This weekend’s movie recommendation sits somewhere between the quiet and the unbearable. A grief-stricken man digs through ancient earth looking for a door that shouldn’t exist. Two brothers make one bad call that unravels everything. And a man who can’t talk about his grief ends up performing it on a stage instead.
Three films, very different in tone, but all circling the same idea – what happens when the thing you’re reaching for pulls you somewhere you can’t come back from?
Josh O’Connor plays Arthur, a disheveled British archaeologist fresh out of an Italian prison who has an uncanny gift for sensing what’s buried underground. He falls back in with a ragtag gang of grave robbers who loot Etruscan tombs and sell the artifacts. But Arthur isn’t after treasure. He’s searching for a mythical doorway to the underworld, hoping it leads him back to the woman he lost.
This hidden gem envelops you in a dreamy haze that is both funny and melancholic, yet quietly magical all at once. The film drifts between worlds with complete confidence. I really like how it holds grief and absurdity in the same frame without forcing either to explain itself.
This Argentine horror film drops you into a remote rural village where two brothers discover a man whose body has become a vessel for a gestating demon. Their attempt to deal with the situation goes badly, and what follows is one of the most relentlessly bleak and brutal horror films in recent memory.
When Evil Lurks constructs its own rigid mythology around demonic possession, the horror comes entirely from watching those rules get ignored one by one. The film doesn’t flinch, and it doesn’t comfort you either. I really like how it treats evil as something almost infrastructural, embedded in neglect and bad decisions rather than dramatic confrontation. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but it is genuinely unforgettable.
Dan is a construction worker who has built his entire identity around not talking about things. When a local theater group pulls him into a production of Romeo and Juliet, the last thing he expects is for Shakespeare to crack him open. This is a film about grief that doesn’t announce itself as one, which is exactly what makes it so effective.
The cast is a real Chicago theater family, father, mother, and daughter, playing versions of themselves, and that intimacy bleeds into every scene. I really like how the film uses the chaos of Romeo and Juliet as a mirror for what this family is quietly living through. It premiered at Sundance, earned a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, yet somehow most people still haven’t seen it.
The “game” in season 1 was an emotionally charged structure that made you want to take sides between the opposing political forces. In season 2, Marks says, the game shifts to “unpredictable surprises.”
An important piece in making this change happen is the presence of Ochiba no Kata, played by Fumi Nikaido. “In season 1, the role of the ballerina (Anna Sawai) played an important role and functioned as part of the English-language side of the story. In part 2, Ochiba’s character is placed at the center of the story,” Condou says.
Her role in the story, which is based on Yodo-kun, the wife of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, goes beyond the confines of recreating history. This allows the political dynamics of the women to emerge as the main focus of the story, enhancing the scale of the political drama.
Shogun’s writers and producers also have to deal with issues unique to historical dramas. History buffs, and Japanese viewers in particular, are already familiar with the outcome of the battle of Sekigahara, and any deviation from this point would cause some raised eyebrows.
Still, Marks is confident about the production’s philosophy, which is to treat culture, history, and language as “structure” rather than “material.”
“We welcome fans and history buffs who are familiar with Japanese history. We are telling a fictional story based on real history. You will be amazed at how fact and fiction blend together.”
The preferred approach to making a modern historical drama is the re-editing of history as a story, rather than as a succession of “known facts.” The Shogun production process—where Sanada and other Japanese crew members are intricately involved—ensures the cultural and historical consistency necessary to make that approach work. “Mutual respect between cultures is more important than ever,” Marks says.
At the Disney Plus Original Preview 2025 held in Hong Kong in November, Marks, Condou, and star and producer Hiroyuki Sanada held a talk session.
While Netflix seemingly led the way for other streaming networks to create compelling original programming, Hulu actually beat them all to the punch. In 2011, a year before Netflix’s Lilyhammer and two years before the arrival of House of Cards, the burgeoning streamer premiered The Morning After, a pop-culture-focused news show that ran for 800 episodes over three years.
Hulu has continued to make TV history in the years since, most notably in 2017 when it became the first streamer to win an Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series with The Handmaid’s Tale (which just dropped its long-awaited final season). In the years since, the streamer has continued to match—and often exceed—that high bar for quality entertainment with shows like The Bear, which took home 11 Emmys in 2024, and Shōgun, which recently set an Emmy record with 18 wins in a single season.
While more competition has popped up since Hulu started gaining critical credibility, the network has continued to stand out for its carefully curated selection of original series and network partnerships that make it the home of FX series and more. Below are some of our favorite shows streaming on Hulu right now.
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Dying for Sex
Five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams plays Molly Kochan, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage who learns that she has terminal stage IV breast cancer. After revealing that she has never had an orgasm with another person, it becomes apparent to Molly and everyone caring for her that this should be at the top of her bucket list. Realizing she doesn’t have much time left, Molly leaves her husband and, with the help of her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate), sets out to achieve the sexual satisfaction that has eluded her all her life—with unexpected consequences. New Girl creator Liz Meriwether teamed up with Kim Rosenstock (Only Murders in the Building) to create this hit new series, which is based on the life of the real Molly Kochan, creator of the Dying for Sex podcast, which launched in 2020.
