Four dramas, four stand-up comedy specials, two comedy-drama series, and one reality TV show — all from Australia — premiere in the US in May.
For updates about shows from Australia and New Zealand added to US linear TV and streaming channels throughout the month, see the Down Under TV Viewing Guide.
Programs and dates are subject to change without prior notice.
Videos below may contain content that is not suitable for everyone.
NATIONAL PREMIERES
Bloom: Season 2 (AU)
The winner of the 2019 Logie Award for Most Outstanding Miniseries/Telemovie, this sci-fi mystery series returns to continue the story of the mysterious and inexplicable “fountain of youth” that transformed the lives of a country community in the wake of a devastating flood.
Opening three months after the Season 1 finale, the new season finds news of the miracle has spread beyond Mullan, while some locals hope they’ve seen the last of the phenomenal yet ultimately destructive plant. When newcomers arrive — with a startling secret and a hidden agenda that could alter the course of human existence — a battle between science and faith erupts. And soon it is discovered that the properties of the new second-generation plant are vastly more formidable than the first.
Returning to the series are Bryan Brown (F/X), Phoebe Tonkin (The Originals), Genevieve Morris (City Homicide), Terry Norris (Jack Irish), Tom Budge (Gallipoli), Anne Charleston (Neighbours), Jacki Weaver (Secret City), and Rod Mullinar (Reef Doctors).
Joining the cast are Jacqueline McKenzie (Safe Harbour), Toby Schmitz (Newton’s Law), Bella Heathcote (The Man in the High Castle), Jackson Heywood (Home and Away), Christiaan Van Vuuren (Top of the Lake), and Oliver Ackland (The Originals).
Bloom: Season 2 premieres in the US on Friday, May 1, exclusively on Hulu.
Lano & Woodley: Fly (AU)
Australia’s favorite double act, Colin Lane (The Doctor Blake Mysteries) and Frank Woodley (Rosehaven), reunited for “Fly,” their comeback show — about the history of aviation.
Lano & Woodley: Fly, an Amazon Original comedy special, premieres in the US on Friday, May 1, on Prime Video. (You can add it to your watchlist now.)
Reckoning (AU-US)
In this psychological thriller, an infamous serial killer who’s been dormant for years is believed to have killed again. This sets two men with close links to the case on a dangerous collision course that threatens both their families.
Homicide Detective Mike Serrato (Aden Young, Rectify, The Code) and high school guidance counselor Leo Doyle (Sam Trammell, Homeland, True Blood) try to do what’s best for the people they love and the families they protect. But as both struggle to suppress their inner demons, the murder of a local teenager sets them on a course of mutual destruction that will touch every corner of their quiet, suburban community.
Costars include Simone Kessell (Pine Gap), Laura Gordon (Secret City), Gloria Garayua (How to Get Away With Murder), Mitzi Ruhlmann (The Code), Milly Alcock (A Place to Call Home), Ed Oxenbould (Bloom), Finn Little (Tidelands), Anthony Phelan (Wanted), and Diana Glenn (Secrets & Lies).
Reckoning premieres in the US on Friday, May 1, exclusively on Netflix.
Tom Walker: Very Very (AU)
Award-winning comedian Tom Walker (Whose Line Is It Anyway? Australia) wrote and performs his love letter to mime, and keeps talking during what he insists is a mime show.
Tom Walker: Very Very, an Amazon Original comedy special, premieres in the US on Friday, May 1, on Prime Video. (You can add it to your watchlist now.)
Bad Mothers (AU)
This drama explores the underbelly of modern motherhood through the prism of four very different women as they juggle life’s big issues: love, family, careers, infidelity — and murder.
Sarah’s (Tess Haubrich, Pine Gap, Wolf Creek) seemingly perfect life as a local GP, loving wife, and doting mother comes crashing down the moment she discovers her husband Anton (Daniel McPherson, Strike Back) is having an affair with her best friend Charlotte (Melissa George, The Good Wife).
Suddenly, Charlotte turns up dead, and Anton is arrested for her murder.
As Sarah’s life spirals out of control, she finds unlikely support from a ragtag group of mums called The Bad Mothers Club, and finds herself drawn into the chaotic worlds of her new friends, including Danielle (Jessica Tovey, Home and Away), the outgoing mum who needs more in her life; Bindy (Shalom Brune-Franklin, The Heart Guy), the wild child party mum; and Maddie (Mandy McElhinney, Howzat! Kerry Packer’s War), the fierce mum battling with a difficult child and an acrimonious custody battle.
The one thing stopping Sarah from leaving the mess of her old life behind her is Anton swears he’s innocent. Now she will have to add “detective” to her already lengthy list of jobs if she is to clear her husband’s name.
Costars include Don Hany (My Life Is Murder), Steve Bastoni (Fat Tony & Co), David Roberts (Offspring), Toby Truslove (Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries), and Michala Banas (McLeod’s Daughters).
Bad Mothers premieres in the US with its first episode on Thursday, May 7, on Sundance Now (you can add it to your list now) and its digital channels, including Sundance Now on Amazon. New episodes will debut on subsequent Thursdays.
