Best Stuff Streaming on Netflix: May 2017

May is going to be a great month for Netflix original programming. There’s close to two-dozen returning or new Netflix original shows and a handful of original movies to choose from. The new additions, like the new doc Get Me Roger Stone about the controversial political strategist, look especially promising. But enough with the preamble, let’s get to the list!

25. All Hail King Julien: Exiled: Season 1 (Netflix Original)

Part of the insanely popular Madagascar children’s film universe, the show focuses on the continuing adventures of the gray ring-tailed lemur ruler who, as you might imagine, is forced into exile. The show is sure to continue to delight your kids and maybe even entertain an adult or two.

24. Anne with an E: Season 1 (Netflix Original)

Stop everything.

Because Netflix is reimagining the beloved 80’s miniseries Anne of Green Gables, centered on the ginger orphan at the turn of the 19th century. Expect lots of cutesy quips and timely, moralistic stories centered on feminism and bullying.

23. Get Me Roger Stone (Netflix Original)

Roger Stone was maybe one of the oddest members of Trump’s campaign rogues gallery. When he’s not dressing like the Penguin, he’s out actively trying to ruin our nation (and not just through garish pinstripe suits). Apparently 45 tried to get Stone to drop any involvement with the documentary, but Stone just loves himself too darn much.

22. Master of None: Season 2 (Netflix Original)

If you don’t follow Eric Wareheim on Instagram, you’ve probably been missing his documenting of the filming of the second season of Master of None. In summation: he and Aziz Ansari have been scooting and drinking white wine through most of Italy. We assume this is what you can expect from the second season of the award-winning show.

21. Mindhorn (Netflix Original)

Mindhorn has already premiered in the UK but is just now making its way stateside in this Netflix “sort of Original.” The movie was created and directed by the minds behind the cult comedy favorite The Might Boosh so you should know what to expect in terms of tone. The film centers on a washed up actor who starred in an 80s bionic-cop TV show (think Six Million Dollar Man) but must come out of retirement to solve a real crime.

20. Tracy Morgan: Staying Alive (Netflix Original)

If you’re like us and were wholly disappointed with the new Dave Chappelle specials, perhaps this will bring some cheer to you this May. Tracy Morgan is returning to the stage for the first time since 2014’s Bona Fide. Expect jokes!

19. House of Cards: Season 5 (Netflix Original)

Let’s be real for a second: with all the actual political intrigue going on in Washington, does anyone really need to see it played out in drama? Like, this House of Cards season could literally just be C-SPAN for 10 hours.

18. BLAME! (Netflix Original)

The massively popular cyberpunk manga BLAME! is getting the series treatment this year. The show centers around a distant future where the entirety of the human population lives in a giant labyrinth called the Megastructure, which is spiraling toward oblivion and only one man can save humanity. So, again, not much different that real life.

17. The Mars Generation (Netflix Original)

If the human race is going to survive into the future, it’s been said that we need to colonize other planets, and the young folks in this documentary are preparing to do just that. The film follows a group of teenagers training to be the astronauts who will one day bring life to the red planet.

16. In the Shadow of Iris (Netflix Original)

Another of Netflix’s “sort of Originals,” as In the Shadow of Iris has already made its debut in its native France. The film is a neo-noir focusing a man in the wake of the abduction of his wife. In trying to get her back, he unravels a larger mystery full of sex and secret fetishes. The film promises to be very French.

15. Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie

Jeff Garlin is set to have a great year—apparently Curb Your Enthusiasm is coming back to HBO in the fall and Netflix gave him his own movie. In Handsome, Garlin plays LA homicide detective Gene Handsome, who’s trying to solve mysteries both criminal and personal.

14. Bloodline: Season 3 (Netflix Original)

Unfortunately a hardboiled family drama based in the Florida Keys just proved to be too “out there” for Netflix subscribers and this will be Bloodline’s final season. What secrets will be unearthed in the wake of Coach, er, John Rayburn’s sudden departure? How will the family survive without their de facto leader/fratricidal brother? Here’s to hoping the final season is as strong, or stronger, than the first.

