May TV boasts premieres of Obi-Wan Kenobi, a new Star Trek, and Conversations With Friends

Paramount+ has flirted with the original Star Trek canon a few times in its new spin-off shows, most explicitly in Star Trek: The Next Generation sequel series Picard. But now it’s going to flirt closer than ever with Strange New Worlds, a new series starring Anson Mount as Christopher Pike, captain of a little spaceship called the U.S.S. Enterprise, and his friends Number One (Rebecca Romijn) and Spock (Ethan Peck). There’s no James T. Kirk, , but people who like their space captains to be roguish charmers are in luck anyway: Mount’s Pike, as seen previously on Star Trek: Discovery, clearly went to Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark School Of Snark And Quippery for this role. Is that a good thing? You can decide for yourself, but it seems fun at least. [Sam Barsanti]

True crime lovers may know the story of The Staircase all too well, but hey–it’s 2022 and the content machine needs feeding! In this seemingly redundant retelling of a 2004 French docuseries (which already received a followup from Netflix in 2018), Colin Firth plays historical novelist-turned-accused killer Michael Peterson. When Peterson’s wife Kathleen (Toni Collette) is found dead in their suburban home, the widower’s story about his spouse tumbling down the stairs and hitting her head doesn’t add up to investigators. So the police start digging and clues about a strained marriage begin to come out. Similar to last month’s , which took an agonizing second look at the death of Conrad Roy, The Staircase is facing an uphill battle to justify its own existence and come off as anything other than screamingly exploitative. Still, it will be interesting to see what version of the facts The Staircase chooses to present to audiences potentially familiar with the case. [Alison Foreman]

If your life needs a heavy dose of Mike Meyers, you’re in luck: In The Pentaverate, the upcoming Netflix miniseries, the actor-creator plays a whopping eight characters (with Meyersian names like Lord Lordington and Mishu Ivanov). The story, a spinoff of So I Married An Axe Murderer, is about five dudes who control the world and a Canadian journalist (also Meyers, naturally) who tries to save it; the cast is rounded out by Ken Jeong, Keegan-Michael Key, Debi Mazar, Richard McCabe, Jennifer Saunders, and Lydia West. It will be the SNL alum’s first starring small-screen role since the 2017 revival of The Gong Show. [Tim Lowery]

Bill Skarsgård is really cornering the market on playing on-screen villains. After Pennywise in the movies and Kro in , the actor now leads this Swedish original crime drama in the titular role. Directed by Jonas Åkerlund, the six-episode show is based on the life and career of infamous gangster Clark Oloffson, the man credited for the rise of the phrase “Stockholm Syndrome.” He was convicted of drug trafficking, bank robberies, assault, and attempted murder. Oloffson spent a number of years behind bars, but he often used his charm to leave behind a trail of heartbreak and trauma, transforming into a celebrity criminal because of intense media coverage. [Saloni Gajjar]

Created by James Lee Hernandez and Brian Lazarte, the four-part docuseries follows the exploits of popular attorney Eric C. Conn (he really should’ve been careful with that last name, huh?), who managed to swindle more than half a billion dollars through a tangled web of lies. He defrauded the government and taxpayers in the largest Social Security fraud case in United States history. As the trailer promises, his story includes pornstars, voodoo dolls, and Rolls Royces, so buckle up. Apple TV+ will drop a companion podcast to explore more of Conn’s outrageous lifestyle, with additional interviews and behind-the-scenes details that aren’t covered in the show. Hey, it’s just how TV rolls these days. [Saloni Gajjar]

For seven seasons on Prime Video, the Titus Welliver-starring Bosch (based on the Michael Connelly novels) quietly hung around as one of the platform’s biggest hits, with Welliver’s Harry Bosch solving hard-boiled mysteries for the LAPD. Bosch is over, with Bosch himself retired from the police force, but the Bosch universe lives on in this new spin-off for Amazon’s recently renamed Freevee platform (formerly IMDb TV). Welliver will still be there, with his character now an investigator for Mimi Rogers’ DA from the original series, and he’ll be working alongside his daughter Maddie, played by Madison Lintz. [Sam Barsanti]

Jessica Biel stars as the curly, creepy Candy in this “five-night event” from Hulu. Created by Nick Antosca and Robin Veith, this ’80s-set crime drama follows a housewife in a rural Texas community whose god-fearing ways and saccharine sweetness precede her. That is, until Mrs. Candy Montgomery embarks on a secret affair with her best friend’s husband not long before her BFF is found dead. This dramatic true-crime retelling comes from some of the same producers behind The Act and ; the latter of the two series saw Biel earn numerous awards nominations, including a nod for Best Actress at the 2018 Emmys. Melanie Lynskey (sporting an utterly traumatic bowl cut in Candy’s trailer) appears as the best friend, Betty Gore; Pablo Schreiber plays Betty’s husband Allan Gore; and Timothy Simons plays Candy’s husband Pat Montgomery. [Alison Foreman]

After eight seasons of , The Essex Serpent marks Claire Danes’ return to the small screen in a leading role. She stars alongside s Tom Hiddleston in this six-episode period drama, based on Sarah Perry’s novel of the same name. Set in the Victorian era, Danes plays a wealthy widow named Cora Seaborne, who moves to Essex to investigate reports of a mythical serpent. She forms a surprising bond with the local pastor, Will Ransome (Hiddleston), even though he is already married. (Is he about to become this year’s ? TBD). When tragedies begin to strike, the locals accuse Cora of attracting this mystical snake to their town. [Saloni Gajjar][Note: A former version wrongly stated the show is set in 1983.]

