Must‑Watch Netflix Series Launching This Weekend (May 1–3)

Published May 1, 2026, 6:30 AM EDT

Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.

Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.

Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.

An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.

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We finally made it to May, and things are looking fresh and new and exciting—and I'm not even talking about the weather outside. It may be that awkward changeover period before Netflix's slate of hot new titles for the month make their way to the streaming service over the coming weeks, but for Netflix's U.S. subscribers, it still has some new blood left in it that have hit recently, and they're making fantastic weekend binges.

For the first weekend of May, you should make a point to check out Netflix's new revenge thriller starring Wonder Man's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, its latest import from the U.K., a psychological cult drama that you'll want to chew through, and a new season of a delightfully backstabbing reality competition show.

3 Man on Fire

Wonder Man's Yahya Abdul-Mateen II takes up the John Creasy mantle

Yahya Abdul-Mateen II is on a roll. Earlier this year, the Emmy-winning Watchmen actor starred in one of Disney+'s biggest hits of the year so far with Wonder Man, and now he's keeping the momentum going in Netflix's new seven-part action thriller, Man on Fire. Taking on a role made famous by Denzel Washington in the 2004 feature film of the same name, Abdul-Mateen stars as John Creasy, a special forces mercenary haunted by PTSD after a mission gone bad.

On the brink of suicide, Creasy is rescued by an old colleague and friend (Bobby Cannavale) who ships him off to Rio de Janeiro to rebuild his life. Employed as a bodyguard for his friend's daughter, Poe (Billie Boullet), Creasy builds a fatherly bond with the young woman, just in time for a bunch of bad guys to kill her whole family.

All the ingredients for an action-packed series are ready—a broken tough guy with issues, a loved one in need, blood-soaked, bullets-flying revenge, and a chance at healing and redemption. As Creasy gets his mojo, and his killing skills back, Abdul-Mateen gets to show audiences what he's capable of, and it is awesome—Denzel would be proud. Man on Fire is based on A.J. Quinnell's 1980 novel of the same name, and it started streaming on Netflix on April 30. All of its 45-ish-minute episodes are there for your binge-watching pleasure.

Man on Fire

2 Unchosen

A smouldering British cult thriller with a killer cast

Fans of Margaret Atwood's (and Hulu's) dystopian The Handmaid's Tale and Netflix's own Unorthodox, will undoubtedly want to crush all six episodes of Unchosen, the streamer's latest dramatic psychological thriller. Created by Julie Gearey, who created the BAFTA-nominated British sci-fi adventure series Intergalactic​​​​​, Unchosen follows Rosie (Molly Windsor), a young wife and mother who is trapped inside an ultra-conservative Christian splinter sect called The Fellowship of the Divine that's hidden away in the English countryside.

Quiz

8 Questions · Test Your Knowledge

Which Netflix hit is this quote from?
Trivia challenge

These lines could belong to almost any show — but only one is right.

Sci-FiDramaHorrorActionMystery

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Which show contains the line: "The darkness doesn't scare me. It never did. It's the light that lies."

AStranger ThingsBDarkCWednesdayDK-Pop Demon Hunters

Correct! This brooding line belongs to Wednesday Addams in Wednesday, perfectly capturing her gothic worldview and distrust of cheerfulness. The show leans heavily into Wednesday's sardonic philosophy, making lines like this feel entirely at home in her deadpan delivery.

Not quite — this line is from Wednesday. While Dark and Stranger Things both deal heavily with darkness and fear, this particular sentiment belongs to Wednesday Addams, whose entire worldview is built on embracing shadow and suspecting the sunny side of life.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "We didn't travel through time to save the world. We traveled through time because someone had to remember it."

AOne PieceBStranger ThingsCK-Pop Demon HuntersDDark

Correct! This reflective line is from Dark, the German sci-fi thriller that made time travel feel less like adventure and more like a haunting responsibility. Dark is known for its philosophical weight, and its characters often speak about time with grief rather than wonder.

Not quite — this one belongs to Dark, Netflix's mind-bending German series. Stranger Things uses time and alternate dimensions too, but Dark treats time travel as a tragic burden rather than an exciting power, and that distinction shows in lines like this one.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "I didn't come this far to be someone else's story. I came to write my own."

ASquid GameBOne PieceCWednesdayDStranger Things

Correct! This defiant declaration is pure Monkey D. Luffy energy from One Piece. Netflix's live-action adaptation kept the spirit of Eiichiro Oda's original manga alive, and Luffy's dream of becoming King of the Pirates fuels lines exactly like this one throughout the series.

Not quite — this line is from One Piece. Squid Game is also about survival and self-determination, but its tone is far bleaker. One Piece thrives on bold, adventurous declarations of freedom, which makes this quote a natural fit for Luffy and his crew chasing the Grand Line.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "They don't come from another world. They come from the part of this one we buried."

ADarkBK-Pop Demon HuntersCStranger ThingsDWednesday

Correct! This line is from K-Pop Demon Hunters, where the mythology ties demonic forces directly to suppressed cultural trauma rather than alien dimensions. The show cleverly roots its supernatural horror in the idea that what humanity represses eventually resurfaces in monstrous form.

