--- description: The streaming service thinks it's a good idea to celebrate mom with crisis managers and convicts title: New Netflix Titles May 2014 Mother's Day: Scandal, Damages, Luther image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt020e616230fe2bd3/69868d65169ab0579e279186/scandal.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What Netflix Thinks Your Mother Wants to Watch  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 1, 2014 10:18 PM CUT  SCANDAL - "The Fluffer" - Abby steps in as Olivia's proxy and takes on duties at the White House. Meanwhile, the team continues to investigate B613, and someone throws a wrench in Reston's presidential campaign, on ABC's "Scandal," THURSDAY, APRIL 3 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Ron Tom) KHANDI ALEXANDER, KERRY WASHINGTON SCANDAL - "The Fluffer" - Abby steps in as Olivia's proxy and takes on duties at the White House. Meanwhile, the team continues to investigate B613, and someone throws a wrench in Reston's presidential campaign, on ABC's "Scandal," THURSDAY, APRIL 3 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET) on the ABC Television Network. (ABC/Ron Tom) KHANDI ALEXANDER, KERRY WASHINGTONRon Tom / ABC  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. May 1, 2014 10:18 PM CUT Think Mother’s Day is a time for flowers, cards and breakfast in bed? Netflix disagrees. In honor of the upcoming holiday, which falls on May 11 in the U.S. this year, the streaming-video service has put together what their monthly new-titles announcement calls “a special mother’s day treat all month long,” and it’s not what you’d expect: _Damages_, _Prison Break_, _Lu_ _ther,_ _The Fall_, and Season 3 of _Scandal._ (The first four are available now; _Scandal_ comes online May 17.) That’s right: Netflix thinks moms would like to celebrate their momness with a legal thriller, a prison thriller, two British crime dramas and a political thriller. They’re surprising choices for the holiday — Mother’s Day usually gets a pastel color palette, whereas every one of those shows is advertised using stark red or white text on a dark background. But Netflix may be onto something. The company has a proprietary [personalization algorithm that can predict what we like to watch based on all the data they’ve been collecting on our viewing habits](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/01/how-netflix-reverse-engineered-hollywood/282679/ "undefined"). They already know whether we like “Period Pieces About Royalty Based on Real Life” or “Foreign Satanic Stories from the 1980s,” so why wouldn’t they know that mothers like thrillers? And there’s other science that backs up the moms and murder theory: a [2010 study](http://news.illinois.edu/news/10/0215crime.html "undefined") out of the University of Illinois found that when it comes to violent stories (nonfiction ones, in the case of the study), women prefer tales of crime and men prefer tales of war. Recommending darker choices as “titles for her” is a refreshing change amongst the holiday’s [goopier offerings](http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2014/04/28/beyond-candid-with-giuliana-rancic-lisa-vanderpump-to-air-sunday-may-11-on-e/258180/ "undefined") — plus, moms who prefer the opposite end of the spectrum still have plenty to choose from anyway, and not just because Netflix has all four titles in the _Say Yes to the Dress_ franchise. Here are some of the other titles they’re adding this month: * _Dear Mr. Watterson_, a doc about Calvin & Hobbes creator Bill Watterson (available May 18) * Action flicks like _Kill Bill_ (1 and 2), _Gladiator_ and _Star Trek Into Darkness_ (available May 1, 1, 1 and 17, respectively) * The freaky _Escape From Tomorrow_, which was surreptitiously shot at Disneyland (available May 27) * A sextet of 007s: _Goldfinger_, _A View to a Kill_, _For Your Eyes Only_, _Live and Let Die_, _Never Say Never Again_ and _You Only Live Twice_ (available May 1) * American classics like _Forrest Gump_ and _The Breakfast Club_ (both available May 1) * A variety of _Godzilla_ incarnations, starting May 1, to mark the month that the latest _Godzilla_ arrives in theaters * The nominees for the limited-release “outstanding film” category at the GLAAD Awards And if your mom’s favorite show or movie is _still_ not available, you can give her the gift of knowing that the situation may well be temporary, as [Netflix’s catalog is always changing](http://entertainment.time.com/2014/01/02/here-are-the-movies-netflix-just-added-and-why-its-catalog-is-always-changing/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/84560/mothers-day-netflix-this-month/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/84560/mothers-day-netflix-this-month/"},"headline":"What Netflix Thinks Your Mother Wants to Watch","datePublished":"2014-05-01T22:18:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:13.428Z","description":"The streaming service thinks it's a good idea to celebrate Mom with crisis managers and convicts","url":"https://time.com/84560/mothers-day-netflix-this-month/","keywords":["Living","women","Television","Netflix","movies","Mother","Mom","Mother's Day"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt020e616230fe2bd3/69868d65169ab0579e279186/scandal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt020e616230fe2bd3/69868d65169ab0579e279186/scandal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Scandal","caption":"Scandal","creditText":"Ron Tom / ABC","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/84560/mothers-day-netflix-this-month/","name":"What Netflix Thinks Your Mother Wants to Watch"}}]}] ```