Series to Watch: May 2024

Series to Watch: May 2024


By DQ
April 25, 2024

Ones to Watch

DQ checks out the upcoming schedules to pick 10 new series to watch this May, from a Tudor murder mystery and a Spanish thriller to an award-winning German series and the poignant adaptation of novel The Tattooist of Auschwitz.

Shardlake
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Producers: The Forge, Runaway Fridge
Starring: Arthur Hughes, Anthony Boyle, Sean Bean, Babou Ceesay, Paul Kaye, Ruby Ashbourne Serkis, Peter Firth, Matthew Steer, Brian Vernel, Irfan Shamji, David Pearse, Miles Barrow, Mike Noble and Kimberly Nixon
Launch date: May 1
In this murder mystery based on the Tudor novels by CJ Sansom, Hughes plays Matthew Shardlake, a lawyer with an acute sense of justice. He works for Thomas Cromwell (Bean), right-hand man to Henry VIII, but due to his appearance, living with scoliosis during the Tudor period, he is abused wherever he goes. The four-part drama set in 16th century England follows Shardlake as he is sent to investigate a murder at a remote monastery – a crime that could affect Cromwell’s political survival.
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The Tattooist of Auschwitz
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Sky (UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany, Austria, Switzerland), Peacock (US)
Other broadcasters: Stan (Australia), SkyShowtime (Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Sweden)
Producer: Synchonicity Films
Distributor: NBCUniversal Global TV Distribution, All3Media International
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Melanie Lynskey, Jonah Hauer-King, Anna Próchniak and Jonas Nay
Launch date: May 2 (Sky, Peacock, Stan)
Based on the novel by Heather Morris, this six-part limited drama is inspired by the real-life story of Lali and Gita Sokolov, who met as prisoners in Auschwitz during the Holocaust. In the show, Lali (Keitel) retells his experiences of the concentration camp to Heather (Lynskey) as flashbacks reveal how, as a young man (played by Hauer-King), he met and fell in love with Gita (Próchniak) after becoming one of the Tätowierer (tattooists), charged with inking identification numbers on his fellow prisoners’ arms.
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Read more here 

A Man in Full
From: US
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producers: Kelley Productions, Royal Ties Productions
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Tom Pelphrey, Lucy Liu, Diane Lane, Sarah Jones, William Jackson Harper, Aml Ameen, Jon Michael Hill and Chanté Adams
Launch date: May 2
From director Regina King (One Night in Miami, Watchmen) and writer David E Kelley (Big Little Lies), and based on the novel by Tom Wolfe, this series stars Daniels as Atlanta real-estate mogul Charlie Croker. When Charlie faces sudden bankruptcy, political and business interests collide as he defends his empire from those attempting to capitalise on his fall from grace.
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Toinen Tuleminen (Money Shot)
From: Finland
Original broadcaster: Elisa Viihde
Producer: Solar Republic
Distributor: Federation Studios
Starring: Pihla Viitala, Reetta Ylä-Rautio, Paula Vesala, Alex Anton, Mikko Kauppila, Jukka Puotila, Mikko Kouki, Sanna-Kaisa Palo, Tomi Alatalo, Karim Rapatti and Paavo Kinnunen
Launch date: May 2
In this eight-part comedy drama, washed-up porn actress Sari (Viitala) is fired and has to find a way to make a living. When she teams up with aspiring director Linnea (Ylä-Rautio) to start a company that produces feminist, erotic films, the pair begin a journey to fulfil women’s desires – and their own.
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Read more here 

Die Zweiflers (The Zweiflers)
From: Germany
Original broadcaster: ARD
Producer: Turbokultur
Distributor: ZDF Studios
Starring: Aaron Altaras, Sunnyi Melles, Saffron Coomber, Mike Burstyn, Deleila Piasko, Mark Ivanir, Eleanor Reissa, Leo Altaras, Martin Wuttke, Ute Lemper and Leonille Wittgenstein
Launch date: May 3 (ARD Mediathek), May 10 (ARD)
Named best series at French television festival Canneseries earlier this month, this six-part drama is a contemporary tale of a Jewish family, revolving around the inheritance of a family delicatessen empire across three generations. Family patriarch Symcha Zweifler wants to sell his business when he is suddenly confronted with his past in Frankfurt’s red-light district – and things get worse when his grandson Samuel and his girlfriend Saba announce they are expecting a son.
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Dark Matter
From: US
Original broadcaster: Apple TV+
Producer: Sony Pictures Television
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Connelly, Alice Braga, Jimmi Simpson, Dayo Okeniyi and Oakes Fegley
Launch date: May 8
Based on the novel by Blake Crouch, this sci-fi drama stars Edgerton as Jason Dessen, a physicist, professor and family man who is abducted into an alternate version of his life. But wonder quickly turns to nightmare when he tries to return to his reality amid the mind-bending landscape of lives he could have lived.
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Bodkin
From: US, Ireland
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producer: Higher Ground
Starring: Will Forte, Siobhán Cullen and Robyn Cara
Launch date: May 9
Barack and Michelle Obama are executive producers on this seven-part darkly comedic thriller, in which a motley crew of podcasters investigate the nefarious goings-on that swirl beneath the seemingly idyllic veneer of the titular Irish town, where several mysterious disappearances occurred 25 years ago.
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Las Largas Sombras (The Long Shadows)
From: Spain
Original broadcaster: Disney+
Producer: Grupo DLO Producciones
Starring: Elena Anaya, Belén Cuesta, Irene Escolar, Marta Etura, Itziar Atienza, Ana Rayo, Isa Montalbán, Lucía Carballal, Andrea López, Marina Orta, Miriam Rubio, Ana de Alva and Laura Wedel
Launch date: May 10
The discovery of human remains in a cave in Mallorca lead Inspector Paula Ríos to travel to the island, where she discovers they belong to her older sister Mati, who disappeared during a school trip 25 years earlier. As Mati’s friends reunite to celebrate the return of film director Rita from London, Paula interrupts their gathering to tell them of the discovery.
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Insomnia
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Paramount+
Producers: Left Bank Pictures, Build Your Own Films
Distributor: Sony Pictures Television
Starring: Vicky McClure, Leanne Best, Tom Cullen, Lyndsey Marshal, Dominic Tighe, Jade Harrison, Corinna Marlowe, Robert Gilbert, Michelle Bonnard, India Fowler and Smylie Bradwell
Launch date: May 23
Based on the novel by Sarah Pinborough, this thriller stars McClure as career woman Emma Averill, who fears she might be losing her mind when her hard-won dream life starts to turn into a nightmare. A couple of weeks before her 40th birthday, Emma stops sleeping – just as her mother did right before she suffered a violent psychotic breakdown on the night of her own 40th birthday. Emma’s mother always told her she’d go the same way, that she had the same “bad blood” – and now Emma is terrified it’s true.
Read more here 

Eric
From: UK
Original broadcaster: Netflix
Producers: Sister, Little Chick
Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch, Gaby Hoffmann and McKinley Belcher III
Launch date: May 30
Set in 1980s New York, this emotional thriller from Abi Morgan (The Split) follows a father’s desperate search for his nine-year-old son, who disappears one morning on the way to school. Vincent (Cumberbatch), one of the city’s leading puppeteers and creator of popular kids’ TV show Good Day Sunshine, struggles to cope with the loss of Edgar and clings to his son’s drawings of a blue monster puppet called Eric, convinced that if he can get Eric on TV then Edgar will come home. As Vincent’s progressively destructive behaviour alienates his family, his colleagues and the detectives trying to help him, Eric becomes his only ally in the pursuit to bring his son home.

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