The Handmaid’s Tale
When Margaret Atwood wrote The Handmaid’s Tale in 1985, little did she know that its television adaptation would revolutionize the still-nascent world of original streaming content. And she may not have anticipated just how many parallels her dystopian classic would share with the real world at the time it was adapted into an award-winning television series. It’s set in an unnamed time in what is presumably the very near future, when the United States has been taken over by a fundamentalist group known as Gilead, under whose regime women are considered property and stripped of any personal rights. The most valuable women are those who are fertile, as infertility has become an epidemic, and they are kept as handmaids who are forced to take part in sexual rituals with high-ranking couples in order to bear their children. Recognizing the power she wields, Offred, aka June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), is not content to remain enslaved and sets about changing the rules as she seeks to reunite with her lost husband and daughter. It’s been a while since we’ve seen any new episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, but its sixth, and final, season arrived on April 8.
Big Boys
Creator Jack Rooke won a well-deserved BAFTA Award in 2024 for this semi-autobiographical dramedy about a closeted 19-year-old—also named Jack (Dylan Llewellyn)—who, after a year of mourning the death of his father at home with his overprotective mom, leaves for university. There, he’s paired up with Danny (Jon Pointing), a 25-year-old more interested in meeting women than studying, as his roommate. As Jack struggles to become comfortable with his sexuality, he also comes to understand the truth behind Danny’s seemingly extroverted personality. Yes, it’s a coming-of-age story and one in which opposites attract (on a purely platonic level). But it’s also a laugh-out-loud funny series that shows there is life after death.
Deli Boys
Pakistani American brothers Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj (Saagar Shaikh) Dar have spent their entire lives wanting for nothing, thanks to the hard work of their father, who owns a chain of convenience stores. But after a freak accident kills dear old dad, the brothers are expected to take on the family business which, unbeknownst to them, is actually a front for a drug smuggling empire. While their antics are undoubtedly hilarious, the series does attempt to paint a truthful portrait of the immigrant experience—even if it’s often through an absurdist lens.
A Thousand Blows
If Netflix’s Adolescence has you seeking out more of Stephen Graham’s work, check out Steven Knight’s A Thousand Blows—the Peaky Blinders creator’s newest British historical drama in which crime and violence collide. In this case it’s an all-female crime syndicate, the Forty Elephants, who are at the center of the action, with Mary Carr (Erin Doherty) as their leader. When Mary’s crew crosses notorious kingpin Sugar Goodson (Graham), she turns to Hezekiah Moscow (Malachi Kirby) and Alec Munroe (Francis Lovehall), two young men who have recently emigrated from Jamaica in order to make a better life for themselves, to help her escape Goodson’s wrath.
Devil in the Family: The Fall of Ruby Franke
In 2015, thirtysomething Mormon mom of six Ruby Franke became one of YouTube’s most popular mommy vloggers with her channel, 8 Passengers. But as Franke’s popularity grew, so too did questions surrounding her punishment-prone style of parenting. Eight years later, Franke’s 12-year-old son showed up at a stranger’s door—looking emaciated and covered in open wounds and duct tape—asking the man to call the police as he was being abused. Franke’s roller-coaster ride from “perfect” mom to child abuser has been making headlines for years, but this three-part docuseries goes behind the scenes with exclusive interviews and footage that shed new light on the truth behind the tragedy.
Paradise
This Is Us creator Dan Fogelman reteams with that award-winning series’ star, Sterling K. Brown, for an intricate political thriller which plays with time to slowly reveal the details of a secret service agent (Brown) tasked with protecting the president (James Marsden) who ultimately becomes a suspect in the POTUS’ death. Expect many twists—including a massive one to kick off the series in episode 1. A second season is already in the works.
Scamanda
“Why would somebody fake cancer?” That’s the question asked—and that ABC News attempts to answer—in this true crime docuseries based on the podcast of the same name. The four-part special recounts the life and lies of Amanda C. Riley, a wife, mother, churchgoer, and popular mommy blogger who was celebrated for sharing her fight against Hodgkin’s lymphoma with the world … only to have it all blow up in her face.
Accused
Like a reverse engineered version of Law & Order, Accused—adapted by Homeland cocreator Howard Gordon from the acclaimed British series of the same name—follows the justice system from the perspective of the accused. Each episode begins with the defendant in the courtroom and recounts (via flashbacks) the circumstances that led them there. Like Dick Wolf’s iconic crime series, each episode is full of familiar faces, from Whitney Cummings and Wendell Pierce to Molly Parker and Margo Martindale.
Say Nothing
Fact and fiction combine in this historical drama based on Patrick Radden Keefe’s novel that follows the lives of a group of people growing up in Belfast during the Troubles and their dealings with the Provisional IRA. Much of the story focuses on the Disappeared—a group of 16 people who went missing during the Troubles and were believed to have been kidnapped and murdered. Jean McConville was one of these individuals, both the only woman among them and the only Irish Catholic convert. Nearly 50 years later, many questions remain about these individuals. While Say Nothing doesn’t attempt to answer all of these questions, it does add fascinating context to the events.
Interior Chinatown
Willis Wu (Jimmy O. Yang) is a waiter who attempts to escape his humdrum life by imagining that he is a background actor in a Law & Order-esque TV show called Black & White. After Wu witnesses a kidnapping, police detective Lana Lee (Chloe Bennet) enlists him to help investigate and take down the local gangs in Chinatown—where he discovers something about his own family in the process. Nothing is what it seems in this meta comedy-crime series, which Charles Yu adapted from his own National Book Award–winning novel. The Daily Show’s Ronny Chieng ups the comedy as Wu’s coworker/BFF Fatty Choi, and Taika Waititi (one of the show’s executive producers) directs the pilot.
