While Hulu was the first major streaming service, it’s largely been overshadowed by many of its streaming rivals. And the reality is that Hulu’s original lineup pales in comparison to other streamers, at least in terms of output. But if we’re talking quality, Hulu is a cut above the rest. It’s also the first streamer to win an Emmy for best drama series, thanks to The Handmaid’s Tale. Other critically acclaimed Hulu shows include High Fidelity, Little Fires Everywhere, Reservation Dogs, and Only Murders In the Building. And there are more shows on the way in the new year. To keep up to date, check out the updated list of the best original series on Hulu.
Looking for more originals? Check out our lists of the best Amazon original series, and the best Netflix original series, as well as the best shows on Hulu.
Love, Victor
Disney+ deemed Love, Victor too mature for its platform, but it’s coming in for a second season on Hulu. As the name suggests, this is a spinoff from the LGBT romance film Love, Simon. Nick Robinson even reprises his role as Simon Spier in a supporting capacity, but this show belongs to Victor Salazar (Michael Cimino), a teenager who struggles with his homosexuality after moving to a new town. Simon offers his support long-distance while Victor tries to work up the nerve to express his attraction to Benji Campbell (George Sear), an openly gay teenager at his school.
Created by: Isaac Aptaker, Elizabeth Berger
Cast: Michael Cimino, Rachel Hilson, Anthony Turpel, Bebe Wood, Mason Gooding, George Sear
Number of seasons: 2
Watch on Hulu
The Looming Tower
This September will mark the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an event that still reverberates through this country. Hulu’s adaptation of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower is a dramatized account of the real events that led up to 9/11. Jeff Daniels headlines the series as John O’Neill, the head of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Center, 1-49. Peter Sarsgaard plays Martin Schmidt, John’s counterpart at the CIA Counterterrorism Center. Because of the inter-agency rivalries, John and Martin are at each other’s throats in the years leading up to the attacks. And by the time the intelligence community predicts a terrorist event, it’s too late for the agencies to stop it.
Created by: Dan Futterman, Alex Gibney, Lawrence Wright
Cast: Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp, Louis Cancelmi
Number of seasons: 1
Unreal
Reality competition shows almost always revolve around artificially generated drama. The former Lifetime original series Unreal is all about the actual drama behind the scenes of Everlasting, a show-within-a-show that sure seems a lot like The Bachelor. Hulu picked up the series for its fourth and final season, which completed the story of Rachel Goldberg (Shiri Appleby). She’s a producer on Everlasting who is morally troubled by the ethical lines that she has to cross for her job. And yet she’s really good at it too. Rachel also has a complex relationship with her executive producer, Quinn King (Constance Zimmer), in part because Quinn left her morality in the rearview mirror a long time ago.
Created by: Marti Noxon, Sarah Gertrude Shapiro
Cast: Shiri Appleby, Constance Zimmer, Craig Bierko, Freddie Stroma, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman
Number of seasons: 4
Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K.
While most supervillains share a lot of negative traits, you’ve got to admit they’re also very persistent. They fail, fail, and fail again, but they always come back for more. But what happens when years of trying and failing to conquer the world takes too heavy a toll? That’s what one of the biggest craniums in comics is about to find out in Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. The stop-motion animated comedy features the voice of Patton Oswalt as M.O.D.O.K., and he’s joined by Aimee Garcia, Ben Schwartz, Jon Hamm, Nathan Fillion, and more as the villain’s focus on global domination starts to shift because of complications in his family. All 10 episodes go live on Hulu on Friday, May 21. But before you invite your kids to watch with you, know that Marvel’s M.O.D.O.K. promises to be pretty bloody, with the series trailer featuring just as much murder as it does hilarity.
Created by: Jordan Blum, Patton Oswalt
Cast: Patton Oswalt, Aimee Garcia, Ben Schwartz
Number of seasons: 1
Sasquatch
There must be a lot of snickering for those first learning the premise for Sasquatch. But if you’re one of the snickerers, prepare to be surprised. Joshua Rofé’s three-part documentary series investigating grisly murders many attribute to the legendary Bigfoot is no X-Files-esque hunt for ape-men. While Rofé does delve into the mystery of Bigfoot, Sasquatch is also about California and, in particular, the region known as the Emerald Triangle where the alleged murders took place. Sasquatch finds monsters, but the most disturbing part of the story is how human they prove to be.
Created by: Joshua Rofé
Cast: David Holthouse, Ghostdance, Christopher Dienstag
Number of seasons: 1
Shrill
Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks serve as executive producers on this funky, coming-of-age-in-your-20s comedy starring Aidy Bryant. For Annie (Bryant), seemingly everything revolves around her weight. But while she wants to change her life, she has no interest in changing her body — which appears to be a problem for everyone else in her life. While she’s struggling to launch a career, Annie is forced to juggle bad, manipulative boyfriends, a judgmental boss, and a sick parent. With so much else on her plate, everyone else’s perception of her body image is just downright stupid. Shrill‘s third and final season is now streaming.
