Best Shows On Hulu Right Now, Updated For November 2021

CREATORS: Julie Klausner
CAST: Julie Klausner, Billy Eichner, Andrea Martin, James Urbaniak
RATING: TV-MA

Starring creator Julie Klausner and partner in crime, Billy Eichner (Billy on the Street). Set in present-day New York City, Julie and Billy play slightly dramatized versions of themselves struggling to make it to the next level in their comedy careers.

Witty and unrelenting, Difficult People is guaranteed to make you feel, well, something. Its no-holds-barred cynicism often goes places people reserve for the Internet, thus making it the perfect streaming-only series. If you’re an urban dweller or a writer—or, if you’re unlucky enough, both!—chances are you’ll find Julie and Billy’s opinions about pop culture and New York comedy cliques instantly familiar. Sick of the stand-up and TV recapping grinds, Julie and Billy are desperate to break out of their own bubble, put rejection in the past, and get famous already — everyone just has to get the hell out of their way first. — Olivia Armstrong

Watch Difficult People on Hulu

CREATOR: Mindy Kaling
CAST: Mindy Kaling, Chris Messina, Ed Weeks, Adam Pally
RATING: TV-14

The Mindy Project first debuted on Fox in 2012 and became a Hulu Original in its fourth season. Created by breakout star of The Office, the insanely talented Mindy Kaling, the series is an unconventional romantic comedy set in the medical practice of Dr. Mindy Lahiri, who attempts to navigate her professional life and her relationships and, eventually, motherhood. With a solid cast of comedy veterans, The Mindy Project often breaks the mold of a traditional network sitcom by infusing a little bit more edge to its jokes and plot.

Watch The Mindy Project on Hulu

CREATOR: Jared Keeso
CAST: Jared Keeso, Nathan Dales, Michelle Mylett, Dylan Playfair
RATING: TV-MA

The deceptively clever sitcom centers on the day-to-day quarrels between residents of the small Ontario town of Letterkenny. What immediately differentiates this Canadian sitcom from similar shows is its distinct, idiosyncratic tone. Despite rapid-fire dialogue that rivals Happy Endings in terms of jokes per minute, scenes amble about at a relaxed pace, perfectly content to extract humor from crisp conversational comedy instead of relying heavily on an overstuffed plot. — Josh Sorokach

Watch Letterkenny on Hulu

CREATOR: Rob Thomas
CAST: Kristen Bell, Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Patton Oswalt
RATING: TV-14

Veronica Mars had a cult fan base when it aired on The CW in the early aughts. Back then, Kristen Bell was an unknown actress and her portrayal of Veronica, a sly, sarcastic, formerly-popular-girl-turned-private-eye on a mission to find out who murdered her best friend helped make her a star. When the series ended, fans petitioned for its return, and Hulu provided a fourth season, over a decade later, and while it was a bit fan-servicey in many ways, there was still a fantastic chemistry between the original stars, solid writing, and a shocking ending to keep us entertained.

Watch Veronica Mars on Hulu

CREATOR: Sherwood Schwartz
CAST: Robert Reed, Florence Henderson, Ann B. Davis, Maureen McCormick
RATING: TV-PG

Even if you’ve never seen The Brady Bunch, you’ve likely heard the theme song which basically spells out the entire premise very clearly: A man named Brady, tasked with bringing up three boys of his own, marries a lovely lady who was bringing up three very lovely girls. (If we could rewrite history we’d say two lovely girls and one whiner, sorry, Jan.) They somehow form a family, and that’s the way they all became the Brady Bunch. But listen, they’re not just the prototype for a blended family, they also have a live-in maid who’s messing around with the town butcher, a tiny cousin who looks like John Denver, and they take a trip to Hawaii that literally curses their family. It’s a classic for a reason.

Watch The Brady Bunch on Hulu

CREATOR: Phoebe Waller-Bridge
CAST: Sandra Oh, Jodie Comer, Fiona Shaw, Kim Bodnia
RATING: TV-14

Eve Polastri (Sandra Oh) is an American woman who works for British intelligence. Eve lives in London with her husband and they seem to have a lovely life and a great marriage. When Eve is tasked with hunting down an assassin named Villanelle (Jodie Comer), she becomes consumed and infatuated with Villanelle, and that eventually becomes a mutual infatuation. Jodie Comer’s performance is over-the-top amazing as she floats through various murderous personas, and Oh’s wit and charm grounds her character whose obsession becomes increasingly consuming, threatening many of her other relationships.

