What to watch on streaming in May 2023 in Australia: Coming to Netflix, Disney+, Amazon, Binge, Stan
It’s a bevy of streaming goodies this month. Might as well make the most of your many subscriptions while you can still afford them.
There are loads of impressive new Australian shows this month as well as a raft of goodies with your favourite international stars. Get busy watching!
Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story (May 4, Netflix): Bridgerton fans can return to the wisteria-covered opulence of the Regency era in this prequel spin-off. In the main series, we heard all about how the love story of Queen Charlotte and King George led to the show’s post-racial world, but it wasn’t always that way. This is the story of how it came to be – and with gowns, romance, sex and modern music remixed with an orchestra.
White House Plumbers (May 2, Binge and Foxtel*): The Watergate scandal will never get old, so maybe we can forgive the satirical and absurdist White House Plumbers for being the second show in as many years that looks at how bumbling operatives ended up derailing a presidency – of course, that wasn’t the goal. It stars Woody Harrelson, Justin Theroux, Lena Headey and Domhnall Gleeson.
The Clearing (May 24, Disney+): The star-studded Australian thriller was inspired by real-life cults with a story about a woman who’s forced to confront the traumas of her past to stop series of kidnappings involving children. The series stars Teresa Palmer, Miranda Otto, Guy Pearce and Mark Coles-Smith and was filmed in Victoria.
Platonic (May 24, Apple TV+): Directed by Forgetting Sarah Marshall’s Nicholas Stoller, the comedy series stars Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as two former besties who reconnect just as they’re both approaching midlife. Their renewed friendship proves to have a destabilising – and hilarious – effect.
Slip (May 4, Binge and Foxtel): Zoe Lister-Jones created and stars in this dramedy about a woman who feels stuck in the banal cycle of her life – she calls it “an assembly of gestures that feel vaguely familiar”. Then an odd thing – a very, very odd thing – happens and finds herself “slipping” into parallel universes of her life every time she climaxes.
The Great S3 (May 13, Stan): Huzzah! The Great is back for its third season and set in a Russia that predates Vladimir Putin by centuries – so it’s not at all awkward to hail the greatness of Russia. Seriously though, this very sharp, very funny and often very absurd show stars Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult as Catherine the Great and Emperor Peter III, whose love-hate marriage makes for much merry.
American Born Chinese (May 24, Disney+): Reuniting the Everything Everywhere All At Once gang of Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan and Stephanie Hsu, the action-comedy series is about an Asian-American high school kid who is dragooned into an epic battle between mythological Chinese gods when he befriends an exchange student with a secret.
Fatal Attraction (May 1, Paramount+): Michael Douglas and Glenn Close’s 1987 sexual thriller is getting a modern update with Joshua Jackson and Lizzy Caplan. Over eight episodes, the series will dive deeper into the gender dynamics of Dan and Alex’s illicit and dangerous affair, and challenges the “bunny boiler” trope. Also, it’s hot.
Bupkis (May 4, Binge and Foxtel): Former Saturday Night Live and lothario to women more famous than him, Pete Davidson, is the brainchild of this show described as being about a fictionalised version of Pete Davidson. Apparently, the vibe they were going for is “Curb Your Enthusiasm but with Pete Davidson”. Your mileage is really going to depend on how much you’re into Pete Davidson. Yeah, we’ve said Pete Davidson a lot, because Pete Davidson is a lot.
Hannah Gadsby: Something Special (May 9, Netflix): Hannah Gadsby has always been honest about their life, the good and the bad, and this time, they’re going to share stories from their nuptials. It’s a feel-good tale but that doesn’t mean there weren’t some homophobic bakers or some wedding politics.
Ten Pound Poms (May 15, Stan): Set in the 1950s, the drama charts the journey of the Roberts family, arriving in Australia for a new life as “ten-pound poms”. It’s not quite the suburban idyll they were promised, and a new world brings both promise and risks. It stars Warren Brown, Faye Marsay and Michelle Keegan.
In Limbo (May 24, ABC iview): Starring Ryan Corr and Bob Morley, this six-part buddy comedy is about Charlie and Nate, two best friends who find their relationship somewhat changed when Nate dies. But that doesn’t mean it’s the end, when the grieving Charlie is shocked to discover Nate returning as a ghost.
