Coming soon to streaming: ‘Duster,’ ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Season 2, and more
Coming soon to streaming: ‘Duster,’ ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Season 2, and more
A new series from J.J. Abrams, the film directorial debut of ‘Succession’ creator Jesse Armstrong, and more titles are due up still in May.
May’s showers are upon us with no sign of slowing! So far this month, we’ve had a busy calendar of debuts and returns, including new episodes of the hit mystery-of-the-week Peacock series “Poker Face,” starring Natasha Lyonne. The first three episodes of the second season, which include a beefy roster of guest stars that includes Cynthia Erivo, Giancarlo Esposito, John Mulaney, Katie Holmes, and many others, are available as of May 8. Also available now are the premiere episodes of Max’s “Conan O’Brien Must Go” Season 2 and Paramount+’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” Season 10.
That’s not all on the TV side. If you’re looking for something new instead of a continuation, you can also check out Hulu’s “The Four Seasons,” co-created by Tina Fey, and Netflix’s tender-hearted teen romance drama “Forever,” both of which are available to binge in full.
But the month isn’t over yet. We’re almost halfway through May, and in addition to new episodes, there are still several TV and film titles that are slated to drop on streaming throughout the rest of the month, from a recent multi-Oscar winner to a multi-part comedy documentary.
Ready to watch? Continue below to find out the best TV and film titles debuting during the second half of May!
‘Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute’ (Extended & Uncensored) | Wednesday, May 14 (Peacock)
Trailblazer Joan Rivers has been dead for 11 years, but 1) it’s the best she’s ever looked, and 2) that won’t stop those who loved her from celebrating her over and over again. Thankfully, the rest of us who loved her get to watch it happen. Recorded at the Apollo Theater in New York City, the NBC special “Joan Rivers: A Dead Funny All-Star Tribute” brings together an A-list cast of comedians, actors, musicians, and more, to remember (and lightly roast) the one and only Rivers, including daughter Melissa, Rachel Brosnahan, Margaret Cho, Nikki Glaser, Tiffany Haddish, Chelsea Handler, Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Maher, Howie Mandel, Joel McHale, Tracy Morgan, Patton Oswalt, Aubrey Plaza, Sarah Silverman, Jean Smart, and Rita Wilson.
NBC will premiere the tribute on Tuesday, May 13 at 10 p.m. ET, but Peacock will have the bigger, longer, and uncut version the following day, uncensored and with even more unannounced guests.
Peacock
Peacock is a subscription video streaming service from NBCUniversal that includes original shows, blockbuster movies, and classic television series. Peacock is home to “Yellowstone,” “The Office,” and original hits like “Poker Face” and “Bel-Air.” You can also watch live sports and NBC programming, including the NFL, MLB, WWE, the Olympics, the Premier League, NASCAR, the French Open, college football and basketball, and the PGA Tour. Premium Plus subscribers can stream their local NBC feed in all 210 markets.
‘Duster’ | Premieres Thursday, May 15 (Max)
Sometimes to win, you need a guy on the inside. After the 1990s–2000s chain of fan favorites “Felicity,” “Alias,” “Lost,” and “Fringe,” J.J. Abrams adds another word to his lexicon and gets his first series creator credit since 2010’s “Undercovers,” joining forces with TV writing vet LaToya Morgan as part of their WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. Television Group deals, respectively.
Watch the trailer for ‘Duster’:
The crime thriller, set in the Southwest in 1972, stars Rachel Hilson as the FBI’s first Black woman agent, who to stop a crime syndicate, joins forces with a talented getaway driver (Josh Holloway). The great Keith David also co-stars with an ensemble including Sydney Elisabeth, Greg Grunberg, Camille Guaty, Asivak Koostachin, and more. A new episode will be released every Thursday through July 3.
Duster
In 1972, the first Black female FBI agent heads to the Southwest and recruits a gutsy getaway driver in a bold effort to take down a growing crime syndicate.
