The Best TV Shows And Movies Leaving Netflix In May 2023

Every month brings a new slate of entertainment to streaming services everywhere, but each turn of the calendar also brings the tragic removal of a list of movies and television shows. While Netflix is debuting a bevy of releases in May 2023, the streaming service is losing some treasured titles. Good thing you have this guide to make sure you catch everything that may have been sitting in your Netflix queue before they mysteriously disappear.

Unfortunately, juggling distribution rights in the ongoing proliferation of streaming services makes it a headache to keep up with who owns what. HBO Max is the biggest offender of losing its own original content, as the merger between Warner Bros. and Discovery and the induction of CEO David Zaslav has wiped a chunk of HBO Max exclusives from the platform. Netflix has a better grasp on its properties, but even the longest-running streaming service has lost some of its licensing, like in the case of last month's Netflix original film "Hush" or its Marvel "Defenders" TV shows (the latter of which is now available on Disney+). Not all of the following titles are lost forever, but it may be a while before you see some of them available to stream anywhere.

"The Last Days" is an Oscar-winning documentary following five Hungarian Jews during the final year of World War II. The time marks a dour point in history when the occupying Nazi Party, desperate and on the verge of defeat, started to speed up its genocide and deported the country's Jewish population to concentration camps en masse. Although the film doesn't shy away from the atrocities, it also shows firsthand accounts of survivors and the resiliency of those imprisoned. The film was produced by the Shoah Foundation, founded by Steven Spielberg after he released "Schindler's List." Like other Holocaust documentaries, it's an important piece of work, so hopefully, it will be available to watch somewhere else after it leaves Netflix on May 18, 2023.

"Rango" is one of the most wonderfully weird animated films to come out in the last decade; a surreal Western featuring a cast of talking animals that, despite its more obscure references and offbeat sense of humor, manages to nevertheless remain a family-friendly affair. Sergio Leone and Roman Polanski's "Chinatown" are clear influences, except that the mysterious Man With No Name is replaced by an awkward talking chameleon voiced by Johnny Depp, and corrupt businessman Noah Cross is now a corrupt turtle mayor voiced by Ned Beatty. Hunter S. Thompson and the drug-addled film "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" are also inspirations, and director Gore Verbinski has cited Alejandro Jodorowsky's surrealist "El Topo." It's a wild melting pot, but it all works mostly due to how much everyone who signed on is so committed to the bit. The animation and character designs are appropriately ugly, the voice actors melt into their roles, and John Logan's script is just strange enough without delving into territory that's impossible to understand. Check it out before it makes its departure on May 31, 2023.