Watch Killing Eve on Hulu

CREATORS: Pamela Adlon, Louis C.K.
CAST: Pamela Adlon, Mikey Madison, Hanna Alligood, Olivia Edward
RATING: TV-MA

Pamela Adlon stars as single mom Sam, who juggles her career as a working actress in L.A. with raising three girls on her own. (Adlon has scored two straight Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the role.) Season 3 marked the show’s first season without any contributions from Louis C.K., who co-created the series with Adlon and wrote or co-wrote most of the episodes across the first two seasons. The series has been renewed for a fifth season. — Dave Nemetz

Watch Better Things on Hulu

CREATOR: Tom Ruegger
CAST: Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille
RATING: TV-PG

The world Animaniacs left in 1998 — after a 5 year, 90-episode run on Fox and The WB — was a bit different than the one we’re in now. No social media, no smartphones, and pretty much no reality TV. Donald Trump was still a semi-respected real estate developer and semi-successful casino owner. So, with a new writing staff in place (the show’s creator, Tom Ruegger, was not included in the reboot, much to his consternation) and lots of new things to skewer, do Yakko, Wakko and Dot Warner (plus the return of Pinky & The Brain) make us laugh like it did back in the ’90s? Yes, they do. The show is likely the only TV-G show that makes a Queer Eye reference. Like the previous version, the Warners’ craziness and physical humor will appeal to the 7-and-up crowd, but the self-references and pop culture jokes are purely for the grownups. — Joel Keller

Watch Animaniacs on Hulu

CREATOR: Carter Bays
CAST: Josh Radnor, Jason Segel, Cobie Smulders, Neil Patrick Harris, Alyson Hannigan
RATING: TV-MA

How I Met Your Mother is sort of like Twin Peaks. Let me explain. The entire series, at least as it began, was based around one premise. “Who killed Laura Palmer?” was the big one for Twin Peaks. And “Who is the mother?” was always the looming question for HIMYM. And eventually, you find out the answer to both, but not without several pitstops. The series portrays single guy Ted’s (Josh Radnor) quest for love, told via a narration by Future Ted (Bob Saget), as he explains his carefree twenties to his kids, every adventure, one night stand, and slap bet eventually, hopefully leading them to to story of how Ted met their mother, and hence, how they came into existence. The catch, though, is that for much of the series, Ted is in love with Robin (Cobie Smulders), who, it is revealed early on, is not the mother. So who is the mother, what happens to her, and how does Ted meet her? You’ll have to watch all nine delightful seasons to find out.

Watch How I Met Your Mother on Hulu

CREATOR: Mindy Kaling
CAST: Zoe Boyle, Nathalie Emmanuel, Guz Khan, Sophia La Porta, Harish Patel
RATING: TV-MA

We all know that Mindy Kaling can’t resist a classic rom-com, and none are more classic than the original 1994 movie version of Four Weddings and a Funeral. She and co-EP Matt Warburton truly lean into the more “magical” aspects of the genre, with meet-cutes and coincidences galore. Also, there’s so many entanglements — especially involving Maya — that it’s hard to keep track of the status of who’s crushing on who. Yes, the original movie involved some of these complications, but it feels like Kaling makes the knots even tighter and with more loops, making them even more cumbersome to untie.

We give Kaling and Warburton credit for diversifying the cast, and everyone does a decent job with the material they’re given, especially Nathalie Emmanuel as Maya. But it feels a lot like yet another show about annoying millennial angst and unnecessarily complicated romantic entanglements that could just be solved if people, you know, actually grew the heck up and said how they felt about the other person. — Joel Keller

Watch Four Weddings and a Funeral on Hulu

CREATOR: Alex Garland
CAST: Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Jin Ha, Zach Grenier
RATING: TV-MA

Devs is the brainchild of Alex Garland (Ex Machina, 28 Days Later), who created, wrote and directed the series, and it has a lot of the hallmarks of his previous work, especially Ex Machina. An ethereal setting in a somewhat vague near-future timeline, a deliberate pace, and equally deliberate performances. But when push comes to shove, the show is a murder mystery, just one wrapped in shiny wallpaper and a semi-futuristic sheen. — Joel Keller

Watch Devs on Hulu

CREATOR: Beau Willimon
CAST: Sean Penn, Rey Lucas, Natascha McElhone, LisaGay Hamilton, James Ransone
RATING: TV-MA

Sean Penn makes his small-screen leading man debut in the dramatic space travel series The First. The series follows Penn’s Tom Hagerty, a man who gamely attempts to balance family drama with the perils and roadblocks associated with one of the most extraordinary feats in human history: leading a team of astronauts to Mars. — Josh Sorokach

Watch The First on Hulu

CREATOR: Zander Lehmann
CAST: Michaela Watkins, Tommy Dewey, Tara Lynne Barr, Nyasha Hatendi, Julie Marie Berman
RATING: TV-MA

No show exemplifies the term dramedy better than Casual. Zander Lehmann’s blisteringly honest series is an intimate kaleidoscope of humanity that mines an absurd amount of humor and pathos from the exhausting tribulations of day-to-day life. Following an unusually close, dysfunctional family, Casual normalizes the relatable feeling of inherent dissatisfaction by debunking the very fantasy of normal. Normal’s a facade; a con; a snapshot of fantasy that doesn’t exist outside of Hallmark, emotional coffee commercials, and the waning moments of TGIF sitcoms. With an abundance of sincerity, the series surgically lingers on the messy morass of complex human emotions. — Josh Sorokach

Watch Casual on Hulu

CREATORS: Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright
CAST: Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim Wrenn Schmidt, Bill Camp, Louis Cancelmi
RATING: TV-MA

From the first moment of its first episode, we’ve known how The Looming Tower would end. The Hulu series, helmed by Alex Gibney and Lawrence Wright and based on Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book of the same name, chronicles the years that led up to September 11, 2001, and the bureaucratic infighting that kept our government from preventing it. It’s difficult to watch a series when you know how it ends, especially when the events depicted are so inherently personal and upsetting, but The Looming Tower kept us hooked from start to finish. — Jade Budowski