13. War Machine (Netflix Original)

Based on the bestselling novel, The Operators, War Machine is centered on a four-star general who’s beset with ending the war in Afghanistan. We’re sure this will be fraught with peril. The film stars Brad Pitt with Anthony Michael Hall, Tilda Swinton, Topher Grace and Ben Kingsley so there’s no way it could suck.

12. F is for Family: Season 2 (Netflix Original)

The first season of Bill Burr’s animated sitcom made us pine for the old days of sitcoms with very un-politically correct fathers, clueless children and doting wives. The second season should deliver the exact same but with more episodes (10!).

11. The Keepers (Netflix Original)

People really love learning about brutal and tragic murders and the people left in the wake. If Making a Murder was any indication of just how much we can get swept up in killings, then The Keepers will be a surefire success. The seven part docuseries will follow the 40-year old unsolved case of a nun, Sister Cathy, in Baltimore, the possible reasons for her death and the cover-up that the series will no doubt allude to.

10. The Place Beyond the Pines

This movie came out in 2012 with two of the biggest actors of the day—Bradley Cooper and Ryan Gosling. For some reason it didn’t get as much fanfare as it deserved, maybe because of Gosling’s tattoos or (SPOILER ALERT) the fact that he dies in the first act. Either way, it’s kind of an American masterpiece and has an incredibly unique narrative style. Definitely worth the watch.

9. Riverdale: Season 1

The CW made a sexy teen drama based on the characters from Archie comics. And, apparently, it’s pretty good. According to Rotten Tomatoes (where it maintains an astonishing 89%), it’s “eerie, odd, daring and… addictive.” Okay, sign me up I guess.

8. What’s With Wheat

The documentary examines the reasons (or non-reasons) behind the growing rate of reported gluten intolerance. Show this to your friend who claims they’re gluten-free or “just a little celiac.”

7. Inglorious Basterds

Quentin Tarantino’s World War II epic returns to Netflix for those of us who just can’t get enough of Brad Pitt in uniform. Watch him and an all-Jewish platoon hunt Nazis and murder Hitler.

8. Marvel’s Doctor Strange

The film is one of the most pleasantly surprising Marvel movies to come out yet despite the fact that it’s literally 99% CGI. Benedict Cumberbatch plays the doctor, and Tilda Swinton plays an Asian? Not sure on that second one but, yeah, the movie is pretty cool.

7. Supernatural: Season 12

Are you as surprised as I am that this show is still going? The two guys have to be, like, 40 years old now.

6. Dig Two Graves

After the disappearance of her brother, 14-year-old Jacqueline is visited by three moonshiners who claim they can bring him back to life in exchange for the life of someone else. Never heard of this movie, director, or actors, but it sounds awesome.

5. Sherlock: Series 4

Cumberbatch is CumberBACK as the eponymous detective. He’s gonna be solving some mysteries, y’all.

4. Norm Macdonald: Hitler’s Dog, Gossip & Trickery (Netflix Original)

Thought we were done with the Netflix Originals? Think again! Netflix doubles down on their resurrection of dad-joke-comedians (see Dana Carvey’s Straight, White Male, 60) with this from the guy who did Dirty Work and hosted SNL’s Weekend Update for a little while. Oh and he was KFC’s Colonel Sanders there for a minute.

3. Beyond the Gates

Two brothers get zapped into a VHS world after they find a board game their father played before his mysterious disappearance. Think Are You Afraid of the Dark meets Jumanji meets TRON. This actually might be pretty cool.

2. Stake Land II

Okay, so vampires are dead. And not metaphorically, but cinematically. At least until they get resurrected again in ten years. But the original Stake Land was a gas and this sequel, with an all-new cast, just may be a decent return to post-apocalyptic vampire-stricken America.

1. Two Lovers and a Bear

The name really summarizes the film better than any blurb can. Two lovers in a small town near the North Pole and a philosophizing polar bear wander around in the snow.

Why not?

SPECIAL MENTION

We thought it prudent to mention that Jurassic Park is leaving Netflix in May! Get your Jurassic Park while you can!