What We Do in the Shadows
If you are in need of a laugh-out-loud comedy (and don’t mind if it’s of the sometimes R-rated kind), there are few better than What We Do in the Shadows. In 2014, Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi cowrote, codirected, and costarred in a feature of the same name—a funny mockumentary featuring a group of vampires who share a home. This series, which premiered in 2019, moved the vampire action from New Zealand to Staten Island and brought in a whole new group of vampires—who struggle to even get up off the couch, let alone take over all of New York City (as they’ve been instructed to). After several years, they finally seem ready to get around to the task. All six seasons of the series, which wrapped up its run in December, are available for streaming.
La Máquina
Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna have been close friends since childhood, and it shows in the work they’ve done together—most famously in Alfonso Cuarón’s Oscar-nominated Y Tu Mamá También (2001). More than two decades later, their onscreen chemistry is still potent, as evidenced by this Spanish-language boxing drama. Esteban (Bernal) is an aging boxer whose manager/BFF Andy (Luna) persuades him to step into the ring one last time before he officially retires. But as the match looms closer, the criminal underbelly of the sport rears its head—forcing Esteban to determine what parts of his life he’s willing to sacrifice. With just six episodes in all, La Máquina moves fast. Don’t flinch.
How to Die Alone
Former Saturday Night Live and Insecure writer Natasha Rothwell—whom you might know from her Emmy-nominated turn as spa manager Belinda in seasons 1 and 3 of The White Lotus—created and stars in this eight-episode series. Mel (Rothwell) is an employee at New York City’s JFK Airport who is content with the uneventful life she has built for herself. But when she has a sudden brush with death, she decides to take her life into her own hands. While it’s not the first series to explore matters of life and death, it does so in a way that is both beautifully nuanced and laugh-out-loud funny—all of it anchored by Rothwell’s performance. On February 4, Hulu announced that it had canceled the series after one season—a move that has Rothwell “baffled” and looking for a new network to produce season 2.
English Teacher
Television audiences are hardly lacking in high school–set comedies, or in really great high school–set comedies, and/or really great high school–set comedies that focus on the teacher perspective (see: Abbott Elementary). English Teacher fits into that elite niche. Brian Jordan Alvarez—who was behind the award-winning 2016 web series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo—both created and stars in the show, in which he portrays an English teacher in Austin, Texas, who is dedicated to making an impact on his students, even if he sometimes needs to depend on their teenage wisdom to figure out the right way to do that. While it doesn’t shy away from the politics that exist in the teaching profession, the series—which has already been renewed for another season—also presents the “adults” as often just as lost as the kids they teach.
Only Murders in the Building
Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez make for a delightful trio of true-crime-obsessed podcast fans who, in season 1 of this original Hulu series, decide to join forces and create their own podcast while attempting to solve the mysterious death of a fellow resident of their Manhattan apartment building. From the very beginning of their odd alliance, it’s been clear that all is not what it seems, and everyone is keeping secrets. Now they’ve upped the ante on guest stars, too; the third season saw Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep join in the fun. Streep returned for the show’s fourth season, and was joined by Eugene Levy, Kumail Nanjiani, Tina Fey, Melissa McCarthy, Zach Galifianakis, and Eva Longoria. Season 5 is already in the works, with Renée Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, and Keegan-Michael Key among the already-confirmed guest stars.
Solar Opposites
This animated sci-fi comedy, which premiered in 2020, is about a family of aliens from the planet Shlorp who crash-land on Earth—for better or worse. The show is rooted in the idea that humans are, well, weird. Which seems appropriate given this current moment in time. Yet, in between the laughs and occasional threat to humanity, it maintains a positive outlook on the world and the people who inhabit it. Which is something we could probably all use right about now. The show’s sixth season, which is expected to premiere in the fall, will also be its last.
Futurama
Following a decade-long hiatus, Futurama—Matt Groening and David X. Cohen’s animated sci-fi comedy—made a triumphant return in 2023, complete with gags about Twilight Zone and “Momazon” drone deliveries. Now is the perfect time to dive back in—or watch it all for the first time. All 12 seasons of the series are currently available for streaming and Hulu has confirmed that at least two more seasons are on the way (with the next one tentatively scheduled to premiere as early as July).
We Were the Lucky Ones
In Radom, Poland, the Kurcs are a loving family who seem to have it all—until the horrors of the Holocaust invade the serenity of their everyday lives. As World War II arrives on their doorstep, the family is separated—escaping to France, Brazil, West Africa, and Russia. Some are in hiding, others in concentration camps. But they’re all focused on one goal: surviving the war and reuniting with each other.
The Bear
Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) is a superstar of the fine dining world who has returned to his hometown of Chicago to save his family’s struggling sandwich shop after his brother’s death by suicide. While Carmy initially struggles to acclimate himself to being home and to his inherited kitchen’s back-to-basics style, he eventually realizes that it’s not too late to change both himself and the restaurant. Anyone who has ever worked in a busy kitchen knows the stress that comes with it, and The Bear does an excellent job of making that tension palpable—as evidenced by its slew of aforementioned Emmy Awards. While the plot sounds simple enough, much of Carmy’s previous life is a bit of a mystery, and it’s doled out in amuse-bouche-sized bits throughout the series with top-tier guest stars you may not have seen coming (fact: Jamie Lee Curtis has never been better, as evidenced by her recent—and very first—Emmy win). Prepare to feast.