Watch The Looming Tower on Hulu

CREATORS: The RZA and Alex Tse
CAST: Ashton Sanders, Shameik Moore, Dave East, Siddiq Saunderson, Marcus Callender
RATING: TV-MA

The Wu-Tang Clan was one of the most influential hip-hop groups of the ’90s. And they were also unique, in that they not only incorporated eastern philosophies in their songs, but the group consisted of about a dozen artists, some of whom rhymed, others of whom were DJs. One of the catalysts in bringing the group together was Bobby Diggs, aka the RZA. He’s the co-creator of a fictionalized account of the group’s rough beginnings. — Joel Keller

Watch Wu-Tang: An American Saga on Hulu

CREATOR:  Liz Tigelaar
CAST: Reese Witherspoon, Kerry Washington, Joshua Jackson, Rosemarie DeWitt, Jade Pettyjohn
RATING: TV-MA

It seems that Reese Witherspoon has latched onto something over the last few years, producing adaptations of popular novels and nonfiction books. Little Fires Everywhere is an adaptation of Celeste Ng’s novel; Witherspoon and Washington are among the executive producers, and veteran producer Liz Tigelaar is the showrunner. Like Witherspoon’s last two shows, Big Little Lies and The Morning Show, Little Fires Everywhere tries to couch serious issues in a frothy, soapy environment, where every word uttered can be a possible misunderstanding and tensions run high. — Joel Keller

Watch Little Fires Everywhere on Hulu

CREATORS: Luke Davies and David Michod
CAST: Christopher Abbott, Kyle Chandler, George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Giancarlo Giannini
RATING:

George Clooney and his frequent collaborator Grant Heslov are the producers of this miniseries version of Joseph Heller’s classic novel about military bureaucracy and incompetence during World War II; Heslov directs the first episode, and he splits directing duties for the six episodes with Clooney and Ellen Kuras. Clearly, the project is one that Clooney and Heslov wanted to get off the ground. Catch-22 isn’t an easy book to put on screen, though, mainly because Heller conveyed the craziness of being in the military that goes along with the horror.

Watch Catch-22 on Hulu

CREATOR: Padma Lakshmi
CAST: Padma Lakshmi
RATING: TV-14

Padma Lakshmi has taken her platform as a cookbook author and TV host on Bravo’s Top Chef and has quietly become an outspoken champion of many causes. Taste The Nation with Padma Lakshmi is a project that combines her love of food with her desire to educate her audience on the diverse and often overlooked cultures that exist in their own backyard. From the indigenous population of Arizona to the bustling Peruvian population in New Jersey, Lakshmi explores these places we thought we already knew through the lens of the occupants that have been ignored outside their own communities. We also get a much better sense of who Lakshmi is as a person on the series, as she invites us into her home, introduces us to her daughter and mother and her friends from the old neighborhood in Jackson Heights, Queens, where she grew up.

Watch Taste The Nation on Hulu

CREATORS: Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason
CAST: Lizzy Caplan, Tim Robbins, Paul Sparks, Yusra Warsama, Barkhad Abdi
RATING: TV-MA

Stephen King is more than a writer. He represents a universe. For the last 50 years, King has been terrifying America with a warped funhouse mirror reflection of ourselves. His influence has been felt on film, TV, literature, and the very culture we inhabit. So much so, Hulu‘s new anthology horror series Castle Rock isn’t based on one or two King classics. Rather it’s a spin-off of the world King has created: a remix that still strives to hit all the right horror notes. But Castle Rock is so much more than a creepy-crawly rappel down into the abyss of Stephen King; it’s a harrowing meditation on the death of the American dream. — Meghan O’Keefe

Watch Castle Rock on Hulu

CREATORS: John Enbom, Rob Thomas, Dan Etheridge and Paul Rudd
CAST: Adam Scott, Ken Marino, Ryan Hansen, Martin Starr, Lizzy Caplan
RATING: TV-MA

Much like creator Rob Thomas’s previous series, Veronica Mars, Party Down became a cult favorite due to its sharp comedic writing and perfect cast of misfit cater-waiters. We all know Los Angeles is full of aspiring actors who wait tables, and this is their story. Each episode takes place at an event being catered by the staff of the event company Party Down, who are all struggling to find success in their own careers, and throughout the series there’s an undercurrent of fear that maybe they’re destined to give up on their dreams and pass the canapés forever.

Watch Party Down on Hulu

CREATOR: Susan Harris
CAST: Bea Arthur, Rue McClanahan, Betty White, Estelle Getty
RATING: TV-PG

A slutty widow places an ad in search of roommates to share her Miami Beach house that’s decked out in wicker furniture, has a lanai out back, and a kitchen that is stocked at all times with cheesecake. Her new housemates include a former Minnesotan who tells meandering and naive tales of her hometown of St. Olaf, an Italian-American divorcée with a sharp tongue and good-for-nothing ex-husband, and her mother, a Sicilian immigrant who often faces the threat of being sent back to the Old World, a.k.a. Shady Pines. It is shocking that a series that debuted in 1985 and starred four women over 50 would even be greenlit, but The Golden Girls is one of TV’s most influential and beloved comedies of all time and it is, in short, pure perfection.