Created by: Aidy Bryant, Alexandra Rushfield, Lindy West
Cast: Aidy Bryant, Lolly Adefope, Luka Jones
Number of seasons: 3
The Handmaid’s Tale
The Handmaid’s Tale is a true gem of a Hulu original. This dramatic dystopian series is based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel of the same name. The story is set in an alternate future where a brutal civil war has transformed the United States into a tyrannical, patriarchal culture that oppresses women. Elisabeth Moss is the star of the show, playing a woman who is forced to be a child-bearing handmaid for a military commander and his barren wife. The first three seasons have been nominated for 54 Emmy awards, winning 14 of them. The first season also earned the title of Outstanding Series.
Created by: Bruce Miller
Cast: Elisabeth Moss, Amanda Brugel, Madeline Brewer
Number of seasons: 4
Woke
Inspired by the life and work of artist Keith Knight, Woke has an absurdist, irreverent perspective on identity and culture in modern America. Lamorne Morris plays Keef, a Black cartoonist who is on the verge of mainstream success when an unexpected incident completely changes his outlook on the world. Now, his ideas and his art have permanently changed as a litany of new voices and ideas confront and challenge him in a newly-animated world. Keef has to find a new voice without setting fire to everything he’s already accomplished.
Created by: Keith Knight, Marshall Todd
Cast: Lamorne Morris, Blake Anderson, T. Murph
Number of seasons: 1
Veronica Mars
Kristen Bell skyrocketed to stardom in the mid-aughts thanks to her portrayal of Veronica Mars, a seemingly ordinary high school student in the wealthy, seaside community of Neptune, California. But by night, Veronica is a fearless private investigator and the lifeblood of her decidedly less talented father’s PI business. The noirish, occasionally soapy series attained cult status as a teen drama on The CW and was revived as a Hulu original for a fourth season in 2019.
Created by: Rob Thomas
Cast: Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring
Number of seasons: 4
Solar Opposites
From Rick & Morty executive producer Justin Roiland, Solar Opposites takes the outer space elements of Rick & Morty and brings them into American suburbia. When a team of four aliens crash-lands into a move-in ready home, they’re evenly split on whether America is awful or awesome. Korvo and Yumyulack see pollution, consumerism, and human frailty as existential failings. Terry and Jesse, however, love humans and their TV, junk food, and toys. They’ll all have to endure because their mission is to protect the Pupa, a living supercomputer that will one day evolve into its final form, eat them, and terraform the earth.
Created by: Mike McMahan, Justin Roiland
Cast: Justin Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone
Number of seasons: 2
The Hardy Boys
This modern reimagining of the classic detective books follows teenage brothers Frank (Rohan Campbell) and Joe (Alexander Elliot) after a family tragedy forces them from the big city to their parents’ small hometown for the summer. Frank and Joe are spending a quiet summer with their Aunt Trudy when they discover their dad, detective Fenton Hardy (James Tupper), is involved in a secret, potentially dangerous investigation. The boys have a natural inclination for investigation, so they become detectives themselves. And as the conspiracy grows larger, suddenly everyone in town is a suspect.
Created by: Steve Cochrane, Jason Stone
Cast: Justin Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone
Number of seasons: 1
Animaniacs
The extremely self-aware Animaniacs reboot is shockingly on-brand for 2020. The popular show about the “Warner Brothers” (and the Warner Sister, Dot) went off the air in 1998 and was revived on Hulu with help from Steven Spielberg. While it’s still ostensibly a kids’ show, the title characters are fully aware that their original audience has grown up, and they’ve elevated their comedy to walk a fine line between caustic meta-satire and physical gags. This new style is immediately evident from the show’s revived version of its iconic title song: “A brand-new cast that tested well in focus group research: Gender-balanced, pronoun-neutral, and ethnically diverse.”
Created by: Steven Spielberg
Cast: Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille
Number of seasons: 1
The Great
Everybody’s heard of Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress who presided over one of imperial Russia’s greatest periods of prosperity. But not so many know about her husband and second cousin, Peter III, who was so incompetent that she overthrew him in a practically bloodless coup d’état. History is dramatic and tragic, but it’s also comical, and The Great finds wicked pleasure in pitting Elle Fanning’s cunning and witty Catherine against Nicholas Hoult’s dull, naive Peter. Catherine’s rise is, of course, inevitable, but it’s a lot of fun to watch play out in this satirical drama.
