The Best TV Shows & Movies To Watch In May

When the age-old proverb/cliché “patience is a virtue” was first coined, I don’t think it was meant to be used in reference to TV and movies. But if you’ve ever really, really loved a film or a show and had to wait to see more of it, you know that practicing patience (aside from potentially reading or writing fanfiction) is the only thing you could do to bide the time until the story and world you hold so dearly is back. 

Luckily, this month we have a number of long and eagerly awaited returns hitting our screens. There’s Furiosa, the prequel to 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which has been in development for 15 years, and finds Anya Taylor-Joy stepping into the titular role (in place of Charlize Theron) as a young woman fighting across a desert wasteland to find her way back home. Then there’s Bridgerton, which is back for its third season after a two-year hiatus, and this time the Regency-era romance series will tell the love story between fan-favorites Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton). And the critically acclaimed comedy series Hacks is also back for its third season — again, after a two-year break — that will follow protagonists Deborah and Ava as they try to build upon their success while finding a healthy way to be in each other’s lives. With all that — and more — to watch, there’s just one thing left to say: see ya, patience. 

Based on the novel of the same name, The Idea Of You chronicles how a chance encounter at Coachella between 40-year-old mom and art gallery owner Solène Marchand (Anne Hathaway) and 24-year-old boy band singer Hayes Campbell (Nicholas Galitizine) leads to a whirlwind romance. But while it’s nice to fantasize about such an unlikely series of events, we obviously live in a society of double standards and social media mobbing, a fact that the film takes on as the couple navigates the realities of a significant age gap in a highly publicized relationship.

I’ll be honest: I love a good 2000s romcom, but I’m not the biggest romance girl. The Idea Of You hits different though. It might be because Anne Hathaway convincingly gets you to root for the guarded divorcee who’s willing to take that chance for herself, or that Nicholas Galitizine perfectly rides the line between the boyish celebrity your teenage self would hang a poster of and the confident man in his singular pursuit of an older woman. Or maybe it’s because I personally am the older woman in my five-year relationship. 

Yes, the film drips in fanfic fantasy — it’s hard not to think about One Direction and, more specifically, Harry Styles — but there are very real core issues at the heart of the film. I too have had to figure out my conflicted feelings of being a strong, independent woman who still felt shame for being the older one in our relationship (when no one would bat an eye if it were the other way around). Granted, mine was never on blast worldwide as tabloid fodder, but I’ve been in her shoes. 

The movie isn’t a completely faithful adaptation, which the most devout Moonhead readers will probably find satisfying given the book’s controversial ending. Instead, it’s a realistic fairytale that honestly is what we need more of these days. 

Where to watch: Prime Video
When: May 2
Watch if you like: Notting Hill, The Princess Diaries

When Hacks debuted in 2021, I (along with many others, including the people who have, so far, bestowed 32 Emmy nominations upon it) immediately fell in love with the comedy series. Following legendary Las Vegas comic Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) and wry millennial writer Ava (Hannah Einbinder) as they must find a way to work together despite their many differences, the Max series is singular in its sharp tone and point of view, offering a layered, nuanced, and — most importantly — hilarious look at what it means to be a (white) woman navigating a challenging and creative industry (and how this changes depending on your generation) that also happens to be dominated by men. But, beyond that, the show crafted an authentic, lovable (albeit sometimes toxic) relationship between Deborah and Ava, who push to make each other better and show that they care. 

Expect Season 3 to carry in that same tradition, building upon where things left off. After filming a hit standup special, Deborah has fired Ava to force her out of her comfort zone and into new career opportunities. Now, the duo haven’t seen each other for a year, during which Ava has been thriving as a staff writer on a buzzy show, while Deborah has become even more famous thanks to the blockbuster success of her special. But — and if you’ve seen this show before, you already know this — the duo is incredibly codependent, so it isn’t long before they find a way back into each other’s lives. Can they set healthy work boundaries while continuing to create excellent comedy together? Or will they fall back into their bickering, controlling ways? 

Where to watch: Max 
When: May 2
Watch if you like: Broad City, The Other Two, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

There are few things a film studio can do to convince me to purchase movie tickets as quickly as humanly possible than stick Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt on screen together. To my delight, that’s exactly what they’ve done with The Fall Guy. Even better? The comedy-action-romance flick follows an injury-ridden stuntman Colt (Gosling), who returns to show business to work on the directorial debut of his ex-girlfriend, Jody (Blunt). But when the movie’s star goes missing, Colt is tasked with finding him in order to save Jody’s movie, propelling him into the middle of a crime spree far more dangerous than anything he’s ever done on a movie set.

Based on trailers and press appearances alone, the movie looks laugh-out-loud funny and Gosling and Blunt seem to have outstanding chemistry. They’re singing Taylor Swift! Things are blowing up! They’ll want to kiss each other at inopportune times! Let me see it in a packed, super loud movie theater immediately, please.