Watch The Golden Girls on Hulu

CREATORS: Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle, Sam Zvibleman
CAST: Maya Erskine, Anna Konkle
RATING: TV-MA

The premise of PEN15 is clever enough: Adult actors (and series creators) Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle portray 13-year-old versions of themselves in middle school, and their entire supporting cast is actual teenagers. The pair deftly portray the devastating effects that adolescent has on the psyche, from feeling othered as a result of your looks, your race, your sexual awakenings, and your popularity level. At times, PEN15 feels like a live-action version of Netflix’s Big Mouth, another show that tackles the insecurities and trauma of middle school, but the best friendship of Maya and Anna anchors the series and that relationship is at its heart.

Watch PEN15 on Hulu

CREATORS: Veronica West and Sarah Kucserka
CAST: Zoë Kravitz, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, David H. Holmes, Jake Lacy, Kingsley Ben-Adir
RATING: TV-MA

Hulu’s original series High Fidelity is an absolute charmer. From its witty and heartfelt (and sublimely perfect) premiere episode to its messy, devastating, yet inspiring finale, High Fidelity celebrates the highs and lows of love in all its forms. While it starts out as a meditation on heartbreak and loneliness, High Fidelity is just as obsessed with examining the beauty in tight, platonic tribes, the push and pull of sibling relationships, the importance of fandom, and the love we have for our hometowns. More than anything else, the show is a wonderfully addicting show buoyed by an endearing cast lead by Zoe Kravitz. — Meghan O’Keefe

Watch High Fidelity on Hulu

CREATORS: Moira Buffini and Alison Newman
CAST: Samantha Morton, Lesley Manville, Jessica Brown Findlay, Liv Tyler, Alfie Allen
RATING: TV-MA

Harlots is a fresh and feminist look at the lives of 18th century sex workers in London, created by an all-female production team led by Executive Producers Debra Hayward and Alison Owen and Executive Producer and Co-Creator Moira Buffini. Samantha Morton stars as Margaret Wells, an earthy brothel madam who sees prostitution as a way up for her family and her “girls.” Downton Abbey‘s Jessica Brown Findlay plays her older daughter, Charlotte, a glamorous courtesan, and Eloise Smyth is her virgin daughter Lucy. The family’s future is put in peril when they find themselves embroiled in a turf war with a high class madam named Lydia Quigley played by Lesley Manville. — Meghan O’Keefe

Watch Harlots on Hulu

CREATORS: Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk
CAST: Dylan McDermott, Connie Britton, Taissa Farmiga, Jessica Lange, Evan Peters
RATING: TV-MA

Any show that’s been on the air for roughly a decade becomes a television staple. But there’s something special about American Horror Story. Watching Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk’s revolving door of fabulous celebrities act their skin off (sometimes literally) has become a sport in and of itself. Exactly when will this new season go off the rails and devolve from something cool to something completely bonkers? Which AHS alum will appear unannounced for a few episodes to delight fans? Will the ending make sense? Most fans know that the answer to that all-important final question will be a resounding “no,” but there’s always the hope something will change. After all, going on the journey is half the fun. — Kayla Cobb

Watch American Horror Story on Hulu

CREATORS: Dan Harmon and Justin Roiland
CAST: Justin Roiland, Sarah Chalke, Spencer Grammer, Chris Parnell, Kari Wahlgren
RATING: TV-14

What if Doc Brown and Marty McFly never stopped having adventures? And Doc was less eccentric and more of an alcoholic jerk? And Marty was an idiot? Those are the questions this show about a space-and-dimension-traveling grandfather and grandson attempts to answer. Rick and Morty tells the story of an alcoholic, super-genius grandfather and his sweet but dumb grandson as they balance adventuring through space and maintaining their family life. It’s quirky, smart, quick, and a must watch. — Kayla Cobb

Watch Rick and Morty on Hulu

CREATOR: Hannah Fidell
CAST: Kate Mara, Nick Robinson, Ashley Zukerman
RATING: TV-MA

In the past, tales of teachers engaging in inappropriate relationships with their students have been treated in one of two extremes. They’re either portrayed as “not acceptable but a fact of life,” or the teacher is portrayed as a weird creep. But the reality has more subtlety than that, which is what Hannah Fidell explored in her 2013 film A Teacher, which she adapted into a miniseries for FX on Hulu. A Teacher doesn’t try to spare its audience when it comes to how its core relationship develops; its banal portrait of a predator and the affair she creates does a good job accomplishing it’s goal, which is to make its audience squirm. —Joel Keller

Watch A Teacher on Hulu

CREATOR: Dahvi Waller
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Uzo Aduba, Elizabeth Banks, Rose Byrne, Kayli Carter
RATING: TV-MA

