

Woody Harrelson and Justin Theroux star as E Howard Hunt and G Gordon Liddy, the former CIA and FBI agents assigned to Richard Nixon’s Committee for the Re-Election of the President in 1971. Following bizarre attempts at covert espionage, the next move is to break into the Democratic National Committee HQ… with historic consequences. Also stars Lena Headey (Game of Thrones).

Tuesday 2 May
A Small Light (Disney+)
Love Village (Netflix)
The Tailor (Netflix)

Wednesday 3 May
Ed Sheeran: The Sum of It All (Disney+)
Jewish Matchmaking (Netflix)
One True Loves (Prime Video)

Thursday 4 May
Tom Jones (ITVX)
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (Netflix)
Sanctuary (Netflix)

Friday 5 May
Harriet the Spy (Apple TV+)
Silo (Apple TV+)
Beautiful Disaster (Prime Video)

Sunday 7 May
Fever Pitch: The Battle for the Premier League (Paramount+)

Tuesday 9 May
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special (Netflix)
Ex on the Beach UK: The One That Got Away (Paramount+)

Wednesday 10 May
The Muppets Mayhem (Disney+)
Not Dead Yet (Disney+)
Dance Brothers (Netflix)
Missing: Dead or Alive (Netflix)
Queen Cleopatra (Netflix)

Thursday 11 May
Crime (ITVX)
Royalteen: Princess Margrethe (Netflix)
Ultraman, season 3 (Netflix)

Friday 12 May
City on Fire (Apple TV+)
STILL: A Michael J. Fox Documentary (Apple TV+)
Black Knight (Netflix)
The Mother (Netflix)
Queer Eye, season 7 (Netflix)
Wire Room (Paramount+)

Sunday 14 May
Ten Pound Poms (BBC iPlayer)

Tuesday 16 May
Anna Nicole Smith: You Don’t Know Me (Netflix)

Wednesday 17 May
Abbot Elementary, season 2, part 2 (Disney+)
Rhythm + Flow France, season 2 (Netflix)
Working: What We Do All Day (Netflix)
The Never-Ending Murder (Prime Video)

Thursday 18 May
Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight (ITVX)
XO, Kitty (Netflix)
Yakitori: Soldiers of Misfortune (Netflix)
Last King of the Cross (NOW)
The Family Stallone (Paramount+)
No Escape (Paramount+)

Friday 19 May
Stillwater, season 3 (Apple TV+)
White Men Can’t Jump (Disney+)
Selling Sunset, season 6 (Netflix)

Monday 22 May
Prehistoric Planet, season 2 (Apple TV+)

Tuesday 23 May
MerPeople (Netflix)
Victim/Suspect (Netflix)
Wanda Sykes: I'm An Entertainer (Netflix)

Wednesday 24 May
Platonic (Apple TV+)
American Born Chinese (Disney+)
The Clearing (Disney+)
The Ultimatum: Queer Love (Netflix)
James May: Oh Cook!, season 2 (Prime Video)

Thursday 25 May
FUBAR (Netflix)

Friday 26 May
Blood and Gold (Netflix)
The Gymnasts (Paramount+)
Elvis’ Women (Prime Video)

Tuesday 30 May
Son of a Critch (Paramount+)
Agency (Netflix)
White House Plumbers (NOW)