The merry month of May brings with it many things, not limited to an iconic film star making the leap from the bigger screen to the smaller one. Sylvester Stallone did the same thing not too long ago with debatable results, so it’s entirely possible this is an attempt to show him up in the A-list equivalent of an actual dick-measuring contest.
Here are the biggest new TV shows of May 2023.
New TV In May 2023
1. Unicorn: Warriors Eternal | May 4th, 2023
It’s Genndy Tartakovsky, he of Samurai Jack and Primal fame, doing what is described as ‘a supernatural steampunk fantasy’. If you’re a fan, that sentence probably became all the excuse you need before the full stop. Tartakovsky found his niche of stylised ultraviolence a long time ago and has kept religiously to it.
‘Supernatural steampunk fantasy’, it must be said, sounds faintly like they threw words at a wall to find out what would stick, as indeed does the title. But, in the realm of animation, it’s fairly trivial to touch all those bases, and going by the trailer they have done, quite handily and in pretty spectacular fashion. By all first impressions this is not a show that’s big on restraint, and you wouldn’t want it to be anyway.
2. Class Of ’09 | May 10th, 2023
Following a ragtag bunch of FBI agents who came through Quantico in 2009, this thriller explores what happens when artificial intelligence meets the criminal justice system. The technology runs the perennial risk of being written by people who don’t really understand the technology, but speculative fiction is just that – speculative. If it gets wacky and implausible that’s potentially a positive boon for the viewer at home.
More worrisome is its decision to go leaping about between no fewer than three timeframes. This is a curse that afflicts a few too many modern productions, which can probably be traced back to the influence of Westworld. It’s a format which can, if used correctly, play with the viewer’s expectations and preconceptions to create a genuinely thrilling watch – more often it’s just overcomplicated rubbish.
3. City On Fire | May 12th, 2023
I have an affection for works whose titles are accurate, or rather, a disdain for those which aren’t, and once got quite angry at Inside No. 9 for having betrayed its central format by including scenes set outside a No. 9. As such, I’m very happy to report that City On Fire involves ‘a mysterious string of fires’ being set all over New York.
It all kicks off when a student, played by Chase Sui Wonders, is shot and killed in Central Park. Their friend Wyatt Oleff goes looking for answers, which quickly spirals into being mixed up with a family of real estate tycoons, the New York music scene, and, yes, all those fires that keep happening.
To put it lightly, big names in Manhattan real estate have become rather popular as villain-figures in recent years – but would they realistically go so far as to drum up business by burning buildings down? Well, it’s not the worst thing anyone’s ever done for money. Also, if I’ve successfully called a major plot point weeks in advance I can only apologise.
4. Gremlins: Secrets Of The Mogwai | May 5th, 2023
Do I really dare to get excited over another revival of a beloved old property from the 1980s, having had my fingers burned so badly by History Of The World Part II? This one, at least, isn’t daring a room of dippy no-name sub-SNL comedians to think they’re as funny or charming as Mel Brooks.
This is a prequel set in 1920s Shanghai, where the young Sam Wing (the wise old shopkeeper from the first film) first encounters Gizmo, the friendly gremlin, and presumably learns first-hand why you absolutely do not get him wet or feed him after midnight.
An animated format seems perfectly judged for the Gremlins – by the end of the second film, one of them had already turned into a creature of pure animation. If anything, it’s a surprise this hadn’t already been done back in the ‘80s as natural Saturday morning kids’ fare, right there inbetween the Mr. T cartoon and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
5. FUBAR | May 23rd, 2023
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governator himself, plays a CIA agent who’s planning to retire after one last job. But it turns out, record scratch, his daughter works for the CIA too? And neither of them knew the other did? And the vicar’s coming to tea and he hasn’t got any trousers on? (That last part may not actually be a plot thread.)
Iron Arn is the kind of inherently comic persona that’s perfectly suited for a broad, farcical take on the action genre – territory he’s been in before with Last Action Hero. The risk is that a juggernaut-figure like him, filtered through Netflix’s production values, may all end up so over-produced and carefully constructed it squeezes all the life and fun out of it. Still, if he ends up floundering, he can just pull out his bad American accent.
READ MORE: Biggest New Games Of May 2023: All About Zelda
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