The women’s liberation movement of the early 1970s was filled with colorful, larger-than-life personalities, from Gloria Steinem to Bella Abzug to Flo Kennedy. But the anti-ERA movement had some big personalities as well, none more prominent than Phyllis Schlafly. Mrs. America takes a look at the feminist movement from the super-conservative Schlafly’s perspective, with the activist played by none other than Cate Blanchett. Blanchett’s Emmy-worthy performance makes Mrs. America one of the more watchable shows that have come out so far this year. The show’s mostly light tone belies the serious and, unfortunately, still contemporary issues being examined. But that light tone also makes the show a fun binge, whether you’ve run out of things to watch during lockdown or not. — Joel Keller

Watch Mrs. America on Hulu

CREATOR: Matt Groening
CAST: Dan Castellaneta, Julie Kavner, Nancy Cartwright, Yeardley Smith, Hank Azaria
RATING: TV-PG

The Simpsons are just your average American family living in Springfield, USA. Originally conceived as a series on animated shorts that aired during The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, creator Matt Groening developed the half-hour show as we know it in 1989. Based on his own family and all its dysfunctions, the show is now-legendary not just for the duration of its over-30-year run, but for the comedy writers and performers that have worked on it, from Conan O’Brian and Phil Hartman to Marcia Wallace and Albert Brooks. While fans will spiritedly debate the premier episodes and peak eras of the show, the series has endured long enough for us to have evolved with the times, reflecting the changing world and family dynamics, while still retaining the classic satirical bent it’s famous for.

Watch The Simpsons on Hulu

CREATORS: Keith Knight and Marshall Todd
CAST: Lamorne Morris, T Murph, Blake Anderson
RATING: TV-MA

Co-created by Keith Knight and Marshall Todd and based on Knight’s experience as a cartoonist, Woke revolves around the deeply painful evolution of Lamorne Morris’ Keef. A beloved cartoonist known for his comic strip Toast and Butter, Keef’s entire life seems to be devoted to being inoffensive. All he wants to do is work on his cartoons and largely ignore politics or anything too controversial. That changes the minute Keef is held up at gunpoint by a group of officers who misidentify him as a suspected robber. This terrifying encounter bursts Keef’s bubble and forces him to recognize his own blackness and the deeply unfair way he’s been treated. To paraphrase Keef’s best friend Clovis (T. Murph) once you’re woke, you can’t go back.

That heavy premise is offset by the main reason Woke is worth your time: Keef’s hallucinations. As Keef tries to fight against recognizing the systematic oppression around him, his newfound anger takes the form of adorable talking objects and cartoons voiced by performers like Cedric The Entertainer, Nicole Byer, and Sam Richardson. — Kayla Cobb

Watch Woke on Hulu

CREATOR: Ramy Youssef
CAST: Ramy Youssef, Mohammed Amer, Hiam Abbass, Amr Waked, May Calamawy
RATING: TV-MA

It’s not often to see a comedy that deals with religion honestly, especially the aspect where people who are young are constantly being tugged between tradition and just wanting to live their lives. It’s even less often when the religion in question is Islam. Which is why Ramy, created and written by Youssef playing more or less a fictional version of himself, so remarkable.

In Ramy, Islam isn’t treated as political topic; it’s just another religion that flummoxes a young man who wants to live an observant life but just doesn’t get some of the rules he needs to follow. Why does he need to clean between his toes? Is God really going to judge him for that? Why not have pre-marital sex with non-Muslim women? It doesn’t matter what religion you grew up in, or even if you’re not religious; Ramy’s plight is relatable to everyone. Whether it’s religious traditions, family traditions, or traditions that have aspects of both, everyone has had a moment in their lives, especially when they are young, that they’ve questioned why those traditions exist and why they have to so blindly follow them. — Joel Keller

Watch Ramy on Hulu

CREATOR: Sally Rooney
CAST: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal, Eliot Salt, India Mullen, Aislin McGuckin
RATING: TV-MA

Normal People is adapted from the bestselling novel of the same name by author Sally Rooney, about Marianne and Connell, two young adults in Ireland. The story follows the ups and downs of their relationship over the course of their high school and college years as they are on/off friends and lovers continually drawn towards each other. Room director Lenny Abrahamson serves as director of the first six episodes with Hettie Macdonald taking the back half of the 12-episode half-hour drama series. If you’re looking for a show with incredibly romantic sex and skin and maybe even a little full-frontal action, watch Normal People. — Lea Palmieri

Watch Normal People on Hulu

CREATOR: Jemaine Clement
CAST: Matt Berry, Kayvan Novak, Natasia Demetriou, Harvey Guillen, Mark Proksch
RATING: TV-MA

In the 2014 film What We Do In The Shadows, stars and writers Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement combined dark goth vibes with the irreverent mockumentary style of Christopher Guest to make a hilarious classic about how mundane vampires lives are in modernity. The television version of What We Do in the Shadows takes place in the same continuity as the film, but focuses instead on American-based vampires Nandor the Relentless (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo Cravensworth (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou). The trio live in a Staten Island house with “energy vampire” Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch) and Nandor’s doting human familiar Guillermo (Harvey Gullén). As in the film, the vampires are followed by a “documentary crew,” thus adding even more ridiculous contrast to the vampire’s stately ideas of themselves and the absurd letdowns of the modern world. — Meghan O’Keefe