Probably all you need to know is that, yes, Hulu still has every episode of Seinfeld streaming on its service. But, yeah, it’s also got some cool movies and a bunch of TV shows coming in May as well. Let’s take a look!

25. American Muscle

The movie is a throwback to the muscle-bound action movies of the 80’s and early 90’s (if the title didn’t give that away). A man has 24-hours to hunt down and murder the men who sent him to prison!

24. Barbershop

Let’s not mince words here: Ice Cube should have been nominated, if not won, an Oscar, or at least an Independent Spirit Award, for his seminal Barbershop. The movie centers on the titular barbershop, its inhabitants and, eventually, an ATM robbery.

23. Barbershop 2: Back in Business

Some say that sequels are pre-designed to be worse than the original, but we don’t think that’s the case here. In Barbershop 2: Back in Business, a chain called Nappy Cuts threatens the titular barbershop leading Calvin to take action.

22. Flubber

Now here’s a remake that is truly better than the original. But don’t get it confused: Flubber, which came out in 1997, is based on the movie The Absent-Minded Professor, not to be confused with the Nutty Professor, which was made in 1961 and spawned a remake of the same name that came out in 1996 starring Eddie Murphy.

21. Free Willy 3: The Rescue

Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home is also coming to Hulu in May, but, honestly, Free Willy 3: The Rescue is a far superior film than the sequel. But, no, it’s not better than the original. Although, all that stuff that came out about Killer Whale treatment maybe casts a dark shadow across the whole trilogy.

20. He Got Game

Some of Spike Lee’s late-period movies can be hit or miss but He Got Game combines his trademark visuals and fine acting from mid-period Denzel to tell the story of a prisoner-father who strikes a deal to get out early by convincing is son to play basketball for the Governor’s alma mater.

19. What About Bob?

Dreyfuss and Murray playing off each other as two people barely hanging onto reality. Maybe it hasn’t yet been recognized as the comedy goldmine it truly is, but soon or later… it might?

18. Clue

Board game movies are almost never good (except for Battleship of course) but Clue broke the mold. Did you know that, in keeping with the spirit of the game, the film had three different endings, which went to different theatres around the country? Pretty cool.

17. Big Fish

The story of a man and his father and the tall tales we tell—a real “guy cry” movie.

16. Batman & Bill (Hulu Original)

Despite the fact that Bob Kane is often considered the sole creator of Batman, this documentary is attempting to retcon (comic term here, y’all) all that by introducing you to Bill Finger. Why was Finger omitted from Batman’s history? Well, you’ll have to watch to find out.

15. Becoming Bond (Hulu Original)

Does the name George Lazenby ring any bells? No? That’s because he played James Bond one time in one of the least recognized Bond films of all time. This documentary traces the arc of the career that just burned too bright too fast.

14. Gladiator

This is the classic tale of the betrayed Roman general fighting in the arena for his life, and his family’s honor. There’s going to be a sequel believe it or not.

13. Naked Gun from the Files of the Police Squad

I don’t think anyone can really describe the plot of a Naked Gun film but they’re always uproariously funny thanks in no small part to the genius of Leslie Nielsen. We think this one is about Det. Drebin trying to thwart an assassination attempt on Queen Elizabeth.

12. Naked Gun 2 & ½: The Smell of Fear

Robert Goulet is in this one.

11. Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult

Okay, so this one is about a bomb threat at the Academy Awards. The film came out at a time when all comedies inexplicably had mass amounts of cameos from various celebrities.

10. Nick of Time

The film is a thriller that unfurls in real time with Johnny Depp starring opposite Christopher Walken as a father who’s just trying to do the right thing (by potentially assassinating the governor).

9. License to Kill

Tim Dalton was almost the other forgotten Bond after The Living Daylights received lukewarm reviews but License to Kill changed all that. The film is a modern take on Japanese Ronin tales and is markedly darker, grittier and more violent than the Bond films that came before it.

8. Moonraker

Until GoldenEye, 1979’s Moonraker was the highest grossing Bond film of all time. This one takes Bond to space as he tries to thwart a plan to scorch the Earth and repopulate it with a master race.

