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From the latest Yellowstone spin-off to a new take on William Golding's classic novel about violent schoolboys, and a supernatural series produced by the Stranger Things creators – these are the best series to watch and stream.
Jack Thorne, writer of the brilliant series Adolescence and the hit play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, is the ideal person to take on this adaptation of William Golding's classic 1954 novel about schoolboys stranded on an island. As they try to survive and the social order breaks down, each episode of the show focuses on a different character, including iconic figures like the bullied Piggy (David McKenna) and rival leaders Ralph (Winston Sawyers) and Jack (Lox Pratt). "As a society we're having a conversation right now about boys," Thorne has said, pointing to the timeliness of Golding's story. "We're losing a generation of boys and we're losing it because of the hate they are ingesting – because it is an answer to their loneliness and isolation." Having screened in the UK in February, ahead of its international rollout, the series has already landed on the BBC's list of best TV shows of 2026 so far.
Lord of the Flies premieres 4 May on Netflix in the US and is now on BBC iPlayer in the UK
Screens are awash in films and series that try to fill in the blanks of Jane Austen's life and work. Many are foolish endeavours, but thanks to a glittering cast this series about Mary, the middle and arguably least memorable of the Bennet sisters in Pride and Prejudice, is utterly charming. Ella Bruccoleri brings the bookish, bespectacled Mary, overshadowed by every one of her sisters, to vivid life. Richard E Grant is dream casting as Mr Bennet, and in Ruth Jones's performance, Mrs Bennet is comically, monstrously selfish. When the plot, based on Janice Hadlow's 2020 novel, goes beyond Austen, Indira Varma and Richard Coyle are standouts as the aunt and uncle who whisk Mary off to live with them in London. In colourful episodes, she experiences romantic ups and downs and must choose between suitors – which leads, of course, to a very Austen-like ending. When the series began its run in the UK in March, it was the biggest premiere in a year.
The Other Bennet Sister premieres 6 May on Britbox in the US and is now on BBC iPlayer in the UK
This high-octane thriller set in the 1990s is based on a wild true story. Regular customs agents were recruited to go undercover, with a minimum of training, to infiltrate powerful gangs smuggling drugs into the UK. Steve Coogan plays the head of operations, with Tom Burke (CB Strike) and Hayley Squires (The Night Manager) as two of the agents he recruits to create new identities or "legends" for themselves and carry them into deadly situations. That's one way to liven up a dull workday. Burke has said of his character's motivations: "He simply needs to do something like this because it's meaningful and purposeful but also because it's dangerous." Inside that regular guy, he added, "there's an adrenaline junkie." The show was created and written by Neil Forsyth, who has a niche. He also created the recent fact-based heist drama The Gold.
Legends premieres 7 May on Netflix internationally
Prime Video's own description calls this series a "college soap", which may be all you need to know about its ambitions. It's based on The Deal (2015), the first in Elle Kennedy's bestselling series of novels about students at the fictional Briar University. Hannah (Ella Bright) is a music major completely uninterested in hockey. Garrett (Belmont Cameli) is the team's star ice hockey player. They make a deal in which she will tutor him to save his failing grades and he will pretend to date her to make the boy she has a crush on jealous. You see where this is going, right? When and how will this odd couple get together? The trailer promises "The hottest action is off the ice," and as the recent HBO series Heated Rivalry proved, sex-and-romance about ice hockey players can be an enticing plotline. Off Campus has already been renewed for season two.
Off Campus premieres 13 May on Prime Video internationally
The first season of this series based on Jilly Cooper's "bonkbuster" Rutshire novels and set in the garish 1980s couldn't have been frothier or more fun, with David Tennant in top comic form as Lord Tony Baddingham, the scheming head of a media company. Although he seemed left for dead as the last season ended, Baddingham returns to this fictional version of the Cotswolds to continue his rivalries with influential broadcaster Declan O'Hara (Aidan Turner) and Olympian-turned-politician Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell). Others in the returning cast include Katherine Parkinson as novelist Lizzie, Claire Rushbrook as Tony's wife – aka Monica, Lady Baddingham – and Bella Maclean as Declan's daughter Taggie, who had the very bad idea of getting involved with the womanising Rupert. The season is split in half, and six episodes will drop later this year, but the first batch should include plenty of champagne, vengeance, power plays and adulterous dalliances around the neighbourhood.
