Best new movies and TV series on Netflix UK: May 2024

Each month, loads of new films and TV shows are added to Netflix UK’s library. Critic Eliza Janssen presents her picks for titles worth watching. For the full list of everything arriving on the platform, scroll down.

Top Picks: TV

A Man In Full: Miniseries (May 2)

There’s serious TV pedigree behind this real estate drama, starring the great Jeff Daniels as an Atlanta mogul facing bankruptcy—one of the medium’s most dominant figures, David E. Kelley, creates the show, adapting its moneyed mayhem from a Tom Wolfe novel. Expect plenty of “oh hey that guy!” character actors, and hopefully a few hefty, stentorian monologues from JD.

Bodkin: Season 1 (May 9)

If you’re a shameless fan of true crime podcasts, you might get a kick out of this new Irish dramedy. If you can’t stand the unkillable true crime trend, you might also be into it, since it’s a story of three exploitative podcasters getting in way over their heads as they investigate a small-town disappearance. Even if the mystery doesn’t hold up, we’re totally down to listen to some beautiful Irish accents for seven episodes. And to see goofy US comedian Will Forte caught up in the chaos.

Bridgerton: Season 3 Part 1 (May 16)

The second season of Bridgerton was somewhat of a disappointment to our critic, but if anybody can get things back on track it’s gossip maven Lady Whistledown herself—a.k.a. wallflower Penelope (Nicola Coughlan), who has been exposing every Bridgerton kid’s secrets for ages now via her secret, poisoned-pen hobby. This time around, the lovely Coughlan gets to take centre stage, swept up in a friends-to-lovers arc with another hunky Bridgerton son.

Top Picks: Movies + Specials

Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story (May 3)

This will either be completely dire or a twisted comedy surprise: a parody of those ubiquitous product origin story biopics we’ve been besieged with lately, directed by and starring Jerry Seinfeld. The cast of is full of fresh comic faces you love (Drew Tarver! Maria Bakalova! Hugh Grant! James Marsden!) and a few who’ve fallen into disrepute of late, namely Amy Schumer and Seinfeld himself to some extent, grouchy as he’s been about the state of comedy and cinema in general. It looks expensive, retro, and ridiculous.

The Black Phone (May 3)

Ethan Hawke as a miserable, hair-trigger madman is your reason to tune into this 2022 horror movie: he brings a gravitas and depth to his under-written villain role, in a film that otherwise feels like a bit of a pub cover band version of Stephen King’s Greatest Hits. When a new victim is trapped in Hawke’s dingy 1970s basement, the ghosts of kids who lost their lives there coach him towards escape, all while his sweet and spiritually sensitive sister picks up on clues in the bleak suburbs above.

Atlas (May 24)

Dropping at a time where our mistrust of AI couldn’t be simmering away any more fiercely, this generic-looking sci-fi project stars J.Lo as a brilliant analyst on the trail of a runaway robot. Simu Liu and Sterling K. Brown co-star, in what I’m hoping isn’t a sweeping story about how we’re not so different from artificially intelligent beings. Should be heaps of fun to have on in the background while you’re folding some socks or putting dinner together.

All titles arriving on Netflix UK in May

May 1

Deaw Special: Super Soft Power
Down the Rabbit Hole
Dr. Stone
Fiasco: Season 1
Frankly Speaking
Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar
Jujutsu Kaisen: Season 1
Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie
Kin: Seasons 1-2
Murder in Successville: Seasons 1-3
Psych: Seasons 1-8
S.W.A.T.: all seasons
Simon: Seasons 1-4
The Mauritanian
Unnatural: Miniseries

May 2

24 Hours in Tesco
Beautiful Rebel
Kaur
Love With Its Details
A Man in Full
Secrets of the Neanderthals
T – P Bon: Season 1

May 3

The Black Phone
Bullet Train
Postcards
Selling the OC: Season 3
Unfrosted

May 4

The Atypical Family
John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.

May 5

Katt Williams: Woke Foke
Obituary: Season 1

May 6

The Roast of Tom Brady

May 7

Hatton Garden: Miniseries
Super Rich in Korea

May 8

The Final: Attack on Wembley

May 9

Bodkin: Season 1
The Guardian of the Monarchs
Mother of the Bride
Thank You, Next

May 10

Blood of Zeus: Season 2
Cooking up Murder: Uncovering the Story of Cesar Roman
Living with Leopards
Pokémon Horizons: The Series Part 2
The Ultimatum: South Africa