Queenie
Queenie Jenkins (Dionne Brown) is a Jamaican-British twentysomething whose world is thrown into an upheaval following an ugly breakup with her boyfriend. That messiness follows Queenie into the next chapter in her life, when she attempts to pick up the pieces of her failed relationship while frequently butting heads with her family and trying to reconcile her dual cultures. Candice Carty-Williams adapts her own bestselling novel to create a poignant dramedy that’s ultimately about trauma and healing.
Black Twitter: A People’s History
In the late 2000s—back when Elon Musk was just that car-and-spaceship billionaire—Twitter was more than a social media network. It was a genuine gathering place for people to find their people, whether that was Film Twitter or Cat Twitter. For Black Twitter, it was a lot more. This three-part docuseries, based on WIRED senior writer Jason Parham’s 2021 cover story, recounts the most important moments and movements that helped solidify the Black Twitter community’s place as a cultural force in the world, from politics and beyond.
Under the Bridge
Riley Keough and Lily Gladstone (who earned an Emmy nomination for her work in the show) make a formidable duo as an author and a police officer, respectively, investigating the brutal murder of a 14-year-old girl in a small town in Canada. The limited series is based on Rebecca Godfrey’s award-winning 2005 book of the same name (with Keough portraying Godfrey), and is a haunting reminder of what human beings are capable of.
Shōgun
Game of Thrones fans still lamenting the loss of one of television’s great epics have found their new favorite binge-watch in Shōgun, which took home a record 18 Emmys (with 25 nods altogether) in 2024. This 10-episode series, based on James Clavell’s beloved novel (which was first adapted into a miniseries in 1980), is a brilliant and sweeping tale of political rivalry in feudal Japan where Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada), a powerful warrior, has a target put on his back by his political rivals in the Council of Regents. Fortunately for Toranaga, he’s got Toda Mariko (Anna Sawai), a talented translator and fiercely loyal samurai, by his side. Though it was originally positioned as a one-and-done limited series, FX and Hulu have already confirmed that both seasons two and three are in the works.
Such Brave Girls
Comedian/actress Kat Sadler created and stars in this deeply messy, darkly funny story of a totally dysfunctional family—mom Deb (Sherlock’s Louise Brealey) and daughters Josie (Sadler) and Billie (Lizzie Davidson, Sadler’s real-life sister)—attempting to pick up the pieces after their husband/father leaves them. It’s cringe-comedy at its finest, and the kind that will appeal to fans of Fleabag. A second season is in the works, and expected to premiere later this year.
Abbott Elementary
Quinta Brunson created and stars in this hit series, which follows the daily lives—in and out of the classroom—of a group of teachers at what is widely considered one of the worst public schools in America. Despite a lack of funding for even basic educational necessities, and school district leaders who only care about the barest minimum standards, these educators are united by their drive to surpass expectations and encourage their students to do the same. The series concluded its fourth season on April 16, with season 5 already confirmed.
Fargo
Noah Hawley’s anthology series isn’t the first attempt to adapt the Coen brothers’ Oscar-winning crime-comedy to the small screen (Edie Falco starred in a previous version, which was a more straightforward adaptation of the movie), but his approach was clearly the smarter move. Fans of the Coens in general will find lots to love about the many nods to the filmmakers’ entire filmography, with each season covering a different crime and time period. Though the seasons do share connections, each one is a total one-off, and the show might boast the most talented group of actors ever assembled: Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Freeman, Bob Odenkirk, Oliver Platt, Ted Danson, Patrick Wilson, Nick Offerman, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, Carrie Coon, Scoot McNairy, Chris Rock, Jason Schwartzman, Timothy Olyphant, and Ben Whishaw are just a few of the names who’ve found a home in Fargo. The fantastic fifth season—featuring Juno Temple, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Joe Keery, and Lamorne Morris (who won an Emmy for his role)—continued this tradition of exceptional acting, with all episodes streaming now.
A Murder at the End of the World
Darby Hart (Emma Corrin) is a talented hacker and armchair detective who is one of eight guests invited to spend a few days at the stunning yet remote home of a mysterious billionaire (Clive Owen). When one of the guests ends up dead, Darby must work quickly to prove that it was murder—and who did it—before the bodies start piling up. Fans of twisty true crime will appreciate this limited series, which comes from the minds of Brit Marling (who costars) and Zal Batmanglij—cocreators of the equally mind-bending The OA.
Moonlighting
While Die Hard turned Bruce Willis into one of Hollywood’s biggest action stars, he was far from producers’ first choice for the role of John McClane. That’s largely because he was seen as the funny guy from Moonlighting, the Emmy-winning ’80s dramedy that centers around the Blue Moon Detective Agency and its two often-bickering owners, David Addison (Willis) and Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd). Over the course of its five seasons, the series racked up some serious critical acclaim and wasn’t afraid to experiment with the sitcom format.
The Other Black Girl
Sinclair Daniel shines as Nella Rogers, an up-and-coming book editor—and the only Black employee at the publishing house where she works. While Nella is initially thrilled when another young woman of color, Hazel-May McCall (Ashleigh Murray), is hired as an assistant, she can’t help but notice that a series of bizarre events seems to follow. As Nella tries to suss out exactly what is going on, she uncovers some pretty damn disturbing skeletons in her employer’s closet. While horror-comedies are an increasingly popular movie genre, we don’t see them on the small screen quite as often—which, if this clever series is any indication, is a real shame. Also unfortunate: One season is all we’ll get of The Other Black Girl.