7. Jackson

A documentary following the complex issue of abortion in the Deep South through the eyes of three women—the director of the last abortion clinic in Mississippi, an anti-abortion activist and a woman faced with another unplanned pregnancy.

6. Hardcore Henry

The first-person/video game-y action movie seemed an interesting gimmick but was perhaps a bit too two-dimensional (get it?) for most. It made a much better short film.

5. Coming to America

You shouldn’t need a blurb to convince you to watch this cinematic landmark. All you need to know is that “the royal penis is clean.” (That’s a famous quote from the movie).

4. Vikings: Season 4B

History channel’s Vikings is back for an astonishing fourth season. Expect more bare-chested men, skull crushing and familial intrigue.

3. Line of Duty: Season 4

Full disclosure: never seen this show but it’s a British procedural drama and this season has Thandie Newton. How could it be bad?

2. Casual: Season 3 (Hulu Original)

A bachelor returns home to help his recently divorced sister raise her teenage daughter as they both navigate the dating pool.

1. Twin Peaks: Season 3

Are you ready to get weirded out all over again or for the first time? The groundbreaking David Lynch crime drama returns after 26 years. Will we finally find out who killed Laura Palmer? (Wait, didn’t we do that already?)

April was a pretty wild month for HBO. Originally programming The Leftovers, Veep, and Silicon Valley all returned as well as the finale of one of their finest miniseries yet, Big Little Lies. So May is a little chiller for the premium cable/streaming service, but there’ll still be some fun stuff to watch!

25. Animals (Season Finale)

The second season of HBO’s animal-who-are-like-weird-people comes to a close this May.

24. The Wizard of Lies

The remarkable true story of the biggest financial scam in history comes to the small screen. Starring Robert De Niro as Bernie Madoff, the docudrama is sure to be very depressing for most people.

23. Mommy Dead and Dearest

Another in HBO’s feel-good film series is a documentary about the murder of Dee Dee Blanchard by her daughter Gypsy. The whole thing gets even more twisted when you find out that Dee Dee had been forcing Gypsy into faking a terminal illness for attention and donations.

22. HBO First Look: Alien: Covenant

HBO First Looks can be pretty interesting. This one is about the upcoming prequel sequel, Alien: Covenant.

21. HBO First Look: The Mummy

HBO is giving the First Look treatment to the upcoming re-reboot of The Mummy. This one stars Tom Cruise!

20. The Eiger Sanction

Is there anything better than watching Clint Eastwood kick ass and climb mountains? Watch him do both in this film.

19. High Plains Drifter

Clint Eastwood is the man with no name (but not that Man with No Name) as he rides into town to take care of some really bad hombres.

18. Sully

Tom Hanks does it again! This time as the incomparable Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who saves an entire plane full of people from the outside and high on weed (two of these three statements are lies).

17. Storks

Have 3D animated movies gone too far? Storks is proof that perhaps they have. In this film, storks deliver packages for an Amazon-like service but they should be delivering babies! Because we should really be disseminating more fake information to our children.

16. Jason Bourne

Ten years and one Jeremy Renner later, Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne. In this film he’s got to kick some serious ass to save the world, etc.

15. The Bourne Ultimatum

Probably the second best Bourne movie.

14. Legend

Not one but two Tom Hardies in this hardy film that’s not just for every Tom, Dick and Harry. It’s a British gangster film about twin gangster kingpins.

13. Notorious

The life and murder of Christopher “Notorious B.I.G.” Wallace is the center of this ambitious but uneven docudrama.

12. Nothing But Trouble

Whatever you do, do not Google this film and then use the Rotten Tomatoes score as a litmus test for whether or not you should watch it. We’re not even going to tell you what the score is (okay, it’s below 10%). It’s a classic pitch black comedy starring Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and Demi Moore!

11. The Man with Two Brains

Steve Martin plays a pioneering neurosurgeon with a horrible wife (who can’t relate?). He then meets another neurosurgeon who offers to help him with his problem.

10. Good Will Hunting

A manic pixie dream therapist changes the life of a brilliant janitor.

