8 shows and movies to watch over Memorial Day weekend

Summer is just around the corner. Get into the spirit of long, lazy days — first, let’s pretend those exist in ample supply beyond our dreams — by spending your Memorial Day weekend taking cues from our watch guide. There are plenty of options to suit your tastes, including a new take on one of cinema’s most iconic monster brides and a retrospective of Martin Short’s high-flying career in comedy, the final season of “Hacks” and another television series that expands the “Star Wars” franchise. No sunscreen is required.

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Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

“The Bride” (HBO Max)

Heavy buzz preceded the arrival of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s feminist reboot of the horror classic “The Bride of Frankenstein” earlier this year. The casting of Christian Bale and Jessie Buckley as Frankenstein’s monster and his companion, respectively, along with Gyllenhaal’s obvious passion for the project, seemed to promise cinematic fireworks. However, it divided critics: Some brutally panned the film, calling it overbearing and ludicrous; others applauded the movie as an ambitious big swing that should not be ignored. And while most agreed that Buckley gave a committed performance as the ferocious Bride, her lead actress Oscar win for “Hamnet” did not save the film from bombing and vanishing quickly from theaters. Viewers can now decide whether it was truly a disaster or just misunderstood when “The Bride” hits HBO Max this weekend. — Greg Braxton

“Rooster” (HBO Max)

If you’re looking for some easy laughs this weekend, and you’re a fan of series from Bill Lawrence like “Shrinking” or “Ted Lasso,” this HBO comedy may be right up your alley. The show follows Greg Russo (Steve Carell), a divorced author of “beach reads” who is offered a position at a university where his daughter, Katie (Charly Clive), teaches. Katie, as much as she loves her dad, also wants some space as she navigates the messy relationship with her husband Archie (Phil Dunster), who has left her for a graduate student named Sunny (Lauren Tsai). (Katie does not take it well.) The show is filled with mishaps and misunderstandings that will make you belly laugh. But what also makes this show special is the supporting cast that absolutely kills it when they’re onscreen, including Danielle Deadwyler as Dylan, an English professor; John C. McGinley as Walter, the school’s president; and Robby Hoffman as Mo, Sunny’s friend and roommate. The series just wrapped its first season — I’m willing to bet you’ll binge this one. — Maira Garcia

“Marty, Life Is Short” (Netflix)

This delightful and moving documentary brings into focus Martin Short’s life and decades-long career in comedy. Don’t be fooled by its straightforward overview of Short’s rise to showbiz mainstay through his eccentric, vaudevillian brand of comedy. Directed by his longtime friend Lawrence Kasdan, who first collaborated with the comedian on the 1987 comedy “Cross My Heart,” the film goes beyond the bullet points, offering intimate insights about the lows of building a career and a touching look at him as a friend and family man. In addition to hearing directly from Short, the film features soundbites from people who know him well, including Andrea Martin, Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, Steve Martin, Eugene Levy and the late Catherine O’Hara. But the true standout moments come from the home footage provided by Short. It’ll leave you longing for a whole docu-series of his star-studded gatherings with some of the names mentioned above. What do you mean we get to see Short and Hanks, both shirtless on a boat, re-enact a scene from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” — in this scenario, Hanks’ Forrest Gump is the Sundance Kid and Short’s famous sketch-comedy character Ed Grimley is Butch — as they hurl themselves into the sea? That beats any reality TV moment or DIML vlog on TikTok I’ve seen this year. — Yvonne Villarreal

“Adventure Time” (Hulu, Disney+)

With the new “Adventure Time: Side Trips” due on Hulu and Disney+ on June 29, I am watching Pendleton Ward’s original series from the beginning, the better to appreciate its deep world-building and pick up whatever I might have missed the first time. Set in a lush, lively post-apocalyptic world where human boy Finn and shape-shifting dog Jake fight villains and party with friends, it’s gorgeously strange, beautifully designed and full of feeling. Characters include a pie-baking little elephant; Lady Rainicorn, half-unicorn, half-rainbow; a sort of sentient Game Boy; a vampire queen; and the Ice King, looking for a princess (Bubblegum, Flame, Lumpy Space, Hot Dog) to love him. A nexus of creative young animators, it’s the trunk of a tree whose branches include “Summer Camp Island,” “Steven Universe,” “Over the Garden Wall,” and “OK K.O.: Let’s Be Heroes,” which is to say, it’s possibly the most important cartoon show of the 21st century. At 283 episodes, there’s more than one can consume over even a holiday weekend, obviously, but you have to start somewhere. — Robert Lloyd

