Hulu surprised me this year and dropped some pretty cool original shows, and they all hooked me like the content shark I am. However, this year’s additions aren’t the only originals you should be watching. From true crime adaptations and gritty crime dramas to dystopian worlds, thrillers, and historical comedies, the platform is full of must-watch shows.
Here are 10 select bingeable Hulu Original shows to stream right now before the next round of originals drop and consume you entirely.
10
The Dropout
Release Year
2022
Seasons
1
Episodes
8
Status
Ended
I’ll watch Amanda Seyfried in anything. She brings such curious intrigue to each role she takes on, and this one is no different. This Hulu Original makes for a great weekend binge, for obvious reasons.
The Dropout is a biographical miniseries about the rise and fall of disgraced biotechnology company Theranos and its founder, Elizabeth Holmes (Seyfried). It’s an intriguing tale of ambition and fame—riddled with money and romance—gone horribly wrong.
As the world’s youngest self-made female billionaire, Holmes founded a promising new blood-testing startup that was changing lives in the wait for medical results. The problem was that the tests were inaccurate and fraudulent.
Hulu’s adaptation of this story doesn’t just show us what happened in the process; it also touches on the experiences that likely motivated Holmes’s deceptions, starting from her pre-teen years and leading right up to her exposure as a fraud.
9
Candy
Release Year
2022
Seasons
1
Episodes
5
Status
Ended
Starring Jessica Biel in an unnerving role, Candy explores the gruesome 1980 murder of Betty Gore. It makes for an excellent quick binge when you’re in the mood for a true crime adaptation.
Candy Montgomery (Biel) is a devoted 1980’s southern housewife and mom living a simple, honest, church-going life. When she meets Allan Gore (Pablo Screiber) and the two become friends, both start to yearn for the passion and sexual desire lacking in their marriages.
An affair ensues, then ends, but Betty (Melanie Linskey), Allan’s wife, is suspicious. I shall spoil nothing for you but highly suggest you watch this cat fight play out. Mad props to Biel and Linskey for their efforts here.
8
Nine Perfect Strangers
Release Year
2021
Seasons
2
Episodes
16
Status
TBD
Based on the bestseller of the same name, this strange anthology series is another Hulu Original show with a lead character full of curious intrigue. Nine Perfect Strangers stars Nicole Kidman as Masha Dmitrichencko, an enigmatic but manipulative founder of a boutique health-and-wellness retreat for stressed-out city dwellers.
Masha believes the path to nine perfect strangers’ happiness is through enlightenment and often mimics Buddhist practices within her retreat. She claims to be a guru who can guide guests through transformative experiences via unconventional methods. How she claims to do so isn’t necessarily the issue. It’s the way she does so that’s the problem.
Each season features a new setting and a new cast of characters, except for Kidman, whose own personal story unfolds even more in season two to reveal why the very thing that drives her desire to recreate the transcendent experience she had after a near-death experience is so passionate.
7
Dopesick
Release Year
2021
Seasons
1
Episodes
8
Status
Ended
I adore Michael Keaton, who has had some fabulous roles over the course of his career, such as everyone’s favorite bio-exorcist Betelgeuse, which I used to believe was his best performance. Dopesick changed my mind.
Exploring the epicenter of America’s opioid epidemic through the effects on those who used, watched, and prescribed, Dopesick is an outstanding portrayal of a poignant time in American history that stretched from the boardrooms of Purdue Pharma to a distressed Virginia mining community, down to the southern U.S. and on to the hallways of the DEA.
This shocking narrative unfolds across different points in time, around numerous intertwining storylines, beginning with the initial launch of Oxycontin under the Sackler family and ending in the contemporary present following the Sackler’s—again—shocking (and unfair) exoneration in court.
Keaton gives a powerful, stand-out performance as Dr. Samuel Finnix, as he fights to save his patients and be a part of the force that holds Purdue Pharma responsible. Dopesick is a shattering portrayal of the reality continuing to exist today, and it’s one of Hulu’s most fantastic shows to watch in one weekend.
6
The Great
Release Year
2020
Seasons
3
Episodes
30
Status
Ended
If you’re up for a genre-bending, anti-historical good time, take this roller-coaster ride through 18th-century Russia and follow the wildly comedic rise of Catherine the Nothing to Catherine the Great.
The Great stars Elle Fanning as Catherine and Nicholas Hoult as Peter, her husband and the Emperor of Russia. Their tumultuous relationship is a core element of the show’s plot. Where Catherine is full of ambition, Peter is erratic and often displays cruel behavior.
The Hulu Original is utterly ridiculous, in the best possible ways, with a campy, comedic cast. The “occasionally true” story of Catherine’s rise to power features a unique blend of historical fiction and dark comedy mixed with sharp writing, witty dialogue, and memorable performances.