Where to watch: Theaters
When: May 3 
Watch if you like: Bullet Train, The Nice Guys, Deadpool

If you’ve read Julia Quinn’s Bridgerton books, you know that the one that tells the love story between Penelope Featherington and Colin Bridgerton is, hands down, one of the (if not the) best of the entire series. So to say expectations are high for this third season of Bridgerton is a major understatement — especially after the Shondaland period romance has killed it with its first two seasons. 

Season 3, which has been split into two parts (Part 2 comes out in June) focuses on Penelope (Nicola Coughlan) and Colin (Luke Newton), aka #Polin, somewhat surprisingly (their book is the fourth of the series, not the third). To catch you up: Penelope, who has never felt like she fits in the ‘Ton outside of her friendship with Colin’s younger sister Eloise, has long harbored a crush on the third eldest Bridgerton son. But, after she heard him say some not-so-nice things about her behind her back at the end of Season 2, Penelope was forced to take Colin off the pedestal she put him on while figuring out how to move on. To make things even more complicated? Eloise doesn’t know about her friend’s crush and they’re no longer on speaking terms because she found out that Penelope is actually the town’s prolific secret gossip writer, Lady Whistledown. 

Now, after some time apart, Colin returns from traveling abroad and Penelope is forced to face him again. Determined to find independence from her family, she’s also desperately hoping to find a husband this season — which Colin offers to help her with after he realizes that she’s mad at him. Naturally, as things tend to unfold in Bridgerton, the pair start to develop real feelings for each other. But can they actually admit this to each other? And can they even find true happiness when there’s a giant, Lady Whistledown-shaped secret between them?

Where to watch: Netflix
When: May 16
Watch if you like: Queen Charlotte, The Great, Dickinson

When people ask me to recommend a TV show to watch, one of my first questions is “Do you have Apple TV+?” I do so for one reason: because I want to talk about Trying. In my humble opinion, the British comedy series — which follows Nikki (Esther Smith) and Jason (Rafe Spall) as they try to build a family — is one of the most underrated shows of the past few years. It is full of heart and big, genuine feelings, tracking Nikki and Jason on their difficult journey to adopting a child. It’s earnest in the best way, effortlessly walking the line between making you laugh and making you cry, being sentimental and wholesome without turning saccharine. Yet, despite all it has going for it, almost every time I bring it up, the response is: “What is that?” 

While I encourage everyone to watch from the beginning, Season 4 also looks like it will be a great place to jump in for first-time viewers who don’t have hours to dedicate to starting a new show. After Nikki and Jason finally adopt two precious children (who happen to be biological siblings) at the end of last season, the show is jumping forward six years in time. Now, the couple’s eldest daughter is a teen, meaning they’re having to tread into a whole new territory that probably wasn’t on their minds when they first began the adoption process. To complicate matters even more, the aforementioned daughter is starting to become naturally curious about her birth parents, really putting Nikki and Jason’s parenting to the test. 

Where to watch: Apple TV+
When: May 22
Watch if you like: Catastrophe, Workin’ Moms

I vividly remember seeing Mad Max: Fury Road in the theater for the first time in 2015. I went reluctantly: I hadn’t seen any other Mad Max movie before, and I was in my snobby “not into action movies” phase — especially when there was a post-apocalyptic setting involved and it seemed to be a run-of-the-mill reboot of a bygone franchise. Still, the buzz was too loud around the movie, so I felt like I should give it a shot. I walked out of the theater blown away. The story and visuals were completely immersive, every element of the film so painstakingly put together to perfection. It was smart and thrilling — actual edge-of-your-seat, forget-your-popcorn-bag stuff. I felt exhilarated, sure I had never seen anything like it before. To this day, it’s the best movie theater experience I have, and, usually, when it comes up in conversation, people I talk to feel the same way. 

I’m trying not to put the same kind of pressure on Furiosa, a sweeping, long-in-the-works film that serves as a prequel to Fury Road. After all, I’m walking into this one with expectations — something I didn’t do with Fury Road. Still, with much of the same creative team returning (including acclaimed Australian writer/director George Miller), it’s hard not to feel hyped. Set 15 to 20 years before Fury Road, the action-adventure movie focuses on how a young Furiosa (here played by Anya Taylor-Joy) came to be the fierce Imperator we know in the 2015 flick (in which Charlize Theron originated the role). Kidnapped as a child by Warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), Furiosa must fight for her survival in a desert wasteland as two tyrannical groups battle for power. Whatever this movie ends up being, I’m ready. 

Where to watch: Theaters
When: May 24
Watch if you like: Mad Max: Fury Road, Snowpiercer