David E. Kelley’s legal drama is based on Michael Connelly’s 2008 novel, The Brass Verdict. And no, it doesn’t have any tie-ins with the 2011 film starring Matthew McConaughey. In the show, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo takes over the character of Mickey Haller, an iconoclastic idealist who runs his law practice in Los Angeles out of the back of his Lincoln Town Car—hence the name. When a colleague is murdered, Haller dives into a conspiracy web that appears to revolve around one high-profile case. The cast also includes Neve Campbell and Becki Newton. [Saloni Gajjar]

After the phenom that was , Hulu returns to the well of young Irish novelist Sally Rooney, this time adapting her 2017 debut, Conversations With Friends. The show follows the romantic entanglements between Frances (Alison Oliver), her pal Bobbi (Sasha Lane), and a married couple called the Conways (Joe Alwyn and ’ Jemima Kirke). Many of the folks behind Normal People are back for this one, so expect some beautiful shots of Ireland, confessions about the Big L and its messiness, some lovely accents, and a good amount of sex. [Tim Lowery]

Steven Moffat adapts this sci-fi romance drama, based on Audrey Niffenegger’s novel of the same name, for a six-episode series. starred Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana. In the show, ’ Rose Leslie and Sanditon’s Theo James play married couple Clare Abshire and Henry DeTamble, respectively. His uncontrollable ability to time travel means Henry is never in the same place for long, which naturally tends to complicate their relationship when they meet each other out of order. Desmin Borges, Jamie Ray Newman, Kate Siegel, and Natasha Lopez also star. [Saloni Gajjar]

Emmy Rossum brings new, national life to a Los Angeles legend in this serialized biopic about the mononymous Angelyne. Known as the iconic “billboard queen” of Hollywood, the blonde bombshell rose to fame following a stroke-of-genius promotional campaign in 1984 that saw her striking poses across the SoCal city–and catching the attention of industry professionals on both coasts. Peacock is coming a little late to the spring docudrama trend (see Inventing Anna, Pam & Tommy, and ), but Angelyne remains a promising character study from a beloved actor overdue for a major return. Since exiting Showtime’s Shameless in 2019, Rossum has appeared in and directed a handful of episodes of various series, but this will be her first starring role since playing Fiona Gallagher for nine seasons. Angelyne’s cast also includes , David Krumholtz, Alex Karpovsky, , and Molly Ephraim. [Alison Foreman]

Set in Miami, Now & Then, an eight-episode Spanish/English bilingual thriller, is all about the differences in youthful aspiration and the harsh realities of adulthood. A celebratory weekend for a group of six college best friends goes awry when one of them ends up dead. Twenty years later, the remaining five reluctantly reunite when a threat puts their seemingly perfect worlds at risk. The ensemble includes The Flight Attendant’s Rosie Perez, as well as Marina de Tavira, José María Yazpik, Maribel Verdú, and Željko Ivanek. [Saloni Gajjar]

Eerily similar to last month’s , Prime Video’s Night Sky stars J.K. Simmons and Sissy Spacek as a couple who uncover a massive sci-fi mystery in their small town backyard. When Franklin and Irene York discovered a passageway to another planet on their property years ago, they told no one else in an effort to protect it. But when a strange visitor (Chai Hansen) follows the pair back into our world, the size of their intergalactic secret grows too big to contain. So Franklin and Irene must race against the rest of humanity to find out what the bridge between worlds really means. Good news, though: You won’t have to wait week by week to find out, because all eight episodes drop on the same day. [Alison Foreman]

The original Star Wars treats Obi-Wan Kenobi as a man with only one purpose left in his life: to sit in the desert and do nothing but a hope that the bad guys never find Luke Skywalker. But as the Star Wars universe has expanded, so has Obi-Wan’s place in it, with the accelerated timeline of the prequel movies explaining that the Jedi were around pretty recently and spin-off cartoons like Clone Wars and Rebels sending Obi-Wan on various new adventures—including at least one after he began his new hermit duties on Tatooine. Now, Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series (starring Ewan McGregor, reprising his role from the prequels) is set to reveal that he wasn’t just doing nothing in the desert for all of those years. The series also stars Rupert Friend, Joel Edgerton, Maya Erskine, Sung Kang, and Hayden Christensen—reprising his role as Darth Vader in what hopefully won’t be too much of a timeline-breaking appearance. [Sam Barsanti]

Is there anything left to pick apart about the Sex Pistols? Maybe? We’ll find out when this series about the (kinda so-so but obviously influential and culturally fascinating) punk outfit hits FX. Danny Boyle helms the show—its teaser proudly announces “director of Trainspotting” in very, um, punky type, just after a character proclaims, “I want to burn this city to the ground.” (In case you were wondering, for our money, portraying the Sex Pistols onscreen doesn’t really get better than in Michael Winterbottom’s masterful 24 Hour Party People.) Toby Wallace, Anson Boon, Louis Partridge, Jacob Slater, and Christian Lees—we’re counting both bassists—play the band. [Tim Lowery]

Tom Swift centers on the titular character first introduced in the second season of The CW’s Nancy Drew. Tian Richards plays Tom, a brilliant inventor with unlimited resources who is thrust into a world of a sci-fi conspiracy after the shocking disappearance of his father. He leaves behind his usual comfortable lifestyle and takes to the road on a quest to unravel the truth. Riverdale’s Ashleigh Murray hops on board (don’t worry, not as Josie). She plays Zenzi, Tom’s best friend whose unabashed candor keeps him grounded. LeVar Burton will voice Tom’s AI, Barclay, which sounds like the perfect fit. [Saloni Gajjar]

season two (05/01); season two (05/05); season two, season two (05/06); season three premiere (05/09); season two premiere (05/12); Somebody Feed Phil (05/25); season 4A (05/27)