Hulu Has Some of the Best Series on Streaming, From ‘The Bear’ to ‘Shōgun’ and More
Hulu hosts some incredible original and licensed shows, and I’ll break down my favorites below.
Hulu is feeling pretty good about its library these days. A recent study conducted by Parrot Analytics found that Hulu-exclusive shows are some of the most popular in the entire streaming world at the moment, helping the streamer boost engagement and lower churn.
In honor of Hulu’s recent successes, I decided to run through my top seven favorite shows on the streamer, and why I think you should give them a try for yourself!
What are the top series available to stream on Hulu?
Schitt’s Creek
“Schitt's Creek” is a licensed title for Hulu, but that doesn’t make it any less of a fantastic comedy series. It focuses on the Rose family, whose patriarch Johnny loses the family fortune and is forced to resettle in the quiet town of Schitt’s Creek.
This backwater berg turns out to be much more as the Roses get to know the town and its inhabitants. They grow closer to the residents and to each other, and the themes of family and being open to new experiences permeate the show from start to finish, as do uproarious laughs in basically every episode. What would you expect from a cast that features Dan and Eugene Levy, not to mention Catherine O’Hara and Annie Murphy?
Schitt’s Creek
Formerly filthy rich video store magnate Johnny Rose, his soap star wife Moira, and their two kids, über-hipster son David and socialite daughter Alexis, suddenly find themselves broke and forced to live in Schitt’s Creek, a small depressing town they once bought as a joke.
American Horror Story
I’m not usually the biggest horror guy, but “American Horror Story” truly has something for everyone thanks to its anthology style. Each season focuses on a new scenario and cast of characters, allowing audiences to start fresh with each new batch of episodes and keeping the plot from stagnating.
If you want psychological horror, “AHS” has a season for that. More of a creature feature fan? The show has a season for you, as well. What I especially love is the use of actors multiple times in different roles, creating the unsettling illusion of a shared universe that is delightfully disjointed and chaotic, which is exactly what I want when I am enjoying a horror show.
American Horror Story
An anthology horror drama series centering on different characters and locations, including a house with a murderous past, an asylum, a witch coven, a freak show, a hotel, a farmhouse in Roanoke, a cult, the apocalypse and a summer camp.
What We Do in the Shadows
I was a little leery of “What We Do in the Shadows” at first, because I didn’t think there was any way for the show to match the brilliance of Taika Waititi’s original film. I thought the concept was much better as a one-off, and the jokes would get stale after a time.
I was completely wrong, as per usual. The series is a hilarious mockumentary following the lives of four vampires: Nandor, Laszlo, Nadja and Colin Robinson, as well as Nandor’s hapless familiar Guillermo. The series keeps the jokes firing at such a rate that you’ll have to watch it multiple times to get them all, but its cast is able to deliver each and every season.
What We Do in the Shadows
A documentary-style look into the daily (or rather, nightly) lives of a group of vampires in Staten Island who have “lived” together for hundreds and hundreds of years.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
There’s an argument to be made that the first season of “It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia” is not good, trying to use shock humor to delight audiences rather than develop its characters or find a throughline that helped to make the show go.
Everything changed when Danny DeVito came on board in Season 2, however. Ever since that moment, “It’s Always Sunny” has delivered some of the funniest episodes on television in its nearly 20 years. It consistently delivers huge laughs and its premise that its characters are bad people who deserve to have bad things happen to them rarely fails to finish satisfactorily.
Shōgun
“Shōgun” is probably my favorite historical epic series to hit TV screens since “Game of Thrones,” even though I know that show is a fantasy title. The two have a lot in common, including epic world-building, deeply nuanced characters, and an immersive style that helps transport viewers into another time and place completely.
The series takes place in 17th-century Japan, at the beginning of a civil war that will define the country’s history. One lord, desperate for help from any quarter as local rivals turn on him, turns to a mysterious European visitor whose ship is marooned near his land.
Shōgun
In Japan in the year 1600, at the dawn of a century-defining civil war, Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him, when a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village.
Fargo
Like “American Horror Story,” “Fargo” is an anthology series, with each season telling a self-contained story. Each ties back to the other seasons in subtle (or not-so-subtle) ways, and each features a cast of characters played by some pretty big-name stars, with the likes of Kirsten Dunst, Ewan McGregor, Jesse Plemons, Juno Temple, Billy-Bob Thornton, and many others appearing.
Seasons 1 and 5 of the show are my favorites thus far, but those are strictly a matter of personal taste. You won’t find a bad episode in the lot with this series, and most seasons will leave you absolutely blown away by the time they wrap up.
Fargo
A close-knit anthology series dealing with stories involving malice, violence and murder based in and around Minnesota.
The Bear
I was completely unprepared for “The Bear,” as I think most viewers were when it first premiered. Every season since has been a revelation in its own right, especially Season 2. Jamie Lee Curtis’s role in the second season had me inventing Emmy categories to ensure she was recognized somehow.
“The Bear” focuses on Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto, a highly-trained chef whose nervous breakdown sends him back to the family restaurant, owned until recently by his now-deceased brother Mike. Determined to transform the place into a new fine-dining establishment, Carmy’s battles to climb to the top of his industry and make his life a success no matter the cost make for some of the most compelling TV I’ve ever seen.
The Bear
Carmy, a young fine-dining chef, comes home to Chicago to run his family sandwich shop. As he fights to transform the shop and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.