9. Frank Miller’s Sin City

Four interrelated narratives collide violently in probably one of the greatest comic book adaptations of all time. Written by famous anarcho-libertarian scribe Frank Miller, the film’s got Bruce Willis and Mickey Rourke and, amazingly, actually looks like a comic book.

8. The Beguiled

Based on the 1966 novel of the same name, The Beguiled finds Clint Eastwood as a lothario Union soldier who ends up in the wrong confederate women’s boarding school. The movie is getting the remake treatment with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell in the starring roles this year.

7. Caught in the Crossfire

Who would have thought that a cops-and-robbers movie starring American Pie’s Chris Klein and rap superstar 50 Cent would have gone direct to DVD?

6. Inventing the Abbots

Small town Illinois teenagers from different sides of the tracks fool around in the 1950’s.

5. MacArthur

Seven years after Patton, came MacArthur starring Gregory Peck as the titular American General. The man’s life is told in flashback, from his time in World War II to his hunting down of communists to his timely death.

4. Appaloosa

Robert B. Parker’s novel comes to life with Ed Harris at the helm and starring alongside Viggo Mortensen. The film is more than a simple western, defying its genre trappings with a smoldering love triangle and intriguing psychology.

3. Scream 2

The self-referential, self-parodying slasher-comedy sequel doesn’t spin its wheels even without Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich.

2. Scream 3

The last in the self-referential, self-parodying slasher-comedy trilogy spins its wheels without Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich. Although, this one really wrung the performance from co-star David Arquette.

1. Tender Mercies

Tender Mercies has more than a few similarities to the Jeff Bridges-driven (and Oscar winning) drama Crazy Heart. Robert Duvall plays a washed up country music star who marries a widow and becomes a father to her young son. When the opry lights come back to haunt him, will he choose stardom or his family?

For Amazon Prime subscribers, May is sure to be a good month. A couple of buzzed about Oscar winning movies land on the service and a few new Amazon original shows will debut as well. Not to mention a bunch of James Bond movies to sweeten the deal!

25. A Christmas Story

Well, there’s nothing like Christmas in May? This is the classic tale of Ralphie and his beloved Red Rider BB Gun.

24. Cabin Fever

Cabin Fever is Eli Roth’s debut feature film and a contemporary horror classic. Before he was making your date squirm with movies like Hostel, he made this understated flesh-eating virus film starring Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World.

23. Cecil B. Demented

While it’s often lambasted as being a “lesser” John Waters film, it’s still got everything you love from the counterculture icon—deranged and glamorous movie people and jokes that would make your mother blush. Cecil B. Demented is a true love letter to the directors and movies Waters admires (and a “loathe letter” to the MPAA).

22. Chuck & Buck

A one-time favorite on the late-night-IFC-indie-darling circuit now makes its Prime debut. An unstable young man stalks his boyhood pal, now a slick record executive.

21. Gone with the Wind

The antebellum epic traces the rise and fall of the American South during the Civil War.

20. Life is Beautiful

Lauded as one of the great films of the 20th century, Life is Beautiful was written by, directed by and starred the charismatic Robert Benigini. In the film, Benigni plays a Jewish Italian bookstore owner who uses his imagination to guard his son from the horrors of a Nazi internment camp.

19. Planes, Trains and Automobiles

PTA is probably one of the greatest buddy comedies, and ode to holiday travel, of all time. Steve Martin stars as a guy just trying to get home for Christmas. He gets tangled up with John Candy (in one of his best roles) and they set on an Odyssey across America.

18. Repo! The Genetic Opera

Did critics pan this movie? Did Paris Hilton, in the waning stages of her popularity, make a cameo appearance? Did the film lack a coherent plot? Yes, yes and yes. But, Repo! is going to be one of those films that history will look back fondly on, and if we still have cult classics in the future, it will surely be one of them.

17. Winter’s Bone

A “hicks and handguns” movie, which also introduced America to its current sweetheart: Jennifer Lawrence. Lawrence plays Ree, as she searches for her father so the cops don’t take the house away from her catatonic mother and two siblings.