Watch What We Do In The Shadows on Hulu

CREATORS: Aidy Bryant, Alexandra Rushfield, and Lindy West
CAST: Aidy Bryant, Lolly Adefope, Luka Jones, Ian Owens, John Cameron Mitchell
RATING: TV-MA

Television shows and movies are still making fun of overweight people, which just feels wrong on many levels. Hopefully, shows like Shrill will change that. Starring Aidy Bryant of SNL fame, the show is one of the first we’ve seen about an overweight woman who finally decides to not try to achieve a body image others want for her, and just live for herself. We’re not sure why we haven’t seen a character like Annie on TV before, but it feels like we haven’t. Shrill is based on a book by Lindy West about her journey to self-acceptance, but with West and Bryant as co-creators (and Elizabeth Banks on board as an executive producer; Ali Rushfield is the showrunner), the character of Annie is more of an amalgamation of both women’s journeys, along with those of the show’s writing staff. — Joel Keller

Watch Shrill on Hulu

CREATOR: Tina Fey
CAST: Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, Tracy Morgan, Jane Krakowski, Jack McBrayer
RATING: TV-14

Liz Lemon is a comedy writer who loves ham. As the showrunner of a late-night comedy series on NBC, Lemon, played by Tina Fey, is basically all the things Tina Fey knows exist within her: a comedy nerd, a (sometimes bad) feminist, a food lover, a mean girl, and a boss. And every episode revolved around some version of one of those facets of herself. Add to that a miserable love life where she finds herself entangled with Dennis Duffy the Beeper King, Criss Cross the hot dog truck guy, and Wesley Snipes the uptight British guy and not the Passenger 57 actor, and you’ll see why her life is in shambles. And we haven’t even piled on her co-stars, the highly unstable Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski) who’s the type who would definitely brag if she slept with Trump in 2021, Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan), a volatile movie star who is a descendant of Thomas Jefferson and also has a hit novelty song called “Werewolf Bar Mitzvah,” and her boss, GE executive Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin), a Boston native whose true love is his high school sweetheart played by Julianne Moore whose Boston accent is the worst ever committed to celluloid. 30 Rock is one of the most densely-written comedies of all time, with jokes and references every minute, but I’m pretty sure I’ve hit all the most important highlights of the series here.

Watch 30 Rock on Hulu

CREATOR: Tony McNamara
CAST: Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult
RATING: TV-MA

The Great is Hulu’s irreverent take on the rise of Catherine the Great (Elle Fanning). The show opens with the optimistic German princess happily leaving her homeland to wed Russia’s Emperor Peter III (Nicholas Hoult). As soon as she arrives, it seems that her fairy tale vision of the future won’t come true. Peter is a selfish narcissist, prone to violent outbursts and public meltdowns. The Great‘s title card comes with an asterisk explaining that Hulu’s deliriously fun take on Catherine the Great is actually “an occasionally true story.” That means that while there was a real Catherine who married the real Peter III and then plotted a coup against him, many of the characters in The Great are works of fiction designed to delight the audience. — Meghan O’Keefe

Watch The Great on Hulu

CREATOR: Graham Yost
CAST: Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins, Nick Searcy, Margo Martindale
RATING: TV-MA

Created by Graham Yost and based on Elmore Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole,” Justified reinforces the timelessness of the Western genre. The FX series follows the exploits of Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant), a U.S Marshall reassigned to his home state of Kentucky, and more specifically, to Harlan County. While Givens faces many foes (The Bennetts! The Crowes!) over the course of six seasons, none are as formidable or charismatic as Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), his former coal miner friend turned career criminal. While the show didn’t receive much award recognition – a true travesty—it was a showcase for the best character actors in the business, featuring memorable turns from Margo Martindale, Jeremy Davies, Kaitlyn Dever, Garret Dillahunt, Sam Elliot and Mary Steenburgen. Like the bourbon Raylan so lovingly drinks, every episode of this iconic series gets better with age. —Karen Kemmerle

Watch Justified on Hulu

CREATORS: Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson
CAST: Ilana Glazer, Abbi Jacobson, Jon Gemberling, Hannibal Buress
RATING: TV-MA

Some forget just how innovative and culture-shaking Broad City was when it debuted on Comedy Central in 2014, but the hilariously weird and sincerely heartfelt saga of Abbi and Ilana has more than earned its spot as one of the best shows of the decade. From redefining stoner culture (smart, woke women smoke pot, too!) to believing in the power of supportive female friendships, co-creators and stars Abbi Jacobson and Ilana Glazer gave us so much—including the creative integrity to know when to say goodbye.—Anna Menta

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CREATORS: Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key
CAST: Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key
RATING: TV-14

This last decade was a wonderful time for sketch comedy to bloom outside of the confines of NBC’s Studio 8H: Kroll Show, Inside Amy Schumer, A Black Lady Sketch Show, and I Think You Should Leave all made sizable impressions on the culture-at-large over the last 10 years. None of these shows, though, were quite as earth-shaking as Key & Peele, which starred two Mad TV veterans (Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele) and completely dominated YouTube, Tumblr, and Twitter during the five seasons that the show aired on Comedy Central. (See also: The 10 Best ‘Key & Peele’ Sketches.) — Alex Zalben