‘Murderbot’ | Premieres Friday, May 16 (Apple TV+)
Cozy up with “Murderbot.” Brothers Chris and Paul Weitz bring Martha Wells’ award-winning “The Murderbot Diaries” to the small screen, with Alexander Skarsgård playing the title role, a rogue security robot that secretly gains free will and must hide its abilities while completing dangerous assignments and protecting scientists on a dangerous planet. The 10-episode action-comedy-sci-fi series will get a new episode every Friday through July 11. Also co-starring are David Dastmalchian, Noma Dumezweni, Sabrina Wu, Tattiawna Jones, and more.
Murderbot
In a high-tech future, a rogue security robot secretly gains free will. To stay hidden, it reluctantly joins a new mission protecting scientists on a dangerous planet… even though it just wants to binge soap operas.
‘The Brutalist’ | Friday, May 16 (Max)
Buckle up: tapping out at over three and a half hours, “The Brutalist” is almost as long as Adrien Brody’s Oscars speech. (A bastardized joke from man-of-the-moment Conan O’Brien). But the period drama is worth the wait due to the weight of Brody’s performance, Brady Corbet’s ambitious direction, Lol Crawley’s Oscar-winning cinematography, and Judy Becker’s awe-inspiring production design.
Brody plays Hungarian-Jewish Holocaust survivor and Bauhaus-trained architect László Tóth, who comes to America to escape postwar Europe and capitalize on the American Dream— what’s bigger/more brutal than that? Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, and others co-star in A24’s three-time Oscar-winning epic.
The Brutalist
When an innovative modern architect flees post-war Europe, he is given the opportunity to rebuild his legacy. Set during the dawn of the modern United States (in Pennsylvania), his wife joins him, and their lives are forever changed by a demanding, wealthy patron.
‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Season 2 | Premieres Wednesday, May 21 (Hulu)
Masha welcomes you back to Tranquillum House. Formerly a miniseries and now an anthology following a Season 2 renewal, Hulu’s “Nine Perfect Strangers,” starring Nicole Kidman and created by regular Kidman collaborator David E. Kelley, is opening its doors once again to new clientele. Other than Kidman, Season 2 will bring in an all-new cast to the boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation.
Watch the trailer for ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Season 2:
If you’re getting “The White Lotus” vibes, the similarities continue this season with new stranger Murray Bartlett, also joined by Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, Dolly de Leon, Maisie Richardson-Sellers, King Princess, Aras Aydın, Lucas Englander, Henry Golding, Mark Strong, and Lena Olin. New episodes will premiere on Wednesdays through July 2.
Nine Perfect Strangers
At a boutique health-and-wellness resort that promises healing and transformation, nine stressed city dwellers try to get on a path to a better way of living. Watching over them during this 10-day retreat is the resort’s director, Masha, a woman on a mission to reinvigorate their tired minds and bodies. However, these nine “perfect” strangers have no idea what is about to hit them.
‘Sirens’ | Premieres Thursday, May 22 (Netflix)
Molly Smith Metzler adapts her 2011 play “Elemeno Pea” for the small screen with a little help from her friends, including fellow playwrights Bekah Brunstetter and Colin McKenna. “Sirens,” the five-episode update from Netflix, follows sisters Devon (Meghann Fahy) and Simone (Milly Alcock), the latter of whom has a too-close relationship with her new boss, enigmatic socialite Michaela Kell (Julianne Moore). Devon decides it’s time for an intervention of sorts for her sister to get her away from the hold Michaela’s cultish life of luxury has on her, but has no idea how formidable her opponent actually is.
The explosive, sexy, and darkly funny “Sirens” also stars Kevin Bacon, Glenn Howerton, Josh Segarra, Felix Solis, and more. All five episodes will be released on May 22.
Sirens
Worried about her sister’s too-close relationship with her billionaire boss, a scrappy everywoman seeks answers at a lavish seaside estate.
‘Big Mouth’ Season 8 | Friday, May 23 (Netflix)
Open wide for one more round of TV’s raunchiest—and most needed—comedies. “Big Mouth” goes out with a bang, tackling the later years of high school, drugs, sex, cancel culture, and more in its eighth and final season. Guest stars on the new season include Cynthia Erivo, Quinta Brunson, Holly Hunter, Steve Buscemi, Kristen Wiig, Nathan Fillion, Ali Wong, Richard Kind, Keke Palmer, Natasha Lyonne, and others.
