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The Best Shows To Watch On Netflix In May 2020

The Ryan Murphy show "Hollywood" debuts.
David Corenswet in "Hollywood."
Saeed Adyani/Netflix
David Corenswet in "Hollywood."

The new shows on Netflix:

“Hollywood” (Netflix Original)

Premise: In this period drama co-created by Ryan Murphy, young actors and filmmakers work together to try and make it during the “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Each striver has a different entrenched power to overcome, such as biases related to race and sexuality.

Like Ryan Murphy’s past projects (“The Politician,” the “American Horror Story” series), the show relies heavily on fantastic set pieces. The grandeur of the period suits Murphy’s more-is-better style.

Setting: 1940s Hollywood, California

Netflix Descriptors: “Emotional”

The opening of "Hollywood"
Netflix
The opening of "Hollywood"

How it starts: A projector shines the words “News of the Day” onto red curtains that pull away to reveal a movie screen.

The camera reveals a theater with attendees in the seats. The news clip starts on the screen with a voiceover that says in a sing-song voice: “Hollywood, California! Tinseltown is boomtown!”

Notable cast: David Corenswet, Darren Criss, Laura Harrier, Patti LuPone, Dylan McDermott and Jim Parsons

Runtime: Seven episodes of roughly 50 minutes

Bonus: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, actors promoting projects have to do interviews over video-conferencing instead of the usual hype cycle. Here’s Darren Criss talking about “Hollywood” from what may or may not be his home:

For more options, check out the best Netflix shows of April.

All the shows that have joined Netflix this month so far:

May 1

  • “Almost Happy” (Netflix Original)
  • “Hollywood” (Netflix Original)
  • “Into the Night” (Netflix Original)
  • “Medici: The Magnificent” (Part 2, Netflix Original)
  • “Reckoning” (Season 1, Exclusively on Netflix)
  • “Masha and the Bear” (Season 4)
  • “Monthly Girls’ Nozaki Kun” (Season 1)
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