Created by: Tony McNamara
Cast: Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult
Number of seasons: 1
Monsterland
Hulu has built a name for itself in the horror genre, thanks largely to its partnership with Blumhouse and its Into the Dark movie anthology series. Monsterland, however, stands as its own anthology television, telling gruesome tales about angels, werewolves, mermaids, and more monstrous creatures that inhabit the shadows of our world. Each episode depicts broken people driven to desperate acts to fix their lives and save themselves, ultimately drawing a thin line between man and monster. Monsterland is at times heavy-handed with its message and themes, but it’s good, thought-provoking horror at its best.
Created by: Mary Laws
Cast: Kaitlyn Dever, Adria Arjona, Taylor Schilling
Number of seasons: 1
Normal People
Based on Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel, Normal People follows the relationship of Marianne and Connell, two Irish teens, as they grow together and apart, from their school days in a small town through their undergrad years at Trinity College. At first glance, Marianne and Connell couldn’t be more different. Connell is well-liked and popular, while Marianne is solitary, proud, and intimidating. When they meet as Connell picks his mother up from a cleaning job at Marianne’s house, the two discover they have instant chemistry. Although they’re social opposites, a connection evolves that they’re determined to hide from the rest of the world. Over time, their roles in society and in their own circles evolve and change, and they’ll need each other to find the balance.
Created by: Sally Rooney
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal, Eliot Salt
Number of seasons: 1
Little Fires Everywhere
Based on Celeste Ng’s novel of the same name, Little Fires Everywhere stars Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington as two mothers in the same wealthy neighborhood with polar-opposite experiences. Witherspoon plays Elena, the matriarch of the picture-perfect Richardson family, devoted more to maintaining her family’s image than actually connecting with her children. When her youngest daughter gravitates towards Mia (Washington), an artist who is new in town, Elena can’t keep from meddling. But as she digs into Mia’s life behind her back, she sets off a series of events she couldn’t foresee that will change her family forever.
Created by: Liz Tigelaar
Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Rosemarie DeWitt
Number of seasons: 1
High Fidelity
High Fidelity is a twist on the hit John Cusack movie about a record store owner named Rob who examines his failure in love and relationships through the lens of his encyclopedic knowledge of music. In Hulu’s series retelling of the story, Rob is short for Robyn, and she’s played by Zoe Kravitz. Rob owns a record store in the rapidly-gentrifying Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights, and is determined to keep her store authentic. But she also struggles in love, and the series follows her attempts to grow up, find her identity, and get over her one true love while revisiting her past relationships through music and pop culture.
Created by: Sarah Kucserka, Veronica West
Cast: Zoë Kravitz, Jake Lacy, Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Number of seasons: 1
Crossing Swords
From the producers of Robot Chicken, Crossing Swords retains some of the raunch and zaniness but also adopts a linear narrative. The story follows a goodhearted, aspiring hero named Patrick who lands his dream job as a squire, only to discover that the royal castle is, well, gross. His kingdom is run by a nest of horny monarchs, crooks, and charlatans who will stop at nothing to protect and abuse their power. The kicker: These are all peg people moving with stop-motion animation.
Created by: John Harvatine IV, Tom Root
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Luke Evans, Adam Pally
Number of seasons: 1
Mrs. America
Cate Blanchett stars in this story about the movement to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). Blanchett portrays Phyllis Schlafly, “the sweetheart of the silent majority” that is hellbent on preserving the sanctity of separate gender roles and the cult of domesticity. The story is told through the eyes of Schlafly and second-wave feminists like Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug, and Jill Ruckelshaus, exploring one of the toughest battlegrounds of the 1970s culture wars that forever changed the American political landscape.
Created by: Dahvi Waller
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Rose Byrne, Uzo Aduba
Number of seasons: 1
Ramy
Ramy Youssef won a Best Actor Golden Globe for his portrayal of a version of himself on this intelligent comedy about a first-generation Egyptian American on a spiritual journey in his politically divided New Jersey neighborhood. Caught between a Muslim community that believes life is a moral test and a millennial generation that doesn’t believe in consequences, Ramy’s perspective is nuanced, conflicted, and evolving. Although he’s looking to find some enlightenment, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still want to be a normal 20-something who dates, goes to parties, and all of that. He’s just trying to find some balance.
Created by: Ari Katcher, Ryan Welch, Ramy Youssef
Cast: Ramy Youssef, Amr Waked, Mohammed Amer
Number of seasons: 2
Pen15
Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle created and star as their middle school selves in this hilarious adult comedy. Oh, Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle are in their 30s. They’re playing 13-year-old middle schoolers while surrounded by actual 13-year-olds. You don’t need to know the creators to relate to them. They’re outcasts in the year 2000, falling in love and experiencing the worst turmoil of their lives on the whims of a passed note.