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CREATOR: David Caspe
CAST: Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Zachary Knighton, Adam Pally, Damon Wayans Jr., Casey Wilson
RATING: TV-14

DRA-MAHHHH! Happy Endings was foolishly cancelled by ABC in 2013… Let me back up. Before Happy Endings was cancelled in 2013, it was beloved for it’s razor-sharp wit involving loads of wordplay, incredible Halloween episodes, and… Let me back up. Happy Endings was created by David Caspe and is one of the funniest shows to air in network television and it’s amahhzing that the entire series is available on Hulu, if only to see the cold open of episode 201 where a shellfish tower leads to stabbings, vomiting, and some of the greatest chaotic comedy energy of the decade. Despite the fact that it was built to look like a Friends knockoff, Happy Endings was anything but. It was weirder and wilder, written at a sharper pace, and cast with some of the funniest actors of the decade.

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CREATOR: Noah Hawley
CAST: Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Salvatore Esposito, Jessie Buckley, Jack Huston
RATING: TV-MA

Fargo is a series that shouldn’t have worked. The 1996 Coen Brothers film from which this series borrows its premise is a beloved property that walks a very fine tonal tightrope; any missteps during the adaptation could have sent the show plummeting quickly into parody (and cancellation). Creator and showrunner Noah Hawley, however, made the wise (and ambitious!) decision to avoid simply stripmining the original’s plot; instead, he used his opportunity to pay homage to the entire, sprawling Coen Brothers cinematic universe. Over the show’s three (and counting) seasons, Hawley has constructed a rich thematic text made up of Midwestern repression, pure selflessness, and malicious evil, all played out against a backdrop of omnipresent grey skies and bone-chilling temperatures. It’s a remarkable program that excels on every conceivable level (plotting, acting, cinematography, score), and one that has produced two of the decade’s most nightmarish villains: Season 1’s Lorne Malvo (Billy Bob Thornton) and Season 3’s V.M. Varga (David Thewlis).—Mark Graham

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CREATOR: Joss Whedon
CAST: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Nicholas Brendon, James Marsters, Anthony Head, Eliza Dushku
RATING: TV-PG

When Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) moves to Sunnydale, site of a literal hellmouth where vampires and other Big Bads show up to wreak havoc on the universe, she has no idea she’s the Chosen One, the slayer responsible for eviscerating every demon that shows up on earth. Under the tutelage of her Watcher, Giles (Anthony Head), and with the help of her Scooby gang of friends, she faces off against everything from vampires (spoiler alert, she ends up falling in love with a couple of them) to a mayor who threatens to bring on the apocalypse. Like Fargo, it’s a TV series that builds on the world created by the film it was based on to create characters and relationships that are now-iconic. It would have been easy to dismiss the show as simplistic supernatural teen fare based on the title alone, but thanks to some daring episodes, like the completely silent “Hush,” or the emotionally draining “The Body” which features a major character’s death, the series was revolutionary for the places it dared to go when it wasn’t just staking vamps with sticks.

Watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Hulu

CREATOR: Dan Harmon
CAST: Joel McHale, Donald Glover, Gillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Alison Brie, Ken Jeong
RATING: TV-14

You have to admire the bravado of Dan Harmon’s Community. Did the sitcom about a ragtag study group finding a makeshift family at a local community college have its ups and downs? Sure. But when Community was at its weird, wonderful creative apex, it was untouchable. Openly defying NBC and consistently subverting traditional sitcom norms, Community was punk rock in an era of adult contemporary. While “Modern Warfare,” “Contemporary American Poultry,” and Season 3’s “Remedial Chaos Theory” are obvious high-water marks, Community’s second season is simply one of the flat-out best seasons of television in sitcom history. “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons,” “Abed’s Uncontrollable Christmas,” “Critical Film Studies,” the entire season is a creatively audacious collection of game-changing episodes (not to mention my personal favorites “Cooperative Calligraphy” and “Paradigms of Human Memory”). Community was a genre-defying work of art that zigged when most shows were content to zag.—Josh Sorokach

Watch Community on Hulu

CREATOR: Rob McElhenney
CAST: Danny DeVito, Charlie Day, Kaitlin Olson, Rob McElhenney, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Glenn Howerton
RATING: TV-MA

There’s an unspoken rule when it comes to most log-running comedies: After about five year, things get sloppy. But that has never been the case over It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia‘s 14 season run. This past decade the gang has experimented with single character stories, gone to the suburbs, questioned what life would be like if they were black, had Mac (Rob McElhenney) accept his homosexuality, and engaged in a million other genre and series breaking antics. It’s Always Sunny has never been afraid to push the boundaries of comedy, even if that means questioning and rechallenging their own opinions on transgender rights, blackface, gun control, and global warming. Since this series’ first episode Mac, Charlie (Charlie Day), Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) have shown us what it means to be the worst people on the planet. And though the times have changed, their unrelenting terribleness hasn’t.—Kayla Cobb

Watch It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia on Hulu

CREATOR: Jeffrey Lieber, J. J. Abrams, and Damon Lindelof
CAST: Naveen Andrews, Nestor Carbonell, Emilie de Ravin, Michael Emerson, Jeff Fahey, Evangeline Lilly, Terry O’Quinn, Matthew Fox
RATING: TV-14

Lost was a wild ride for six seasons and its first season or two were some of the most gripping television of the early Aughts. When a plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean, the survivors are left not just to fight for their lives and hope for a rescue, but, each week one of them was the subject of a deep backstory dive, and we learn how their lives all intertwined and connected before they even stepped on the plane. Add to that elements of magic, time travel, and bizarre theories on the manipulation of time thanks to the secretive Dharma Initiative, a research facility that also exists on the island. The show meandered occasionally and has one of the more controversial finales of all time, but it’s still an immensely satisfying way to burn a cool hundred hours or so.