Not quite — this is from K-Pop Demon Hunters. It's easy to guess Stranger Things here since the Upside Down has similar vibes, but K-Pop Demon Hunters distinguishes itself by framing its monsters as manifestations of buried history and cultural wounds rather than extradimensional invaders.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "The rules were never meant to protect us. They were meant to protect the people who made them."

ASquid GameBDarkCOne PieceDWednesday

Correct! This line cuts to the heart of Squid Game's central critique of capitalism and systemic inequality. The show's entire premise is built on the idea that the powerful design games — and societies — in ways that guarantee their own survival at everyone else's expense.

Not quite — this one is from Squid Game. One Piece also challenges corrupt authority figures like the World Government, but Squid Game delivers this message with raw, contemporary urgency. The show uses its brutal game format as a direct metaphor for economic systems rigged against the vulnerable.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "I've seen things in that lab that would make you stop believing in coincidence forever."

AK-Pop Demon HuntersBWednesdayCDarkDStranger Things

Correct! This line belongs to Stranger Things, where Hawkins National Laboratory serves as the epicenter of government experimentation and supernatural horror. The show repeatedly frames the lab as a place where the boundaries of science and ethics were catastrophically crossed, changing everything for the town of Hawkins.

Not quite — this is from Stranger Things. While Dark also features scientific experiments with devastating consequences, the specific reference to 'that lab' points directly to Hawkins Lab, the shadowy government facility that accidentally tore open a gate to the Upside Down in season one.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "Smiling is the costume everyone wears before they show you who they really are."

ASquid GameBOne PieceCWednesdayDK-Pop Demon Hunters

Correct! Classic Wednesday Addams. This line is from Wednesday, and it captures her signature suspicion of warmth and social performance perfectly. The show is full of her sharp, cynical observations about human behavior, delivered with the same flat affect that made the original character iconic.

Not quite — this is from Wednesday. Squid Game might seem like a strong guess since it's all about masks and hidden motives, but this particular brand of dry, gothic cynicism belongs squarely to Wednesday Addams. Her entire character arc in the show involves learning — reluctantly — that not every smile hides a monster.

Continue

Which show contains the line: "Every stage you survive just means they've found a better way to kill you next time."

AStranger ThingsBSquid GameCDarkDOne Piece

Correct! This line is from Squid Game, where the escalating lethality of each game is both the show's dramatic engine and its darkest joke. Contestants quickly learn that surviving one round is never cause for relief — the next challenge is always designed to be more psychologically and physically devastating.

Not quite — this one is from Squid Game. The show's genius is in how it turns children's games into elimination rounds with mounting dread. Stranger Things has its own escalating monster threats, but Squid Game makes the manufactured, deliberate cruelty of each new stage a core part of its social commentary.

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Rosie's quiet life of obedience to her husband Adam (Sex Education's excellent Asa Butterfield) and devotion to her daughter and the Fellowship is shattered when a stranger named Sam (Fra Fee) shows up and ignites an awakening in Rosie—sexual, spiritual, emotional—that threatens to unravel her life. As Sam is indoctrinated into the cult, the truth about its darker side is exposed. But so is Sam's, as we learn the truth about where he came from, too.

Unchosen is a highly-bingable series with a cast that is more than above board and also includes former Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston and Downton Abbey's Siobhan Finneran.

Unchosen

1 Million Dollar Secret

The Traitors-style cash hunt returns for Season 2

OK, so I know this is a reality TV competition show that's supposed to be all about the contestants and their backstabbing and conniving tactics to win a million dollars (and it is, totally), but let's just stop for a moment and give praise to its understated host—Peter Serafinowicz. While you watch the suave Brit guide and throw snark at the contestants of Million Dollar Secret, close your eyes and picture for a moment that he's the voice of Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, he played The Tick in Prime Video's underrated 2016 live-action series, and he was Saal, the Nova Corps high-ranking hero in Guardians of the Galaxy​​​​​​!

Serafinowicz alone is a good reason to watch Million Dollar Secret, but as reality shows go, it's also good fun—I watch it with my wife. Now with two seasons (recently) complete, the premise is as follows: 14 strangers check in to a gorgeous lakeside manor outside Kelowna, British Columbia, called The Stag. On day one, an unknown player is secretly given a box filled with $1 milllion, and they must do whatever it takes to stay in the game and keep the box till the end, and victory. The problem is, though, everyone's trying to figure out who the millionaire is and vote them out, so the box changes hands to another unknown person.

Along the way, there are all regular physical, mental, and team competitions and challenges that reap rewards and punishments—while also revealing key behaviors and hints about people that either create trust or breed paranoia. Created by The Mole host Glenn Hugill, Million Dollar Secret borrows a bit liberally from The Traitors, but its 83% critics' score (and 92% audience score) clearly suggests viewers don't care—a good show's a good show.

Million Dollar Secret

As we wait patiently for Netflix's May lineup to consume us with new shows like Lord of the Flies (May 4), Devil May Cry, season 2 (May 11), and The Boroughs (May 21), these three recent additions to the streaming service that have spilled over could be the binge-satiation you've been looking for.

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