5
Pam & Tommy
Release Year
2022
Seasons
1
Episodes
8
Status
Ended
Stay out of peoples’ private business!
Hulu’s limited drama series Pam & Tommy tells the story of the intense love connection and passion between Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, as well as their infamous sex-tape theft and its subsequent exposure in the 90s.
Set in the Wild West early days of the Internet, the show focuses on Pam (Lily James) and Tommy’s (Sebastian Stan) life together—specifically the time that their private honeymoon video was stolen from their home allegedly by a disgruntled contractor (Seth Rogen). The video went from underground bootleg-videotape curiosity to full-blown viral sensation on the Web in 1997.
Pam & Tommy is quite the crime caper and cautionary tale exploring the intersection of privacy, celebrity, and technology. The show has its beautiful moments and its heartbreaking moments, which James portrays with authenticity in her shining but delicate performance as a sweet-natured Anderson.
4
Handmaid’s Tale
Release Year
2017
Seasons
6
Episodes
66
Status
Ended
The Handmaid’s Tale—the show that terrified and inspired women everywhere to fight back, no matter what.
Based on the bestseller from Margaret Atwood, this award-winning Hulu Original tells the story of the rise of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what used to be a part of the United States. Ruled by a fundamentalist regime that treats women as property, and facing environmental disasters and plummeting birth rates, fertile women are forced into sexual servitude.
Rulers soon find they grabbed and pissed off the wrong woman in Offred (Elisabeth Moss), also known as June Osbourne. Not one to roll over and submit, June does what it takes to survive and rescue the daughter that was taken from her.
Every episode of The Handmaid’s Tale will force your mouth to the floor. You won’t be able to bear everything, but you also won’t be able to look away. Those are qualities of hit makers.
A sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale will arrive on Hulu sometime in 2026. The Testaments is set more than 15 years after the events of Handmaid and explores Gilead through the perspectives of Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), Agnes/Hannah—June’s daughter, and Daisy/Nicole—June’s child she had in Gilead.
3
The Bear
Release Year
2022
Season
4
Episodes
38
Status
Ongoing
I had no idea the level of urgency under which a restaurant kitchen functions, or the extent of pressure chefs face until I watched The Bear. However, this raw series about food, family, and the insanity of the grind had me hooked from its first episode.
After a family suicide, Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White), who’s a young chef from the fine dining world, comes home to run his family’s sandwich shop. His struggle isn’t in trying to live on while grieving. It’s in trying to find balance in the soul-crushing realities of small business ownership, running a strong-willed kitchen staff, and navigating strained family relationships.
The Bear is a beautiful depiction of the development of chosen family vs. blood relatives, and of personal growth and enlightenment.
2
Little Fires Everywhere
Release Year
2020
Seasons
1
Episodes
8
Status
Ended
Based on the novel of the same name, Little Fires Everywhere tells the story of two families whose lives become intertwined, leading to conflict and exposing deeply buried secrets.
Set in wealthy 1990s Shaker Heights, Ohio, this is the story of how two very different families come together, then fall apart. There’s the picture-perfect Richardson family, who rent a house to artist and single mother Mia (Kerry Washington) and her daughter Pearl (Lexi Underwood).
As the matriarch of the Richardsons, Elena (Reese Witherspoon) is a rule-follower who embodies the ideal of her community. When Mia’s unconventional lifestyle starts challenging Elena’s norms, and as Pearl grows closer to the Richardsons, tensions rise, and sparks fly—literally.
Little Fires Everywhere offers a compelling exploration of motherhood, class, race, and secrets against the backdrop of ideal perfection.
1
A Thousand Blows
Release Year
2025
Seasons
1
Episodes
6
Status
Ongoing
Hulu’s new bare-knuckle knockout series A Thousand Blows crept up on us earlier this year and knocked us out like a bunch of amateur bystanders; then, it left us dangling off a cliff in its season finale. Thank you, Stephen Graham. You’re the man.
A Thousand Blows is a bloody boxing drama set in mid-1800s London, inspired by the true-life stories of a group of characters battling for survival in the brutal underground of Victorian London’s East End. The show follows two Jamaican immigrants as they navigate the harsh world of bare-knuckle boxing and organized crime.
This gritty crime series is a hidden gem of a period piece that casts a light on more than boxing. It also gives us a premiere look at the Forty Elephants, the first organized, all-female crime syndicate in London. It also explores the rise of legitimized boxing as an actual sport.
This Hulu Original will have you glued to your screen in what makes for one of the best gritty crime dramas to stream right now.
Enjoy these ten Hulu Original shows, and when you finish, be sure to follow the included links for more to satiate your need for original content to binge. Happy hunting!
