Coming up in May: Best new TV shows, streaming options, films and albums
desarts Coming in May.
Hot (ish) on the heels of Framing Britney Spears, Mobeen Azhar sets out to untangle the complexities of the “conservatorship” financial arrangement under which Spears’ father has controlled her financial affairs for the past 13 years. He travels from Spears’ current residence of Los Angeles to her hometown in Kentwood, Louisiana.
It was one of the most audacious crimes in the history of Northern Ireland (which is saying a lot). The December 2004 robbery of the Northern Bank is said to have included up to 30 republicans, including top-level IRA personnel. They escaped with £26.5 million. Now Darragh MacIntyre and Sam McBride, turn a spotlight on the notorious crime.
Before signing off from RTÉ, Tommie Gorman presents a personal reflection on his experiences with cancer. Originally diagnosed in 1994 when working in Brussels as Europe correspondent, Gorman had a rare form of the disease which manifested as “Neuro-endocrine tumours”.
It was the same strain of cancer as that which claimed the life of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Gorman first investigated the condition in a 2002 documentary Europe, Cancer and Me. Now he revisits the subject, exploring how healthcare in Ireland has changed in the intervening decades.
The former Arsenal soccer star looks at the impact on children of growing up in an psychologically abusive and violent home – and shares his own story of a childhood filled with trauma.
With Disney + having huge success with its Marvel spin-offs, Netflix is turning to comic book icon Mark Millar (Kick-Ass, Kingsman) It’s a “what if Superheroes but in real life?” affair that shares its DNA with The Boys and Invincible on Amazon and Alan Moore’s Watchmen.
What if the covert network that smuggled slaves out of the Antebellum South prior to the American Civil War was literally a rail-road? That is the premise of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning dark fantasy from 2016. It now comes to the screen, with Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) writing and directing and Thuso Mbedu and Joel Edgerton starring.
Joss Whedon’s reputation has taken a bit of a battering following allegations of unbecoming behaviour on the sets of Justice League and Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. Can he put these controversies behind him as he plunges into the steam-punk genre with a show about a group of Victorian women with “unusual abilities, relentless enemies, and a mission that might change the world”? Laura Donnelly, Ann Skelly, Olivia Williams and James Norton head the cast.
Apple’s original dramas have tended towards the bombastic and high-concept. But season one of this London-set comedy drama about a couple trying to conceive plucked at the heartstrings. The pathos continues to be laid in season two as Rafe Spall and Esther Smith return as Jason and Nikki – a husband and wife who’d give anything for a bundle of joy.
Aziz Ansari has been absent from our screens after becoming embroiled in a #MeToo controversy in 2018. The series returns for a third run and will focus on Lena Waithe’s character, Denise.
The Belfast singer is infamously not a fan of the lockdown. Nonetheless he’s made the most of the time off the road, spending 2020 working on “ideas on piano, guitar and saxophone”. The resulting album represents an artist getting “out of the box”, he says.
Daddy’s Home
Informed by her experiences as the daughter of a convicted felon, who was freed in 2019, Annie Clark’s new album looks back to the Seventies for inspiration, with results that suggest a mash-up of Bowie’s Young Americans and a Tarantino soundtrack.
After global number one Drivers' License, the former High School Musical star releases her first album. She describes it as “an intersection between mainstream pop, folk music and alternative rock”.
The London art-rockers’ second album was recorded in the Hellfire Club in the Dublin Mountains, with producer John “Spud” Murphy. The record will incorporate blood, sweat, tears and, for the first time, saxophone.
Techno vegan electro-boffin Moby revisits some of his biggest hits, with new orchestration and guest vocals from Kris Kristofferson, Mark Lanegan, Jim James, Gregory Porter and others.
Thus far, the roll-out of the record has been overshadowed by a difference of opinion between Moby and Natalie Portman over whether they “dated” when she was 20 and he 33.
The actress described Moby as “creepy” and labeled her account of their friendship “disturbing”.
This adaptation of the Walter Dean Myers bestseller tells the story of 17-year-old straight-a student Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), who is charged with murder. We follow him as he enters an American legal system steeped in racial prejudice. The cast also includes Jennifer Hudson and Jeffrey Wright as Steve’s parents, along with Jennifer Ehle, Tim Blake Nelson and rappers Nas and A$AP Rocky.
Will this Netflix thriller suffer fallout from allegations of bullying recently levelled against its producer, Scott Rudin? Only time will tell. Joe Wright directs and Amy Adams stars in the tale of a snoopy New Yorker who notices that a woman across the street has vanished – and begins to suspect foul play.
A dark thriller set in South Africa in the dying days of Apartheid. A cop and a serial killer have common cause as they “join forces” to bring down in international child sex trafficking network.
With the Justice League “Snyder Cut” finally out in the world, Zack Snyder tries to prove he has a career outside of superheroes via his “zombie action heist” starring Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell and Omari Hardwick.
Emma Stone dons a black and white hair-piece and gets busy with a cigarette holder in this “origin story” of the dalmatian-fancying (and flaying) villainess from 101 Dalmatians. Originally bound for cinemas, it will also now be available on the Disney + streaming service for obvious reasons.
