What to watch in May: The Staircase, Hacks, The Essex Serpent, Pistol and Conversations With Friends
May promises to be a blockbuster month of television, with several series dropping on to streaming just in time to qualify for the Emmys.
In the middle of the May doldrums last year, a little show premiered on streaming in the US that would go on to dominate the television conversation for the rest of the year. We’re talking about Hacks, the comedy starring Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder that dropped on to HBO Max last May, just in time for Emmys qualification (rules stipulate that in order to be eligible for that year’s Emmys, a series must premiere before May 31) and promptly went on to win many, many awards.
At the 2021 Emmys, Hacks was awarded Best Actress for Smart and Best Directing, an upset over Ted Lasso, which had been nominated in the category three times. Never let it be said a last-minute, late-in-the-day premiere sneaking in to qualify as the eligibility window closes isn’t an effective strategy when it comes to awards glory. For the cast and crew of Hacks, it dropped just at the right time.
Australian audiences had to wait several months until Hacks streamed down under on Stan, but not this year; the second season will launch on May 13, fast-tracked from the US. Let’s see if a last-minute streaming release will prove as fruitful for the series come Emmy nominations in July.
The second season of Hacks isn’t the only blockbuster show attempting a late Emmys pass. This month will see the release of the epic literary adaptation The Essex Serpent, starring Claire Danes and Tom Hiddleston, on AppleTV+; Conversations With Friends exclusively on Prime Video with a cast including Joe Alwyn, Jemima Kirke, Sasha Lane and newcomer Alison Oliver, looking to recreate some of that Normal People television magic; and The Staircase, led by Colin Firth and Toni Collette, on Binge. And then on May 27, barely a week before Emmys eligibility closes, Ewan McGregor will be back in his Jedi robes in the long-awaited Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries on Disney+. This is what we’ll be watching this month.
-
The Staircase
You watched the original true crime miniseries of the same name on Netflix in 2018. Now watch the fictionalised version, starring Firth as Michael Peterson and Toni Collette as his wife, Kathleen, who dies in suspicious circumstances in their home one night in December 2001. The cast for this series is incredible, which will no doubt make for a watchable show – even if you know the outcome already, as many who binged the original documentary will. We’re talking Sophie Turner, Michael Stuhlbarg, Juliette Binoche, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Australian rising stars Odessa Young and Olivia DeJonge. On Binge from May 5
-
The Essex Serpent
Remember how hard everyone fell for Andrew Scott’s hot priest in Fleabag? Well, prepare yourselves for Tom Hiddleston’s hot vicar in The Essex Serpent. Hiddleston is making a return to television, after the success of last year’s Loki miniseries on Disney+, in this very splashy, very expensive-looking AppleTV+ show based on the best-selling book by Sarah Perry and co-starring Claire Danes. When rumours of a giant serpent lurking in the marshes of Essex take over 19th century England, a fascinated widow (Danes) and a stern, disbelieving, sexy vicar (Hiddleston) begin to investigate. This is a good old-fashioned costume drama – high production values, no jokes, taking itself very seriously. Epic appointment television. On AppleTV+ from May 13
-
Hacks
Let’s get this out of the way right now: yes, the second season of Hacks is as funny as the first. But if you ask us, it’s not a competition. We’ll take as much Hacks as Jean Smart will throw at us, for as long as we both shall live. The first season of this perfectly calibrated comedy followed legendary stand-up comic Deborah Vance, desperately clinging to her Vegas residency, aided by upstart writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder). Season two sees them taking their schtick on the road, along with an adorable French bulldog puppy and a few new love interests. Hacks is the best. Hacks forever. We deserve a new season of Hacks every year until the end of time. On Stan from May 13
-
The Wilds
A second season of Prime Video’s Lord of the Flies redux is here – now with added boys. In season one of The Wilds, produced and filmed in Queensland, a plane-load of teen girls crash-lands on an island, beginning a survival-of-the-fittest social experiment. In the shocking season one finale, another plane was unearthed, containing teen boys this time. We wonder what’s going to happen next. On Prime Video from May 13
-
Conversations With Friends
Sally Rooney’s first, and best, book has been adapted into a 12-part miniseries by the creative team that brought you Normal People. This alone will be cause for celebration for all the Rooney-heads, but just wait until we tell you the cast for this new show – Joe Alwyn, Sasha Lane, the splendid Jemima Kirke and Alison Oliver, an incredible discovery fresh out of drama school, who stars as Frances, the 21-year-old student who finds herself in the middle of an open marriage. Unaffected, open and naturalistic, Conversations With Friends is easy – and, yes, very sexy – viewing. It’s not as, ahem, nakedly intimate as Normal People, but it is propulsive and intelligent television nonetheless. On Prime Video from May 16
-
The Time Traveler’s Wife
Theo James (Downton Abbey, Sanditon) and Rose Leslie (Downton Abbey, Vigil) star in this new adaptation of The Time Traveler’s Wife. But wasn’t there a movie of this already, with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams? Well, yes, but this is a television show, so it’s very different, you see, and it’s been written by Steven Moffat, which is exciting in and of itself. Moffat is our greatest living expert in onscreen time travel, having shepherded the very successful reboot of Doctor Who into existence, and his involvement is enough to have us intrigued in something we otherwise would have thought sounded superfluous. On Binge from May 16
-
Obi-Wan Kenobi
The gang’s all back, from Ewan McGregor’s titular Jedi warrior to Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars and, of course, Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. This six-episode miniseries is much anticipated, taking place in the great time vacuum in between the Star Wars prequels and the original trilogy, following one of the most beloved characters in the franchises, and one of cinema’s most iconic villains. Like all things Star Wars, we can’t tell you anything about what this show is going to involve, because we are as in the dark as you. But who doesn’t want to see McGregor back in the habit, along with a cast that includes homegrown star Simone Kessell, Sung Kang, Rupert Friend, Maya Erskine, Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani and O’Shea Jackson Jr. Let’s hope Obi-Wan Kenobi is worthy of them. On Disney+ from May 27
-
Stranger Things
It has been a very long time between drinks for Stranger Things fans. The third season premiered in 2019 and, now, some three years later, the first half of the fourth season will hit Netflix, with the second half to follow in a few months. This is the penultimate season of the cult series, and will begin the wrapping up of all the Hawkins storylines. And not a moment too soon, either. All these children, who were tiny teens when the show first dropped on to the platform, are now adults and struggling to maintain the charade that they are still high schoolers. Watch them battle the Upside Down in season four. On Netflix from May 27
-
Pistol
This Danny Boyle-directed miniseries about the Sex Pistols has been mired in controversy since it was first announced. A vicious legal battle about the rights to the music, with guitarist Steve Jones and drummer Paul Cook on one side and frontman John Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – on the other has raged for the past year. Anarchy in the UK indeed. The series might be based on Jones’s memoir, but it is said to dig deep into feuds between band members and paint Lydon in an “unflattering” light. Sounds like pretty fantastic television to us. Australian Toby Wallace stars as Jones – his big break, after picking up a Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his turn in Shannon Murphy’s indie film, Babyteeth – with a great supporting cast including Maisie Williams as punk icon Jordan, Tallulah Riley as Vivienne Westwood and Jude Law’s daughter, Iris, as Soo Catwoman. On Disney+ from May 31
More Coverage
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout