The 16 best shows on Hulu you can watch right now

Hulu may be looked upon as the smaller version of Netflix, but the truth is that the premium streaming service has plenty of great TV shows and movies you may not find anywhere else. So, which are the best TV shows on Hulu? We round up our favorites and a few honorable mentions below.

Just a quick note: We selected TV shows with full season runs, and it’s a mix of both original Hulu series and other shows that are available to stream on the service.

The best shows on Hulu

The Handmaid’s Tale

Based on the 1985 Margaret Atwood novel, The Handmaid’s Tale is a cautionary look at a future United States that lets an ultra-Christian theocracy take over the country. In this version of the future, women are seen as no more than servants, wives, and, in the case of Handmaids, birth mothers. As the title character Offred, Elizabeth Moss gives the performance of her career as a woman who fights this horrible life in her own way — with dignity and grace.

This is a Hulu-exclusive series and the first-ever streaming series to win an Emmy for Best Drama. Five full seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale are available on Hulu now, and a sixth is now rolling out, with the sixth and final season due later this year or early next. It’s one of the best shows on Hulu that’s an original series for the streaming service as well.

The X-Files

Creator Chris Carter’s sci-fi/horror show was an instant hit when it premiered in 1993. Combining elements of The Outer Limits with an investigative procedural, the show (mostly) followed the FBI files that no one else wanted. No one, that is, until Special Agent Mulder decided to go check them out. He gets lots of help from his reluctant and skeptical partner, Special Agent Scully. While the series ran out of steam, and mostly out of Mulder, in its final couple of seasons out of its original nine-season run, it’s still worth watching. The show was also revived with its original cast more recently for a couple of shortened seasons (10 and 11), and Hulu has those as well, but don’t expect them to be nearly as good as the classic seasons of this show.

Atlanta

Who knew that Donald Glover, best known for his role in the sitcom Community, would create one of the best TV series in recent years? Atlanta is a dramedy that focuses on two cousins, played by Glover and Brian Tyree Henry, who are trying to make it big in the huge hip-hop market in Atlanta. The show not only turned Glover into a major TV artistic talent but would also be the big break for other actors like Henry, Lakeith Stanfield, and Zazie Beetz.

The show is hard to categorize, but it is funny and takes some chances with storylines, particularly in the acclaimed second season episode “Teddy Perkins.” Four seasons of Atlanta are available now. This is definitely one of the best shows on Hulu.

The Great

You wouldn’t think that a show depicting part of Russian leaders’ history would be so funny. However, The Great is objectively funny, even if it plays a bit loose with real history. Elle Fanning plays the young woman who would eventually become Catherine the Great. The first two seasons have her trying to take over the country from her rather dim-witted husband, Emperor Peter III, also played well by Nicholas Hoult. While season three is out, there’s still no word on a fourth. Without a doubt, it’s a worthy addition to our best shows on Hulu list.

Legion

Like Atlanta, Legion comes from the FX network. At first, these two series don’t seem to have much in common. The title character of David Haller, based loosely on the Marvel Comics X-Men character, is a man with massive telepathic and telekinetic abilities but also suffers from serious mental health issues. However, like Atlanta, Legion is not afraid to make some changes to the typical superhero TV show story. It messes with time and narrative and has some very weird psychedelic sequences. You can watch all three seasons of Legion now on Hulu.

What We Do In The Shadows

In 2014, the “mockumentary” movie What We Do In The Shadows was released. It didn’t make a huge impact then, but it slowly became a cult hit. In 2019, FX launched the first season of the TV adaptation, and it’s also become a critical darling. Like the movie, the TV version is filmed like a documentary, except that the subjects are vampires. They are hundreds of years old but are now living on Staten Island. It’s simply one of the funniest TV shows you can watch right now, as these vampires do normal things, like shopping at the grocery store, while also trying to feed on humans. It’s one of the best shows on Hulu. Five seasons are available now, with season six likely arriving in 2024.

Normal People

This is not only one of the best shows on Hulu but may also be one of its most romantic. Based on the popular novel by Sally Rooney, it follows two people, Marianne and Connell, in a town in Ireland. They first encounter each other at school. Connell is popular, while Marianne is not. However, these two “normal people” discover each other and fall in love. The single-season series follows the couple through the years as they connect and then disconnect with each other repeatedly. There’s no melodrama here; it’s just life between two people who ultimately are supposed to have a connection.

Lost

Many of us of a certain age remember when we watched the pilot episode of Lost. Suddenly, we witnessed the survivors of a crashed airliner on what we thought was an uncharted Pacific island. The creation of Jeffrey Lieber, Damon Lindelof, and J.J. Abrams (the latter of whom directed that pilot episode), Lost played around with serialized storytelling in TV shows and would become a major influence on TV drama in the future. Some people may have gotten tired of some of Lost’s issues with wrapping up storylines and characters, but there’s no denying this show remains an excellent example of making an “event” series. All six seasons are available on Hulu.

The Office (UK)

While the American version of The Office may have lasted much longer, the original two-season UK version of this workplace comedy is still one of the funniest sitcoms ever created. Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant had the brilliant idea of having the show be filmed like it was the subject of a long-form documentary, and so many other sitcoms have picked up that format since. The show made Gervais a worldwide comedy star, and his portrayal of Wernham Hogg paper company manager David Brent made him one of the best characters made for TV. That makes this one of the best shows on Hulu.

Firefly

Joss Whedon has a number of his great TV shows on Hulu, including Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Yet, it’s Firefly that remains our favorite because it subverted well-established sci-fi television cliches. Instead of a pristine Enterprise-like spaceship, the show centers on the crew of the Firefly-class vessel Serenity — an old ship about to fall apart. The crew members aren’t explorers but rather a group of misfits (some might even call them criminals) who try to get by while avoiding engagements with law enforcement. The mix of sci-fi and Western is a perfect fit, and the characters all have deep dark secrets that are sometimes only hinted at in the show’s too-short single-season run.

Rick and Morty

Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon created this adult animated series as a (kind of) spoof of the Doc Brown and Marty McFly characters from Back to the Future. The resulting show veers very far from that initial concept, as mad scientist Rick drags his grandson Morty (along with other family members) on a series of wild space and interdimensional adventures. You never quite know what you will see from episode to episode, and that’s part of the fun of this show. Roiland and Harmon seem to be having a ball in creating new aliens, threats, and more that Rick and Morty have to deal with (does anyone remember Pickle Rick?). You can watch all six seasons on Hulu, while the show is renewed for a seventh.

Devs

This is an example of the new FX on Hulu shows originally developed for the FX cable network but will be available just on the Hulu service. Written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina), this surreal sci-fi mini-series is all about a fictional Silicon Vallery tech company. The company’s secret computing division, Devs, has been working on a very powerful project for which the company is willing to kill. It’s a show that rewards its audience with some deep themes of what it means to have free will.

Bob’s Burgers

At a time when TV programming was already saturated with adult animated sitcoms, Bob’s Burgers stood out from the crowd thanks to its goofy humor and quirky musical numbers. The series stars H. Jon Benjamin in the leading role of Bob Belcher, a humble father and owner of the burger restaurant Bob’s Burgers, who navigates fatherhood while also working to keep his restaurant afloat. Despite its many years on air, the show is still running and came to the big screen in 2022. You can watch all 13 seasons on Hulu, while Fox has renewed the property for two additional runs.

Only Murders in the Building

Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez form an unlikely trio in this comedy-mystery thriller, which recently debuted its third season on Hulu. The series follows three strangers who live in the same building and share only one real discernable trait: an obsession with the same true-crime podcast. After being brought together when a real murder occurs in their building, the three bring it upon themselves to solve the case. While Only Murders in the Building features a thrilling mystery plotline, it also has no shortage of laughs — which we’ve come to expect from Short and Martin. In many ways, the series feels like a swan song for the two comedians. All three seasons are an absolute must-watch for Hulu subscribers.

Futurama

Simpsons creator Matt Groening knocked it out of the park when Futurama first debuted in 1999. Like Groening’s other work, Futurama’s writing is great, with hilarious visual gags, slapstick humor, and filled to the brim with nerdy sci-fi references. It follows the happenings at the Planet Express intergalactic delivery service and its rag-tag bunch of misfit employees. Starting off as a Fox series, then later picked up by Comedy Central for another four seasons following its cancellation, Futurama is returning again — this time as a Hulu original series. With 10 great seasons, the series returns on Hulu with a brand-new eleventh season.

The Bear

This Hulu original series focuses on Chicago native Carmy, a culinary chef who returns home to run his family’s sandwich shop after his brother — the restaurant’s previous owner — takes his own life. The Bear does a fantastic job of portraying the fast-paced chaos of working in a kitchen and the toxicity of restaurant culture. The Bear features top-notch writing, direction, and acting, with stand-out performances from series star Jeremy Allen White and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Richie, Carmy’s erratic business partner. While the series may be too intense for some, those looking for a great workplace drama should look no further than The Bear’s two seasons.

The best shows on Hulu: Honorable mentions

There are lots of other great TV shows on Hulu that didn’t quite make our best list. Here’s a look at just a few more of the best shows on Hulu that didn’t make the cut.

• 30 Rock: This could have been just another workplace sitcom, but this show about the creation of a comedy sketch show broke free of its premise, thanks in part to performances of cast members like creator Tina Fey, Alec Baldwin, and Tracy Morgan.
• Fargo – Who knew that this classic movie could also be adapted to television in an anthology format, making it one of the best recent TV shows?
• Castle Rock: Here’s another Hulu original series that attempts to create a central universe around the many tales and characters in novels from Stephen King. The result is pretty awesome.
• Friday Night Lights: This show was never a huge hit in the ratings but has an intense cult following, which is easy to understand once you watch this drama about a fictional Texas high school football team.
• Solar Opposites: Created by those behind Rick and Morty, this animated show follows the adventures of a family of aliens stranded on Earth.
• It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: One of the most impactful sitcoms ever created, Always Sunny centers around Paddy’s Pub’s dysfunctional and aggressively unlikeable owners. It’s an incredible show that’s still hurtling along, now into its 16th season.