Same Home (May 11, SBS On Demand): Aisha Dee and Mabel Li headline this searing Melbourne-set drama about a young woman who starts work at a legal centre for family violence victims. She’s a newcomer to the world but her exposure to the patterns and stories of abuse triggers questions in her own life.
XO, Kitty (May 18, Netflix): From writer Jenny Han, XO, Kitty is a spin-off from the popular To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy of films and refocuses the story on Lara Jean’s younger sister. The precocious Kitty moves halfway around the world to reconnect with a long-distance boyfriend, but finds navigating her own relationship is much more complex than advising others.
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (May 12, Apple TV+): From his superstardom in the 1980s to his present-day advocacy for Parkinson’s disease research, Michael J. Fox has had an extraordinary life, played out in public. This documentary had unprecedented access to Fox and his world, and promises to be an unflinching portrait of a fascinating icon.
The Messenger (May 14, ABC iview): A series adaptation of The Book Thief author Markus Zusak’s novel, the story is that of Ed, a young driver who is sent on a set of unusual challenges by a mysterious figure who directs him through playing cards, unwittingly becoming a hero in the community.
Fubar (May 25, Netflix): In case you haven’t had enough of action-spy-adventure titles (but you have, right, because surely we’ve had enough), this one stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Top Gun: Maverick’s Monica Barbaro as a father and daughter who find out they both secretly work for the CIA, which makes working undercover on a perilous mission much more complicated.
A Small Light (May 2, Disney+): Starring Bel Powley, A Small Light is a dramatisation of the story of Miep Gies, the person who hid Anne Frank and her family in her house, as well as aiding others around Amsterdam. Plus she was the one who found the diary, forever preserving Anne’s story. The series also stars Liev Schreiber and Noah Taylor.
A Town Called Malice (May 3, Binge and Foxtel): Starring Martha Plimpton, Jack Rowan and Dougray Scott, the series is centred on the Lord family, a brood of gangsters whose best days are behind them. So, when they have to flee to Spain, they see it as an opportunity to take over the local scene and restore themselves to the top of the pyramid.
The Night Logan Woke Up (May 25, SBS On Demand): The one-time enfant terrible of the Canadian film world, Xavier Dolan (although he bristles at the classification) has turned his eye to a thriller TV series. The story is about a family in Quebec who was the centre of an unspeakable event 30 years earlier, the effects of which still haunt them now.
City On Fire (May 12, Apple TV+): TV writers Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage have proven a winning combination, penning the likes of The O.C., Gossip Girl and Dynasty. They have a particular penchant for YA titles and their newest series, City On Fire, is in the same realm. The story kicks off when a university student is shot in Central Park, leading to a complex mystery involving fire, money and lots of secrets.
Confess, Fletch (May 2, Paramount+): Jon Hamm takes over the as the journalist-turned-investigator character Chevy Chase made famous on screen. In the movie, when Fletch is asked to recover a multimillion-dollar art collection, he’s framed for murder. Oops.
High Desert (May 17, Apple TV+): You know who doesn’t make the most obvious private investigators? A middle-aged woman with an on-again-off-again addiction and grieving the recent death of her mother. And yet it all kind of makes sense. The comedy series stars Patricia Arquette, Matt Dillon and Christine Taylor.
White Men Can’t Jump (May 19, Disney+): A remake of the 1992 Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes movie, the new version stars Sinqua Walls and Jack Harlow as two basketball players who are both not where they’re meant to be. They might be opposites, but on the court, more unites them than divides them.
The Other Wife (May 15, Acorn TV and AMC+): A woman who seemingly has it all – the house, the kids, the doting husband – is rocked to the core when her husband dies and is revealed to have had another family on a different continent. The two-part miniseries stars Rupert Everett and John Hannah.
Silo (May 5, Apple TV+): If your appetite for dystopian dramas is endless, then Silo is your next feed. Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Tim Robbins and Rashida Jones, the thriller is set in a mysterious silo housing the last 10,000 people on Earth. It’s storeys deep and its origins are unknown – and anyone who tries to discover its past faces fatal consequences.
*Binge and Foxtel are majority-owned by News Corp, publisher of this website
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