The Full Monty
Twenty-six years after a low-budget British comedy blew up at the box office, scored an Oscar, and introduced “the Full Monty” into the popular lexicon, the Regular Joes turned strippers from Sheffield are back to face largely the same issues they were lamenting in the original feature film (which is also streaming on Hulu). Much of the main cast reassembled for this follow-up to Peter Cattaneo’s hit 1997 movie, including two-time Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson, who passed away in late December. Stripping is involved, as are other inevitables in life, including breakups, reconciliations, and death. For fans of the original movie—or the Broadway musical and stage play that followed—it’s a fun check-in with the characters who bared it all.
The Office (UK)
Years before there was Jim and Pam and Dwight and Michael, there were Tim and Dawn and Gareth and David. For lovers of cringe, it’s hard to do better than Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s workplace comedy. David Brent (Gervais) is the original boss from hell, whose office antics will have you covering your eyes and laughing out loud at the same time. Like many British series, there are just two seasons—each consisting of a mere six episodes—plus a two-part Christmas special. Don’t be surprised if you sit down to watch a single episode and binge it all in one go.
Cheers
In the 1980s, NBC was the channel to watch on Thursday nights—in large part thanks to Cheers. The bar where everybody knows your name is where the action happens in this award-winning sitcom about a former Red Sox player (Ted Danson) and the lovable employees and patrons who treat his bar like a second home. If you can look past (or, even better, embrace) the questionable ’80s fashion and sometimes-sexist storylines that wouldn’t necessarily fly on TV today, you’ll find what is arguably one of the smartest sitcoms ever written. More than 40 years after its original premiere, the jokes still stand up and the characters are some of television’s most memorable (and beloved) for a reason.
Dopesick
Back in 2021, Hulu went where Netflix’s Painkiller went in 2023: to the late ’90s and early 2000s, aka the beginning of America’s opioid crisis. Danny Strong created this retelling of the lengths to which Richard Sackler (played here by the always excellent Michael Stuhlbarg) and Purdue Pharma would go to sell doctors on the powers of OxyContin—all with the promise of no addiction. Michael Keaton won an Emmy for his portrayal of a widowed doctor in Appalachia who buys into the lies, and eventually becomes a victim of them.
Reservation Dogs
Taika Waititi and Sterlin Harjo cocreated this Peabody Award–winning series, which made history as the first mainstream TV show created by, starring, and crewed by an almost entirely Indigenous American team. It tells the story of four bored teens who are desperate to escape their lives on a reservation in Oklahoma. They decide that California is where they want to be and commit to a life of mostly petty crimes in order to save up enough money to leave. The full three seasons are available to watch now, including the brilliant series sendoff.
The Great
Elle Fanning and Nicholas Hoult shine in this witty, fast-paced, comedic retelling (but not really) of Catherine the Great’s rise to power. Created by Tony McNamara, who earned Oscar nominations for his writing work on both The Favourite and Poor Things, The Great offers the same combination of lush costumes and scenery mixed with a biting commentary on the world, and a woman’s place in it. A story that rings as true today as it did in the 18th century, when Catherine the Great became empress of Russia and brought about the Age of Enlightenment, this show chips away at notions of class, propriety, and monarchical rule in a way few others do. If it’s historical accuracy you’re after, look elsewhere; the series’ creators describe it as decidedly “anti-historical” (which is part of the fun). All three seasons are available to stream.
Tiny Beautiful Things
The reason to watch this eight-part limited series can be summed up in two words: Kathryn Hahn. A comedic juggernaut, Hahn can switch from funny to dramatic in the same scene, if not the same sentence. This talent is on display in Tiny Beautiful Things, where she plays Claire, a writer who takes up an advice column and pours all the traumas of her life into responding to her readers. Based on Wild author Cheryl Strayed’s collection of “Dear Sugar” columns, the vignettes here may be a bit out of sorts, but Hahn pulls them together.
Dave
Dave Burd is a comedian and rapper who goes by the stage name Lil Dicky. In Dave, Burd plays a rapper who goes by the stage name Lil Dicky and is attempting to raise his profile and make a much bigger name for himself. If only his many neuroses didn’t keep getting in the way. While Dave could have easily turned into some mediocre experiment in meta storytelling, Burd—who cocreated the series, stars in it, and has written several episodes—grapples with some surprisingly touchy topics, including mental illness. And he does it all with a level of sensitivity and honesty that you might not expect from a guy named Lil Dicky. Despite the show’s popularity and critical acclaim, the three seasons currently streaming may be all we get of Dave. In early 2024, Burd announced that he’d be pressing “pause” on the series in order to explore other creative ventures. (But never say never.)
Atlanta
Donald Glover proved himself to be a quadruple threat of an actor, writer, musician, and comedian with this highly acclaimed FX series about Earnest “Earn” Marks (Glover), an aspiring music manager who is trying to help his cousin Alfred Miles, aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), kick off his musical career. They’re surrounded by a supportive crew of friends, including Alfred’s BFF, Darius (LaKeith Stanfield), and Van (Zazie Beetz), Earn’s close friend and the mother of his child. This makes it all sound like a fairly straightforward buddy comedy, but Atlanta is so much more. Even better: It’s weird. Glover is not afraid to experiment with storytelling, which is part of what makes the show so compelling.