“The Boroughs” (Netflix)

In an isolated but fairly posh desert retirement community, freaky things are afoot. Strangely, no one seems to notice until cranky, grieving widower Sam (Alfred Molina) moves in. He hates the Boroughs at first sight and is only there because his now-dead wife signed them up in an apparently unbreakable contract. So of course he’s going to complain about every problem, from a broken door knob to, you know, a mysteriously dead neighbor. And before you can say, “The Thursday Murder Club” meets “Stranger Things” by way of “Scooby-Doo,” he’s reluctantly assembled a group of equally curious residents played by equally high-wattage actors including Geena Davis, Alfre Woodard, Clarke Peters and Denis O’Hare — all of whom make the Boroughs, and “The Boroughs,” well worth the price of admission, be it during nocturnal visits by monsters or an occasionally creaking plot.

Though still a criminally underrepresented demographic, aging boomers are having something of a moment on TV (see also “Only Murders in the Building,” “A Man on the Inside” and “Hacks”) and “The Boroughs,” (produced by the Duffer Brothers, who gave us “Stranger Things”) is a perfect example of why. The message of every unlikely-hero story is inevitably one of empowerment — kids/hobbits/retirees are just as capable of saving the day as muscle-bound men in their prime — and actors as strong and experienced as these can glide over plot holes and shoulder three times their weight in disbelief suspension without breaking a sweat. Getting the opportunity to watch such a group do it together is just as much fun as figuring out exactly what is going on at the Boroughs and who’s going to stop it. — Mary McNamara

“Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord” (Disney+)

“The Mandalorian and Grogu” is the shiny new “Star Wars” movie in theaters this weekend — the franchise’s first since 2019 — but let’s not forget that some of the galaxy far, far away’s best storytelling in recent years has been on TV. “Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord” follows the dark side warrior in the early days of the Empire’s reign as he works to rebuild his criminal syndicate while getting some revenge on gangsters that have betrayed him. Introduced and presumed dead after being cut in half in a lightsaber duel in “Episode I,” Maul’s resilience and dark ambitions were further explored in “The Clone Wars.” Maul is a formidable, manipulative, intelligent and vicious villain that’s ultimately doomed to fail, but there’s something about his relentless refusal to accept his fate that I find a bit admirable — even if he’s evil. A noir crime thriller, “Maul — Shadow Lord” is set in a gritty, metropolitan planet outside of the rule of the Empire, meaning, yes, the former Sith lord will cross paths with some Jedi on the run. There’s no better way to close out May than getting immersed in “Star Wars.” — Tracy Brown

“Hacks” (HBO Max)

With the series finale of “Hacks” approaching on May 28, it’s the perfect time to catch up on Ava (Hannah Einbinder) and Deborah’s (Jean Smart) latest schemes. Season 5 follows Deborah clawing her way back into public favor after her short stint as a late-night host. Going out with a bang, the show’s final season has been chock-full of guest stars, from Trisha Paytas and Tony Kushner to Jesse McCartney and “Property Brothers” duo Drew and Jonathan Scott. The dynamic between Deborah’s managers, Jimmy (Paul W. Downs) and Kayla (Megan Stalter), is still ridiculously entertaining, even if Kayla still can’t get Jimmy’s coffee order right. Across the characters, the chemistry is palpable as “Hacks” builds to the pièce de résistance of Deborah’s career: a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden. — Katie Simons

“Classroom of the Elite” (Crunchyroll)

The anime series revolves around Kiyotaka Ayanokoji, a stoic high schooler with a hidden brilliant mind who enrolls in an isolated boarding school. In this cutthroat school, designed as a meritocracy to identify Japan’s future leaders, students are pushed through unconventional tests — such as a survival challenge on a deserted island — and they risk expulsion if they fail. Bribery and backdoor deals run rampant. School officials turn a blind eye to violence — and there is plenty of it.

The show follows Ayanokoji and his classmates as they scheme to climb from the lowest tier, D-Class, to the coveted A-Class. Along the way, it invites the question of whether an archetypal meritocracy can truly exist in a system ridden with loopholes. The calculating Ayanokoji can be a hard protagonist to root for, as he brazenly uses his peers as pawns. By the end of the third season, we see Ayanokoji begin to occasionally open up to a select few classmates, though we’re constantly left to wonder if those moments are genuine or engineered. Season 4, which premiered in early April with weekly releases, picks up with Ayanokoji in his second year and brings a new slate of characters with murky motivations. — Iris Kwok

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