Rivals premieres 15 May on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK
This most anticipated of Taylor Sheridan's Yellowstone spinoffs is all about that hit show's breakout couple, whom fans couldn't get enough of. Kelly Reilly plays former wild child Beth Dutton, daughter of the now-dead John (Kevin Costner). Cole Hauser is her husband, former Yellowstone ranch foreman Rip Wheeler, whose name alone reeks of the old-timey Western ideal of tough, outdoorsy men so dear to all Sheridan shows. Beth and Rip have relocated from Montana to Texas, where they face new threats to yet another ranch. Whatever you think of Sheridan, he knows how to wrangle big-name stars, including Helen Mirren and Harrison Ford in 1923 and Michelle Pfeiffer and Kurt Russell in The Madison. The supporting cast for Dutton Ranch includes Annette Bening as a competing ranch owner and Ed Harris as a kindly veterinarian. Cowboy hats abound.
Dutton Ranch premieres 15 May on Paramount+ in the US and UK
Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black and She-Hulk) stars in this dark comic thriller as Paula, recently divorced and in a custody battle with her ex-husband (Jake Johnson) over their s daughter. Her life seems ordinary if stressful, as she deals with her job as a fact-checker and engages on-line with a handsome young sex-cam worker named Trevor (Brandon Flynn). But ordinariness explodes when she believes she has witnessed a crime, decides to play detective, and finds herself in the midst of blackmail and murder. Dolly de Leon plays the actual detective, who didn't ask for any help, and Murray Bartlett is Trevor's boyfriend. Director David Gordon Green (The Exorcist: Believer among other films) told Elle magazine that he, along with series creator David Rosen and their team, are "misfit conspirators" whose goal is to defy television formulas. "There's enough rascal in us to want to push buttons," he said.
Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed premieres 20 May on Apple TV internationally
What if the gang from Stranger Things suddenly aged by 50 years? They might land in this supernatural series produced by the Duffer Brothers of Stranger Things fame and set in a retirement community. Alfred Molina plays Sam, a recent widower who moves into The Boroughs, as the community is called, where he meets other residents played by Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Bill Pullman and Denis O'Hare. Soon Sam notices odd things happening, like creepy-looking claws appearing out of nowhere, so naturally he enlists his new friends to help investigate and save the world. Will Matthews, the show's co-creator, hasn't revealed what the ominous threat is, but he did tell EW that it's a monster which has similar problems to the characters. "How do you deal with ageing? That's true for the monster, too. How old is the monster, really?" Old enough to know better.
The Boroughs premieres 21 May on Netflix internationally
This show's gimmick is that it is offered in two versions, black-and-white and colour, but the real draw is Nicolas Cage as Ben Reilly, a jaded private investigator in the 1930s who happens to have Spider-Man powers. He is not the Spider-Man, Peter Parker, but a hero from an alternate universe. With or without colour, the story and style are inspired by classic film noirs such as The Maltese Falcon. "The character was 70% [Humphrey] Bogart and 30% Bugs Bunny," Cage told Esquire magazine. "I was basically Mel Blanc [the voice of Bugs] with that sarcastic sense of humour. But it's 100% me." And all-in Nic Cage sounds exactly right for this. The supporting cast of noirish characters includes Lamorne Morris as Ben's reporter pal, Karen Rodriguez as his loyal secretary and Li Jun Li as a femme fatale nightclub singer. Brendan Gleeson plays the villain, a crime boss called Silvermane.
Spider-Noir premieres 25 May on MGM+ in the US and 27 May on Prime Video internationally
Starring and co-created by Tina Fey, this gentle comedy about middle-aged friendships and marriages returns for a second season, offering more vicarious vacations. Most of the high-profile cast returns as the old friends who take four trips a year to different locations, each time exposing their relationships' fault lines in every climate they visit. Fey and Will Forte play a long-married couple, and Colman Domingo and Marco Calvani are romantic partners. Steve Carell's character is missing for a very good reason: he died at the end of season one. But the new friend group includes the wife he was divorcing (Kerri Kenney-Silver) and his pregnant girlfriend (Erika Henningsen). It's anybody's guess when and where she will go into labour, but I'll be shocked if it's not during a group trip.
The Four Seasons premieres 28 May on Netflix internationally
This space-race drama is a spin-off from the alternate history series For All Mankind, in which the USSR beat the US to the Moon. The original series is now in its fifth season and international teams have colonised Mars. The new show presents the same story from the Soviet point of view and goes back to the beginning of the competition to conquer the Moon. Rhys Ifans plays the mastermind of the space program. Everyone addresses him as Chief Designer, as if that's his name. Anna Maxwell Martin plays a military officer who is part of the KGB and who insists the Chief Designer do what's best for the country's image, even if it means sending an inexperienced cosmonaut (Alice Englert) into space, so the Soviets can land the first woman on the Moon. Even alt-histories have ties to reality, though: the show's title is the nickname of the actual cosmonaut training centre outside Moscow.
Star City premieres 29 May on Apple TV internationally
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