Baskets
Zach Galifianakis stars alongside Zach Galifianakis as twin brothers Chip and Dale Baskets in this unexpectedly moving family comedy about an aspiring clown (Chip) who fails to graduate from a fancy clowning school in Paris and is forced to return home to Bakersfield, California, where he lives with his mother (the late Louie Anderson) and is constantly belittled by his higher-achieving brother (Dale). Between the dual role for Galifianakis and Anderson as the mom, it may sound like a cheap bit of stunt casting that can’t sustain more than an episode, let alone multiple character arcs. But if you’re a fan of absurdist comedy, Baskets truly ranks among the best of them. And Anderson, who won his first and only Emmy for his role as Costco-loving Christine, is absolutely transcendent. While it received a fair amount of critical acclaim, Baskets could rightly be considered one of the most underseen and underappreciated series in recent memory.
The Dropout
Amanda Seyfried won a much deserved Outstanding Lead Actress Emmy for her portrayal of the notorious Stanford dropout turned health care technology maven Elizabeth Holmes, who tricked some of the world’s savviest business minds into investing in her company, Theranos. While Holmes’ goal was altruistic enough—making health care more accessible to the masses via a device that could detect any number of diseases with little more than a single finger prick of blood—the technology wasn’t able to catch up. Rather than admit defeat, she kept pushing, making business deals and promises she could never fulfill.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia
If you thought the characters on Seinfeld were terrible people, wait until you meet the gang from Paddy’s Pub. For nearly 20 years, Dennis (Glenn Howerton), Mac (Robert McElhenney), Charlie (Charlie Day), Sweet Dee (Kaitlin Olson), and Frank (Danny DeVito) have unapologetically plotted against each other and total strangers in a series of completely self-centered schemes with absolutely no regard for the rules of civility. The show follows the “no hugging and no learning” rule Larry David established for Seinfeld, but elevates it to a new level of sociopathy. “Dennis and Dee Go on Welfare,” “Sweet Dee Has a Heart Attack,” “How Mac Got Fat,” “Dennis Looks Like a Registered Sex Offender,” “The Gang Turns Black,” and “The Gang Goes to a Water Park” are just some of the offbeat adventures awaiting viewers. In 2021, Sunny became the longest-running live-action sitcom in the history of television, and it shows no signs of slowing down—or taking it easy on its characters. It also happens to be one of the easiest shows to binge: Pop an episode on and, without even realizing it, you’ll be on to another season. Its 16th (!!) wrapped up in 2023—but there are at least two more on the way, with the next one set to arrive in June.
Letterkenny
What began as a web series is now a Hulu original that wrapped up its eleventh season in December. The show is a portrait of small-town Canada (the fictional Letterkenny of the title) and focuses on siblings Wayne (cocreator Jared Keeso) and Katy (Michelle Mylett), who run a produce stand with help from friends Daryl (Nathan Dales) and Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson). As is often the case in small-town series, many of the residents fall into specific categories—in Letterkenny, you could be a gym rat, a hick, a skid (their word for a drug addict), or a “native” (a member of the nearby First Nation reservation). But in contrast to many small-town series, these groups—and the individuals who comprise them—aren’t reduced to meaningless stereotypes.
Pen15
Mining the awkwardness of one’s middle school years is hardly a new comedy concept. But being in your early thirties and playing yourself as a junior high school student and then surrounding yourself with age-appropriate actors who are actually going through that hellish rite of passage brings a whole new layer of cringe and humor. This is exactly what cocreators/stars Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle did for Pen15.
In 2017, Hulu made television history by becoming the first streaming network to win the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series, thanks to the phenomenon that was The Handmaid’s Tale.
While Netflix has largely cornered the streaming market on original movies—and even managed to persuade A-listers like Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, and Martin Scorsese to come aboard—Hulu is starting to find its footing in features too. Below are some of our top picks for the best movies (original and otherwise) streaming on Hulu right now.
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Kinds of Kindness
Just three months after Poor Things scored four Oscar wins, Yorgos Lanthimos got much of the gang back together—including Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley—for Kinds of Kindness, which debuted at Cannes. Unlike his previous works, this one is an anthology film, or what came to be marketed as a “triptych fable.” Just like the writer-director’s other movies, it is born from a place of absurdist comedy and over-the-top performances from its stars. Sex cults, reanimation, sandwiches, murder-happy bosses, and John McEnroe’s smashed tennis racket all play a part in the wildly fun festivities.
Little Women
Greta Gerwig is far (far) from the first writer-director to adapt Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women for the big screen. And she’s certainly not the first person to do an admirable job of it. (Gillian Armstrong’s 1994 version starring Winona Ryder and Christian Bale is still a much beloved interpretation.) Yet Gerwig made the 19th century tale seem practically modern-day, and different from all the rest, with seemingly small decisions like playing with the novel’s timelines. It also doesn’t hurt that it just happens to star some of the most impressive actors working today, including Saoirse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, Eliza Scanlen, James Norton, Laura Dern, Chris Cooper, Tracy Letts, Meryl Streep, and Bob Odenkirk.
Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney produced this religious horror flick and also stars as Cecilia, a young nun (yep, you read that right) whose traumatic brush with death has convinced her that God saved her for a higher purpose. When she is invited to join a convent in the remote Italian countryside that assists older nuns at the end of their life, she happily accepts—then quickly comes to realize that all may not be what it seems.