Created by: Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman
Cast: Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Melora Walters
Number of seasons: 2
Casual
This critically acclaimed comedy series follows a newly divorced single mother who finds herself living with her slacker brother, the founder of a popular dating site, after her ex-husband leaves her — and their teenage daughter — for a younger woman. Michaela Watkins, Tommy Dewey, and Tara Lynne Barr star in the series, which also featured Oscar-nominated Juno and Up in the Air director Jason Reitman behind the camera for several episodes of the series’ four-season run. Widely praised for its clever dialogue and insightful look at the modern dating scene, Casual earned a Golden Globe Award nomination in 2016 as one of the year’s best comedy series.
Created by: Zander Lehmann
Cast: Michaela Watkins, Tommy Dewey, Tara Lynne Barr
Number of seasons: 4
The Act
The Act is a seasonal anthology series that focuses on some of the strangest true crime stories yanked straight from the headlines. The first season follows Gypsy Blanchard (Joey King), a girl trying to escape the toxic relationship she has with her mother, Dee Dee (Patricia Arquette), who suffers from Munchausen by proxy. As Gypsy seeks independence, she opens a Pandora’s box of secrets that ultimately lead to her mother’s murder. If you like crazy, true stories about situations that get dramatically out of hand, you’ll love The Act.
Created by: Nick Antosca, Michelle Dean
Cast: Patricia Arquette, Joey King, AnnaSophia Robb
Number of seasons: 1
Castle Rock
If you love Stephen King, this series is for you. Castle Rock is a psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse. The series combines the mythological scale and intimate character storytelling of some of King’s most beloved works, weaving an epic saga of dark versus light, all playing out in a few square miles of Maine woods. The fictional town of Castle Rock is the setting of many King stories, including Cujo, The Dark Half, IT, The Shawshank Redemption, and Needful Things, as well as numerous other novellas and short stories. Fictional worlds collide in this fascinating reimagining of the entire King canon, serving as a reminder of how truly remarkable and extensive the writer’s work is.
Created by: Sam Shaw, Dustin Thomason
Cast: Bill Skarsgård, André Holland, Lizzy Caplan
Number of seasons: 2
Difficult People
“Difficult” is an understatement when it comes to the lead duo in this series, which follows a pair of struggling New York City comedians who are terrible to just about everyone they encounter — all except for each other, that is. Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner portray the two mean-spirited comedians who can’t seem to get out of their own way, with Amy Poehler serving as executive producer on the series. The three-season series earned comparisons to Curb Your Enthusiasm over the course of its run, and like the latter series, it also featured a long list of familiar faces from the comedy world who make cameos or play supporting roles in the series. The final season of the series premiered in 2017.
Created by: Julie Klausner
Cast: Julie Klausner, Billy Eichner, James Urbaniak
Number of seasons: 3
Future Man
The Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson stars in this sci-fi comedy series that casts him as a lowly janitor whose mastery of a popular video game leads to him being recruited for a time-hopping mission to stop a future apocalypse. If it sounds like the plot of The Last Starfighter, it’s supposed to — and that’s not the only pop-culture touchstone the series mines for inspiration. The show comes from the mind of Misfits creator Howard Overman, and the presence of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg as producers — better known for their collaborations on Superbad, Pineapple Express, and Knocked Up — offers a good indication of the sort of humor and pop culture references that fill the show.
Created by: Kyle Hunter, Howard Overman, Ariel Shaffir
Cast: Josh Hutcherson, Eliza Coupe, Derek Wilson
Number of seasons: 3
Harlots
This dramatic British American original Hulu series tells the story of a scandalous family business dedicated to pleasure. The setting is 18th-century England, where two brothel owners are battling it out. Samantha Morton plays the role of former seducer Margaret Wells. Throughout the series, she contests the upper-class brothel run by her previous boss while simultaneously managing her family and social prestige.
Created by: Moira Buffini, Alison Newman
Cast: Lesley Manville, Kate Fleetwood, Holli Dempsey
Number of seasons: 3
Marvel’s Runaways
Runaways is Hulu’s single entry in Marvel’s cinematic universe. This comic book-based television series features a crew of wealthy teenagers living in the Los Angeles suburbs who find out that their parents are criminals. The young actors and actresses thoroughly impressed viewers with an exceptional first season that flawlessly integrated today’s high school drama with old-school comic book themes. This fantastic elemental mixture made the show stand out from the rest of the superhero movies and television counterparts.
Created by: Stephanie Savage, Josh Schwartz
Cast: Rhenzy Feliz, Lyrica Okano, Virginia Gardner, Allegra Acosta, Gregg Skulkin, Ariela Barer
Number of seasons: 3
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