16. Manchester by the Sea

If you’ve got boner for Boston, boy do we have a film for you! Casey Affleck is all red-eyed and sad as he tries to come to grips with a handful of familial deaths in New England.

15. Moonlight

If you say anything remotely funny or parodical about Moonlight, Twitter will put you on its “Definitely Not Woke” list, and a MAGA hat and NRA membership form will appear on your doorstep.

So, suffice it to say, Moonlight is the absolute GOAT.

14. Jackie Brown

The oft looked over Tarantino film that stands as probably one of the finest. The ensemble is fantastic, the story is pretty good and Pam Grier is amazing.

13. The Ardennes

The film is an admirable, Belgian take on the Coen Brothers’ formula. After a brutal home invasion goes wrong, one brother escapes while the other goes to prison. When the brother is released, well, you can imagine that things don’t get better and the reunion isn’t exactly heartwarming.

12. A Fistful of Dollars

Clint Eastwood as The Man with No Name begins his journey in the first of the “Dollars Trilogy” and a landmark of spaghetti westerns. The brooding hero enters the small town, proceeds to grit his teeth and kill bad guys in front of the incredible and iconic score by Ennio Morricone.

11. School Ties

Anti-Semitism abounds in this New England prep school drama. Nice-guy Matt Damon bullies Brendan Fraser and we’ll all learn something in the end. If you’re wondering whether or not Ben Affleck is also in this movie, you’ll be pleasantly surprised that, yes, he is!

10. No Way Out

A throwback to espionage thrillers of the 40’s and 50’s, No Way Out features Kevin Costner as a Navy Lieutenant who sleeps with the wrong woman. When that woman turns up dead, he begins to suspect it might have something to do with her husband, Gene Hackman, as Defense Secretary David Brice.

9. Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Despite the title, no, it’s not a Dan Brown novel adaptation starring Tom Hanks and it’s also not a proselytizing ego piece by Kirk Cameron, but the sequel to one of the finest modern crime documentaries. Paradise Lost 2 continues the search for truth in the case of the West Memphis Three.

8. The Doors

Oliver Stone is a weird director. He made a slew of classics in the 70’s and 80’s and then something happened. The Doors is great for any fan of the band and Val Kilmer gives himself totally to the role, but… it’s just not a great movie, y’know?

7. Denial

The second film Amazon is streaming this month revolving around anti-Semitism. Denial focuses on Holocaust scholar Deborah E. Lipstadt and her stranger-than-fiction legal battle with David Irving, a Holocaust denier. Spoiler Alert: Irving is a racist anti-Semite.

6. The Wizard of Oz

The classic film concerns itself with the travels of a murderous young girl and her brainless, heartless and cowardly accomplices.

5. Pride

Striking mine workers in Margaret Thatcher’s England gain some unlikely allies. Can these two seemingly strange bedfellows work together for equal rights?

4. The Bad News Bears

If the admirable-yet-flawed Billy Bob Thornton remake left a bad taste in your mouth, don’t fear, the original is still awesome. Walter Matthau plays the grumpy kids baseball coach who’s charged with whipping the hardscrabble team of misfits into shape.

3. Fatal Instinct

The film is a sendup of all of those steamy thrillers from the 80’s and 90’s in the vein of Hot Shots or Naked Gun. It wasn’t well received by the critics of yesteryear but you’ll be happy to know it’s aged decently.

2. I Love Dick (Amazon Original)

Amazon is certainly trailing Netflix in original programming but their new show from Transparent creator Jill Soloway should get them some good press. The series is based on the famous feminist novel of the same name by Chris Kraus, centering on the writer’s sexual obsession with Dick (played here by Kevin Bacon). Expect smart, funny writing and probably no more than three seasons.

1. All of the Weird Fireplaces and Videos for Your Cat

Did you know hiding in the depths of Amazon Video, that there are bunches of fireplace, aquarium and thunderstorm videos? Some of them go on for upwards of eight hours! There are even videos that are geared toward entertaining your cat like two puppies playing over a rag and mice running across the screen. It’s really weird and cool.

These videos are also great if you live in Colorado or California (if you catch our drift).