Casino
Casino isn’t one of Martin Scorsese’s most financially successful movies, nor is it one of his most critically acclaimed. But it’s the kind of movie that only gets better with time and increased viewings (yes, even with its 178-minute running time). Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s 1995 book Casino: Love and Honor in Las Vegas, the film is based on the Vegas exploits of real-life gangster Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal. Sam “Ace” Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is a low-level Chicago mobster who is asked to move to Las Vegas to run the Tangiers Casino. Once there, the one-time handicapper realizes that he’s pretty great at his job, which brings with it the respect of some of Las Vegas’ most powerful leaders. But when hot-headed enforcer Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) follows his friend to Las Vegas, the careful world that Ace has built around him and the casino business starts to crumble. As does Ace’s relationship with his con artist wife (Sharon Stone). While Casino struck some viewers as being too similar to Goodfellas and some of Scorsese’s other works to stand on its own, its impeccable performances—including a career-best from Stone—make it compulsively watchable.
Ferrari
Enzo Ferrari (Adam Driver) is a man who should have it all: the one-time race car driver and founder of the Ferrari car company oozes charm, wealth, and excitement. But behind the scenes, the walls are closing in on him. Set during the summer of 1957, Michael Mann’s biopic finds Ferrari (the man) on the verge of bankruptcy, mourning the death of his son, and desperately trying to hide his past indiscretions from his estranged wife—who helped build the car company and who holds the key to his financial future. Though the film earned mixed reviews, it does a solid job of telling the complex story of a complicated man. But it’s biggest selling point is Penélope Cruz’s bravura performance.
Perfect Days
Nearly 60 years into his career as a filmmaker, Wim Wenders managed to make one of his best films yet with Perfect Days—which is saying a lot when you consider that this is the same director who made Paris, Texas (1984) and Wings of Desire (1987). Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) is a toilet cleaner in Tokyo who is blissfully content with the simplicity of his life, as it allows him the time to indulge his more personal passions: music (he’s an avid collector of cassette tapes and allows his favorite music to set the soundtrack to his life), books, and nature. The movie is not punctuated by any overly dramatic storylines; just the quiet interactions that Hirayama has with those around him—family, coworkers, total strangers—and the way those interludes impact him. It’s that poetic simplicity, and Yakusho’s wonderful performance, that gives the film its heart.
Get Out
In 2017, Jordan Peele went from one half of Key & Peele to an Oscar-winning screenwriter (not to mention the first Black writer to win the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and the first Black filmmaker to be nominated as a producer, writer, and director in one year). Seven years later, the impact of Peele’s Get Out is still just as impressive. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) has been invited by his girlfriend, Rose (Allison Williams), to spend the weekend at her parents’ home in upstate New York. While Chris worries that her seemingly upper-class parents won’t be accepting of an interracial relationship, Rose assures him it won’t be a problem—and she’s right, but for all the wrong reasons. With Get Out, Peele cracked the code on making a film that was a horror movie, psychological drama, and telling commentary on race all at once.
Origin
Writer-director Ava DuVernay finds a way to yet again change the language of cinema with what is both a biopic and a historical document. The movie is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor), the first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism for her work at The New York Times. It follows Wilkerson’s journey to write her 2020 book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents—a project that took her from the US to Germany to India to research the troubling history of each country’s caste system and the parallels that exist between them.
Fight Club
An office drone (Edward Norton) with a love of catalog shopping and self-help groups meets a rebellious soap maker (Brad Pitt) on a flight. Then doesn’t seem able to shake him. But doesn’t really seem to want to, especially when they realize that beating the shit out of each other is a great way to relieve the stress of everyday life. Soon, they’ve assembled an army of Fight Club members who are ready to take on the world. It’s been 25 years since David Fincher’s adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk’s bestselling novel turned a generation of moviegoers on their head, and even though the film was a bit of a bomb when it was released in theaters, it has since gained a massive cult following—and even spawned some very real fight clubs.
The Contestant
On January 11, 1998, 22-year-old comedian Tomoaki Hamatsu entered an apartment in Japan where he lived, nude and with no human contact, for 15 months as part of an understandably controversial game show titled Susunu! Denpa Shōnen. Hamatsu had no idea his life was being broadcast. This riveting documentary delves into not just how anyone ever allowed this experiment to happen, but the real-world effects—cultural, psychological, and beyond—it had on both Hamatsu and the tens of millions of viewers who were somehow drawn into witnessing his on-camera abuse.
Anatomy of a Fall
Between her starring roles in The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall, German actress Sandra Hüller made it clear that when it comes to scripts, she knows how to pick ’em. In this compelling courtroom drama, Hüller plays a successful writer turned murder suspect when her husband (Samuel Theis) is found dead outside their home on a snowy day. Ultimately, it might be her son (Milo Machado-Graner) and/or his guide dog (Messi, the movie’s real star) who ultimately seal Sandra’s fate. It’s a smart, twisty, and well-acted mystery that will keep you guessing.
Poor Things
Whether or not you agree with her Best Actress Oscar win, there’s no denying that Emma Stone’s performance is one that won’t be soon forgotten and has likely changed the trajectory of her career. Bella Baxter (Stone) is a young woman with the brain of an infant who is brought back to life by the lovably mad scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter, aka God (Willem Dafoe). But Bella is a fast learner and is intrigued by the many adventures the world has to offer her—regardless of what polite society dictates. Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, and Christopher Abbott are among the men who are entranced by Bella’s frankness (“I must go punch that baby”) in what is undoubtedly the most over-the-top title in Yorgos Lanthimos’ filmography—which is saying a lot. One caveat: Those who are easily offended by nudity or graphic sex might want to give this a skip.