And despite the run’s end, the series creators have already announced a new adult animated series with the streamer: “Mating Season”—just as horny but this time with bears—promising even more sex education at Netflix. The full final season of “Big Mouth” will be available at once on May 23.
Big Mouth
Teenage friends find their lives upended by the wonders and horrors of puberty in this edgy comedy from real-life pals Nick Kroll and Andrew Goldberg.
‘Fountain of Youth’ | Friday, May 23 (Apple TV+)
Few do high-octane action like Guy Ritchie, and while the filmmaker usually stays busy with British crime dramas, his latest is a little “Indiana Jones” and a little “Uncharted” (or what was missing from “Uncharted,” hopefully). John Krasinski stars as Luke, a treasure-hunting mastermind who assembled a team for a global heist to find the mythological Fountain of Youth, but to do so, he must reunite with his estranged sister, Charlotte (Natalie Portman).
Luke has arranged an elite team for his adventure, and so has Ritchie for his, with an ensemble including Eiza González, Domhnall Gleeson, Arian Moayed, Laz Alonso, Carmen Ejogo, and Stanley Tucci, to name a few.
Fountain of Youth
A treasure-hunting mastermind assembles a team for a life-changing adventure. But to outwit and outrun threats at every turn, he’ll need someone even smarter than he is: his estranged sister.
‘Pee-wee As Himself’ | Friday, May 23 (Max)
That’s his name, don’t wear it out! Enter the weird and wonderful world of Pee-wee Herman, from the somehow even weirder and more wonderful mind of Paul Reubens. The actor/comedian/entertainer died in 2023, but not before Matt Wolf had started on a documentary with Reubens in front of the camera to tell his side of the story. And there’s a lot to cover.
Watch the trailer for ‘Pee-wee As Himself’:
With over 40 hours of revealing interviews, archival photo and video footage, and Reuben’s final message before his death (recorded the day before), the two-part documentary will look at his professional life, as well as the personal— from his legendary stage show “The Pee-wee Herman Show” and the subsequent “Pee-wee's Big Adventure” and “Pee-wee’s Playhouse,” the Saturday-morning nonsensical program for children who are likely now mentally ill adults (present!), to a pair of infamous arrests that tarnished his reputation to the legacy he leaves behind.
Pee-wee as Himself
A kaleidoscopic portrait told in two parts tracing the life of the imaginative artist.
‘The Better Sister’ | Thursday, May 29 (Prime Video)
Murder, estrangement, and family secrets are the ingredients to can’t-miss TV. Elizabeth Banks and Jessica Biel lead the cast of Prime Video’s adaptation of Alafair Burke’s 2019 novel of the same name, described as “a twisty tale of domestic noir.”
Following two sisters on very different paths, the duo reunite after 15 years of estrangement when Chloe’s (Biel) husband, Adam, is murdered by an intruder. But police begin to question a surprising suspect, and the sisters must confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past. Maxwell Acee Donovan, Gabriel Sloyer, Kim Dickens, and Bobby Naderi are also featured in the limited series thriller, which will premiere all eight episodes on May 29.
The Better Sister
Chloe moves in New York’s most elite circles with her lawyer husband Adam and teenage son Ethan by her side while her estranged sister Nicky tries to make ends meet and stay clean. When Adam is brutally murdered, the investigation sends shockwaves through the family and exposes long-buried secrets.
‘Mountainhead’ | Saturday, May 31 (Max)
May gets bookended by two Steve Carell vehicles— first “The Four Seasons” on the 1st and then “Mountainhead” to end the month. The satire, the directorial debut of “Succession” creator Jesse Armstrong (who also wrote the film), centers around Armstrong’s specialty subject: egomaniacal rich people making a mess of things. Carell leads the cast opposite Jason Schwartzman, Cory Michael Smith, and Ramy Youssef as a group of tech billionaire friends who escape up the mountain to a luxury resort in the middle of an international financial crisis, with one of the men’s inflammatory social media platforms fanning the flames (no suspension of disbelief needed).
Watch the teaser for ‘Mountainhead’:
Mountainhead
A group of billionaire friends get together against the backdrop of a rolling international crisis.