Lambs of God (AU)
Adapted from Marele Day’s novel of the same name, this dark, Gothic tale centers on three nuns living in an isolated convent by the coast, and the unwelcome visitor who enters their lives and changes their world forever.
Sisters Iphigenia (Essie Davis, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, The White Princess), Carla (Jessica Barden, The End of the F***ing World, Penny Dreadful), and Margarita (Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Leftovers) — each a generation apart — are the last remaining members of the enclosed order of St Agnes. Basically forgotten by the Catholic Church, the cloistered women live in a rundown convent on a remote Australian island where they tend to a flock of sheep that they have named after nuns who have died.
One day a young priest, Father Ignatius (Sam Reid, Bloom, Prime Suspect 1973), arrives on the island to survey the supposedly abandoned abbey for a new project. Feeling threatened, the nuns make Ignatius their prisoner, which prompts inquiries on the mainland about his absence and lack of communication. Meanwhile, Iphigenia puts in motion a plan to thwart Ignatius as Carla becomes attracted to him. When all is said and done, all of their lives, as well as the convent and island, will have been forever changed.
Costars include Kate Mulvany (Secret City), Daniel Henshall (TURN: Washington’s Spies), John Bell (Deadline Gallipoli), and Damon Herriman (Mr Inbetween).
Lambs of God premieres in the US on Thursday, May 7, on Topic and its digital channels, including Topic on Amazon.
Anne Edmonds: What’s Wrong With You (AU)
Hailed as the “best comedian in Australia” by the Herald Sun, Anne Edmonds performs in her debut special — an hour-long show in which she tells you what’s wrong with you and everyone else.
(A clip from the special comes at the 1:53 mark in the video below.)
Anne Edmonds: What’s Wrong With You, an Amazon Original comedy special, premieres in the US on Friday, May 8, on Prime Video. (You can add it to your watchlist now.)
SeaChange: Series 3 (AU)
In the final (pre-reboot) season of this multiple award-winning drama from 2000, magistrate Laura Gibson (Sigrid Thornton, Wentworth, The Code) makes a decision about her relationship with foreign correspondent Max (William McInnes, Deep Water), as does Heather Jelly (Kerry Armstrong, Bed of Roses) about her marriage to Mayor Bob (John Howard, All Saints). Desperation compels many of the Pearl Bay locals to take action in their lives, but the common goal to save the coastal town from ruin (and worse) is what brings the whole community together in a big way.
(Video is from Series 1)
Costars include Kate Atkinson (Jack Irish), Brett Swain (Underbelly), Patrick Dickson (Lambs of God), Shaun Micallef (Mr & Mrs Murder), and Mark Mitchell (Round the Twist).
SeaChange: Series 3 premieres in the US and Canada on Monday, May 11, exclusively on Acorn TV and its digital channels, including Acorn TV on Amazon.
The Great (AU-UK)
This satirical, comedic drama is about the rise of Catherine the Great from outsider to the longest reigning female ruler in Russia’s history. Season One is a fictionalized, fun, and anachronistic tale of an idealistic, romantic young Catherine (Elle Fanning, Maleficent), who arrives in Russia for an arranged marriage to the mercurial Emperor Peter (Nicholas Hoult, X-Men). Hoping for love and sunshine, she finds instead a dangerous, depraved, backward world that she resolves to change. All she has to do is kill her husband, beat the church, baffle the military, and get the court onside.
Costars include Phoebe Fox (Close to the Enemy), Adam Godley (Fallet), Gwilym Lee (Midsomer Murders), Charity Wakefield (Wolf Hall), Douglas Hodge (Penny Dreadful), Sacha Dhawan (Doctor Who), Sebastian de Souza (Medici: The Magnificent), Bayo Gbadamosi (War of the Worlds), and Belinda Bromilow (The Heart Guy).
The Great, a Hulu Original series, premieres in the US on Friday, May 15, exclusively on Hulu. (You can add it to your stuff now.)
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas (AU)
Emmy® and Peabody Award-winning comedian Hannah Gadsby decided to name her second album after one of her dogs in the hopes that he would inspire comedy obedience. Then, after taking her metaphorical muse off for a world tour of a walk, she filmed the show in Los Angeles.
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas, a Netflix Comedy Special, premieres in the US on Tuesday, May 26, exclusively on Netflix. (You can add it to your queue now.)
Married at First Sight: Australia (AU)
As with other versions of the hit reality TV show Married at First Sight, the Australian series follows couples “matched” by experts John Aiken, Mel Schiling, and Dr. Trisha Stafford as they meet, marry, honeymoon, and then live together in (what is hopefully) wedded bliss. At the end of the season, the couples must decide if they will remain married or get divorced. Married at First Sight: Australia premieres in the US on Wednesday, May 27, at 9 PM ET, on Lifetime.
__________________
Did you miss any of the new shows from previous days, weeks, or months? Check the Down Under TV Viewing Guide and Archives to find out.
__________________
For details about the May premieres of shows from the UK, Canada, and Ireland, visit The British TV Place. For those about the debuts of original-language, English-subtitled programs from Europe, visit The Euro TV Place.
__________________
As an affiliate of Amazon and other companies, ads & affiliate links on this blog allow us to earn income from qualifying actions and purchases (at no extra cost to you).
