Spring is in the air, and with the new season comes an updated selection of Netflix shows that are trying to turn reboots of the same old stories into fresher, more diverse stories. From Riverdale (the adaptation of the 1950s Archie Comics that’s now in its third season) to The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (which just aired its second part of season 1 last month), modern TV series are trying to explore new angles on familiar situations. For instance, Netflix’s Charmed reboot, which arrives in May (exact date TBA) explores what happens when Piper, Phoebe, and Prue are reinvented as Mel, Maggie, and Macy, three Latina sisters who are embracing new magical powers.

At the same time, some excellent films are finally arriving on Netflix, including Snowpiercer on May 1st and Moonlight on May 21st. Fans of science fiction dystopias should enjoy watching Snowpiercer for the first or 10th time. It’s led by impressive performances from Chris Evans, Tilda Swinton, and Kang-ho Song. (Given the cast, it might make a good chaser to Avengers: Endgame.) Moonlight is the Best Picture-winning tale of a young gay black man coming of age in Miami, starring Janelle Monáe and Mahershala Ali. For those of you who didn’t catch the film in theaters originally, it’s now easily accessible, and it definitely stands up to several rewatches even for those who did.

Netflix has also tapped into a formula that really works in its original Asian content: exploring unusual topics. Abyss, which lands on Netflix on May 6th and will air two episodes a week for most versions of Netflix, follows a prosecutor who has been reincarnated after an accident. She’s not the only one. This new Korean fantasy explores reincarnation, an idea commonly found in Buddhism and Hinduism, and what happens when people actually remember their past lives. It’s not the most typical drama theme. Amnesia, car accidents, or recurring illnesses are more common plot devices for Korean shows.

Then there is revisions, which sounds like an artsy Tumblr blog but is actually a science fiction anime series set in a Shibuya that has been time-warped to the year 2388, where hostile cyborgs threaten humanity.

On current events, many of Netflix’s new offerings have prescient commentary to offer on the present moment. ReMastered: The Lion’s Share, Knock Down the House, and See You Yesterday all offer redemption in some way. ReMastered, a Netflix documentary series, spends its latest episode tracking a white South African journalist’s attempts to get the American music industry to pay royalties to a black South African living in poverty, who is the original writer of the famous song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Knock Down the House documents the lives of four congresswomen, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as they campaign for change.

Finally, the Spike Lee-produced See You Yesterday offers a science fiction solution to one of the most tragic occurrences in our broken justice system: when cops kill unarmed black men, often without serious consequence. The new Netflix film, arriving on May 17th, imagines two Brooklyn teen prodigies, CJ Walker and Sebastian Thomas, who build time machines to save CJ’s brother, who was killed by a police officer. It’s the ultimate convergence of speculative fiction and social justice, which just might be transforming the genre.

Coming to Netflix

May TBA

• Charmed, season 1
• DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, season 4
• The Mechanism, season 2
• Supergirl, season 4

May 1st

• Knock Down the House
• Munafik 2
• Angels & Demons
• Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
• Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• Casper
• Chasing Liberty
• Code Geass Lelouch of the Rebellion, part 1 & 2
• Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat
• Dumb and Dumber
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
• Gosford Park
• Gremlins
• Hairspray
• Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
• Her Only Choice
• Hoosiers
• Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer, season 2
• John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky
• Just Friends
• Revolutionary Road
• Roswell, New Mexico, season 1
• Scarface
• Scream
• Snowpiercer
• Taking Lives
• The Da Vinci Code
• The Dark Crystal
• The Matrix
• The Matrix Reloaded
• The Matrix Revolutions
• To Rome With Love
• Wedding Crashers
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
• Zombieland

May 2nd

• Colony, season 3
• Olympus Has Fallen

May 3rd

• A Pesar De Todo
• All in My Family
• Alles ist gut
• Cupcake & Dino – General Services, season 2
• Dead to Me
• Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile
• Flinch
• Jo Pil-ho: The Dawning Rage
• The Last Summer
• Mr. Mom
• Supernatural, season 14
• True and the Rainbow Kingdom: Mushroom Town
• Tuca & Bertie
• Undercover

May 4th

• Like Arrows

May 6th

May 7th

• The Heat: A Kitchen (R)evolution
• Queen of the South, season 3

May 8th

• Lucifer, season 4

May 9th

• Bathtubs Over Broadway
• Insidious

May 10th

• Dry Martina
• Easy, season 3
• Gente que viene y bah
• Harvey Girls Forever!, season 2
• Jailbirds
• ReMastered: The Lion’s Share
• Shéhérazade
• The Society
• Wine Country

May 12th

• Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, volume 3

May 13th

• Malibu Rescue

May 14th

• revisions
• Still LAUGH-IN: The Stars Celebrate
• Weed the People

May 15th

• Dennis & Gnasher: Unleashed!

May 16th

• Good Sam
• Take Me Home Tonight

May 17th

• 1994: Limited Series
• Chip & Potato
• It’s Bruno
• Maria
• Morir para contar
• Nailed It!, season 3
• See You Yesterday
• The Rain, season 2
• Well Intended Love
• White Gold, season 2

May 18th

• The Blackcoat’s Daughter

May 20th

• Prince of Peoria, part 2
• Rosario Tijeras, season 2

May 21st

• Arrow, season 7
• Moonlight
• Wanda Sykes: Not Normal

May 22nd

• A Tale of Two Kitchens
• One Night in Spring
• The Flash, season 5

May 23rd

• Riverdale, season 3
• Slasher: Solstice

May 24th

• After Maria
• Alta Mar
• Joy
• Rim of the World
• She’s Gotta Have It, season 2
• The Perfection
• WHAT/ IF

May 27th

• Historical Roasts
• Outlander, seasons 1-2

May 28th

• Disney’s The Nutcracker and the Four Realms

May 30th

• Chopsticks
• My Week with Marilyn
• Svaha: The Sixth Finger
• The One I Love

May 31st

• Always Be My Maybe
• Bad Blood, season 2
• Black Spot, season 2
• How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast)
• Killer Ratings
• When They See Us

Leaving Netflix

May 1st

• 8 Mile
• Chocolat
• Cold Justice: Collection 3
• Dances with Wolves
• Disney High School Musical 3: Senior Year
• Dr. No
• Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• For Your Eyes Only
• From Dusk Till Dawn
• From Russia with Love
• Godzilla
• GoldenEye
• Hostel
• Jaws
• Jaws 2
• Jaws 3
• Jaws: The Revenge
• Licence to Kill
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
• Sixteen Candles
• Sliding Doors
• Somm
• Somm: Into the Bottle
• The Birdcage
• The Dirty Dozen
• The English Patient
• The Lovely Bones
• The Notebook
• The Other Boleyn Girl
• Tomorrow Never Dies
• Watchmen

May 11th

• Switched at Birth, seasons 1-5

May 15th

• Bill Nye, the Science Guy: Collection 1

May 19th

• Disney’s Bridge to Terabithia

May 22nd

• The Boss Baby

May 24th

May 31st

• I Know What You Did Last Summer
• West Side Story

https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/28/18514536/netflix-may-2019-new-charmed-see-you-yesterday-snowpiercer-moonlight-lions-share