Watch Lost on Hulu

CREATORS: James Burrows, Glen and Les Charles
CAST: Ted Danson, Rhea Perlman, George Wendt, Shelley Long, Kirstie Alley
RATING: TV-PG

As a child who grew up in the suburbs of Boston while Cheers was at its peak popularity, it’s safe to say I felt like my city was the coolest place in America. We had the bar where everybody knew your name! I mean, sure it wasn’t a real bar, but the sign outside, for the Bull & Finch Pub, was real and, much like going to Faneuil Hall on a school field trip was a rite of passage in the state, so too was the pilgrimage we all made to see that sign, in hopes of also catching a glimpse of Sam Malone or Woody Boyd. I mean, the show was based on a former Red Sox pitcher, Malone (Ted Danson) opening a bar where all sorts of colorful locals hang out, from Norm Peterson (George Wendt), whose long-suffering wife Vera is often mentioned and never seen, to Cliff Claven  (John Ratzenberger) the mail carrier who is so smart he even got to go on Jeopardy. And let’s not forget that this is the show responsible for spinning off Frasier, too. The jokes were hilarious, the local references were special for those of us who cared about them, and the cast is legendary. With many episodes directed by legendary sitcom creator and director James Burrows, Cheers is a template for sitcom perfection.

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CREATOR: Donald Glover
CAST: Donald Glover, Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield, Zazie Beetz, Harold “House” Moore
RATING: TV-MA

If a single show could prove how peak TV has evolved, that show would be Donald and Stephen Glover’s Atlanta. Between its ethereal comedy filled with invisible cars, black Justin Biebers, and one haunting fellow by the name of Teddy Perkins, and its languid tone, Atlanta never hits its audience with a larger point. Instead it quietly drifts, pointing out systemic and internalized racism and the general oddities of people. Simply put, there is no way this FX gem could have existed on television a decade ago. Atlanta is far more than just an award-winning TV show or a revolutionary piece of media. It’s high art.—Kayla Cobb

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CREATORS: David Lynch, Mark Frost
CAST: Kyle MacLachlan, Michael Ontkean, Mädchen Amick, Dana Ashbrook, Richard Beymer
RATING: TV-14

While Twin Peaks has already been revived and turned into a movie, you can watch both seasons of the original series, which debuted in 1990, on Hulu to understand (or not, I mean, there is so much to not understand about the show) the mythology of this brainchild of filmmaker David Lynch. The premise of the series, as it was marketed, was to solve the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer, a teenage beauty queen from Twin Peaks, Washington. Pie lover and FBI Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) and Sheriff Harry S. Truman (Michael Ontkean) are leading the investigation into Palmer’s death, but along the way, the surreal mix of characters they find is weirder than the time my wedding planner told me he saw pyramids in the sky after drinking ayahuasca.

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CREATORS: Steve Martin and John Hoffman
CAST: Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez
RATING: TV-MA

All I want to talk about is that Steve Martin performance in the Season 1 finale of Only Murders in the Building. Perfection. Iconic. Incredible. The Hulu series somehow got funnier with every episode, and did something actual true crime shows should take into account: sometimes it really is about the journey, and not the destination. While this series fully stuck the landing and ended on a super satisfying conclusion (and of course left us ready for more in Season 2!) it also proved that really, we would watch anything our new favorite trio wants to do. If you haven’t binged it yet, get cozy and settle in for fun because this is truly the season to go for it.

Watch Only Murders In The Building on Hulu

CREATOR: Dr. Bruce Miller
CAST: Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Samira Wiley, Alexis Bledel
RATING: TV-MA

The Handmaid’s Tale takes place in a dystopian not-so-distant future, in a place called Gilead which used to be part of the US. The environment has gone to shit and not enough babies are being born, so women belong to the state. The ones that are fertile get linked up with a Commander, and their job is to get pregnant. Oh, and they’re “lucky” and “privileged” to do so. They must be obedient to the Commanders’ wives, and the maid-types called Marthas and fellow Handmaids could be spies, so you have to be a perfect lady at all times.

Elisabeth Moss plays a Handmaid named Offred, a woman who must deal with the sad situation she’s found herself in, separated from her husband and daughter, with her main goal becoming the hope of reuniting with her. A horrifying situation for any, but it will hit women directly in the stomach to imagine being ripped apart from your daughter, with no idea who is caring for her, what she’s being taught, and where she’s located. And that’s all on top of not having your husband for support.  Check it out — just be prepared to give your nervous vagina a reassuring pep talk after each episode, reminding her just how important she continues to be. — Lea Palmieri

Watch The Handmaid's Tale on Hulu