Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, no new movies are being released in theaters—but TV networks, streaming services, and DVD distributors are picking up the slack with new book-to-screen adaptations for eager viewers. Watch for upcoming columns on a film version of Caitlin Moran’s 2014 novel, How To Build a Girl (video-on-demand, May 8), and a TV miniseries of Wally Lamb’s 1998 bestseller, I Know This Much Is True (HBO, May 10). Here are a few other book-based attractions coming your way in May:

May 5: Intrigo: Dear Agnes (Digital and Video-on-Demand Release)

In 2018, Swedish crime writer Håkan Nesser published Intrigo, a collection of unrelated novellas and stories. All but one of its works have been adapted as movies and released in Europe, all directed by Daniel Alfredson, who helmed the Swedish film adaptations of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest. The first film was Intrigo: Death of an Author, which starred Oscar winner Ben Kingsley and was released in American theaters in January. Now, the remaining two, Intrigo: Dear Agnes and Intrigo: Samaria, are being released digitally. Dear Agnes, based on a 2002 novella, looks especially intriguing, with its tense tale of spousal murder; it features the fine actor Gemma Chan, whose nuanced work in the AMC SF series Humans was unfortunately overlooked, as well as Carla Juri, who played a memorable role in 2017’s Blade Runner 2049.

 May 19: Wildlife (DVD and Blu-ray Release)

This 2018 film adaptation of Richard Ford’s 1990 novel stars Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal as a married couple in 1960 with a teenage son; their marriage falls apart after the husband loses his job as a golf pro and the wife pursues an affair with another man. Kirkus’ reviewer wasn’t too keen on the book, calling the husband, wife, and son “the least inflected and most stock of characters, paper dolls that seem most evidently designed to soak up sad truths.” However, Mulligan’s compelling turn as the deeply unhappy wife makes the film worth a watch on its own. Actor Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood) directed the film and co-wrote it with spouse Zoe Kazan, who recently co-starred in the HBO miniseries of Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America. The new Criterion DVD and Blu-ray also includes a 2018 Lincoln Center conversation between Dano and Ford about the book.

May 19: Sweet Magnolias (Series Premiere, Netflix)

Netflix has had some recent, impressive success with romance drama series; the enjoyable Virgin River, based on books by Robyn Carr, premiered on the streaming service last December—and was renewed for a second season two weeks later. Its latest genre entry is Sweet Magnolias, based on Sherryl Woods’ 11-novel series, published between 2007 and 2014; it stars Reba’s JoAnna Garcia Swisher, Drop Dead Diva’s Brooke Elliott, and Heather Headley, who won a Tony Award in 2000 for her role in Aida. Details about the show are sparse, so far, but it tells the story of three friends—Maddie Townsend, Dana Sue Sullivan, and Helen Decatur—who “lift each other up as they juggle relationships, family and careers in the small, Southern town of Serenity,” according to Netflix’s summary. There’s no full-length trailer yet, but a glimpse of the show appeared in this recent promo:

May 20: The 100 (Season 7 Premiere, The CW)

In Kass Morgan’s 2013 YA novel, The 100, Earth was destroyed long ago in a nuclear war, and survivors have been living on an orbiting space station. Supplies are low and desperation is setting in, so the government decides to send Clarke Griffin and 99 other teenage convicts to the Earth’s surface to see if the planet is now capable of sustaining life. Once they land, the kids struggle to survive, while also dealing with interpersonal conflicts and romances. As the Book Smugglers noted in 2013, it’s basically a teenage Lost with “the romantic gymnastics (and backstabbing) of Gossip Girl, to boot.”

Morgan followed up her novel with 2014’s Day 21 and two more sequels, but this lively CW TV series, which premiered in 2014, fairly quickly diverged from its source material—and did so with style and inventiveness. For example, an artificial intelligence played a key role in the third season, and the sixth season opened with the main characters having just woken up from 125 years of cryosleep—and orbiting a different planet. The 100 was also the first American network TV series to feature an openly bisexual lead character (the aforementioned Clarke Griffin, played by Eliza Taylor), although it was also strongly criticized for killing off a popular lesbian character in its third season (Lexa, played by Alycia Debnam-Carey). Viewers can catch up with previous seasons on Netflix before starting this final one, which will finish with the series’ 100th episode. A trailer for the seventh season is still forthcoming, but here’s an impressive fan-made recap of the first six seasons, which the show’s creator, Jason Rothenberg, shared on his Twitter feed:

David Rapp is the senior Indie editor.