BlackBerry
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Glenn Howerton is practically unrecognizable in this immensely entertaining recounting of the rise and fall of BlackBerry—the must-have cell phone that had the world entranced before the iPhone came along. Howerton costars as Jim Balsillie, the very real negotiator who, alongside Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel), gave the world its first smartphone. Which is a lot more dramatic (and darkly humorous) than it sounds.
The Royal Hotel
Ozark star Julia Garner reunites with director Kitty Green (The Assistant) for this taut psychological thriller in which BFFs Hanna (Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) decide to backpack their way through the Australian outback. When they’re offered the chance to live and work at a remote hotel in order to replenish their dwindling bank accounts, they jump at the chance—despite Hanna feeling that something isn’t quite right with their place of employment or its clientele. She’s on to something. Garner has played one badass character after the next, and The Royal Hotel is no exception.
All of Us Strangers
Adam (the always superb Andrew Scott) is a television writer who largely keeps to himself, until an awkward encounter with his tipsy neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal) kickstarts a passionate new relationship. But when he’s not in London with Harry, Adam is returning to the suburban home where he grew up—and where he encounters and is able to interact with his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), despite their having died 30 years ago. In the hands of a lesser director, the fantastical elements could seem forced. But with Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) behind the camera, the surreal setup only augments the emotion.
The Creator
Director Gareth Edwards (Rogue One) imagines a not-too-distant future in which the human race is at war with AI—which feels all too relatable for some. John David Washington (Tenet star/son of Denzel) is the world’s best hope for putting an end to this battle once and for all when he’s tasked with tracking down the eponymous Creator, the architect behind the technology that has created this world upheaval. While there are some undeniable plot holes, the Oscar-nominated film’s stellar set pieces and first-class acting talent make this a must-see film for sci-fi fans.
Self Reliance
New Girl’s Jake Johnson makes his feature directorial debut with this wonderfully weird and occasionally dark meta comedy, which he also wrote and stars in. Tommy Walcott (Johnson) is living a pretty ordinary existence until he’s approached by Andy Samberg (as Andy Samberg), who offers him the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to win $1 million as part of a massive reality competition. The only thing Tommy needs to do is not get murdered for 30 days, despite being hunted by dozens of contract killers whose job is to ensure that no contestant walks away with the big prize. The catch? Contestants can only be killed when they’re entirely alone. So Tommy takes it upon himself to partner up with another contestant, which is where Maddy (Anna Kendrick) comes in. Since they both have a cool mil to gain and a lot to lose (aka their lives) if they don’t triumph, they make a pact to spend every waking moment of the next 30 days together. Just when you think you know where Self Reliance is headed, it goes ahead and surprises—and in the best ways possible.
Nocebo
Christine (Eva Green) is a children’s fashion designer suffering from a debilitating, but undiagnosed, illness following a tick bite. She finds relief, in many forms, with the arrival of Diana (Chai Fonacier), a nanny and housekeeper who happens to possess healing gifts. Christine’s husband Felix (Mark Strong) is suspicious of Diana’s all-too-helpful demeanor, and it turns out he has every right to be. While this film operates as social commentary on the fashion industry, Nocebo is more effective as a creepy psychological thriller filled with the kind of uncomfortable close-ups that make the viewer feel the walls closing in.
No One Will Save You
Home invasion thrillers are never in short supply, but the really effective ones are hard to come by. Kaitlyn Dever shines—and proves yet again that she can shoulder the weight of an entire film—as Brynn Adams, a seamstress living a solitary existence in her childhood home and mourning the loss of her mother and closest friend. When she wakes up one night to discover that someone is in her house, that someone turns out to be something. A home invasion thriller with extraterrestrials might not have been on your must-watch Bingo card, but No One Will Save You is 93 minutes well spent.
Miguel Wants to Fight
Miguel (Tyler Dean Flores) is 17 years old and has never been in a fight. So when he learns that he’ll be moving away from the place and people he has known all his life, he enlists his pals to help him get into his first fistfight. It’s probably not the first coming-of-age ritual to spring to mind, but it’s certainly among them. A talented cast of young actors make this comedy—cowritten by Shea Serrano and Jason Concepcion—immensely watchable.
Bad Axe
David Siev paints a deeply personal portrait of the American Dream disrupted as he traces his family’s journey from the Killing Fields of Cambodia to the tiny—and overwhelmingly white—town of Bad Axe, Michigan. Shot in real time, this moving documentary shows the challenges facing Siev’s family, and the restaurant they own, amid political tension and anti-Asian sentiment during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sanctuary
Hal Porterfield (Christopher Abbott) has just been handed the keys to the castle following the death of his hotel magnate father. Rebecca Marin (Margaret Qualley) is a dominatrix who believes she deserves some of the credit—and half the cash—that comes with Hal’s new CEO position. Sexual politics have rarely played out as twisted, or darkly funny, as they do in this mesmerizing, and often claustrophobic, thriller from Zachary Wigon.
Corsage
Vicky Krieps delivers yet another top-notch performance as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, who—following her 40th birthday—longs to recapture the freedom of her youth. Marie Kreutzer writes and directs this fictional biopic (Empress Elisabeth is real, though the story told within takes plenty of creative liberties), which sees the royal rebelling against her lack of power to affect any real change, despite her title. Even more so, it’s about a woman who is desperate to hold on to the power that youth and beauty entitle her to—regardless of the consequences.
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Environmentalism meets heist movie in director Daniel Goldhaber’s thriller about a group of young people who try to—as the title implies—expose the fragility of the oil industry. It’s not often that a movie examining the fight against the climate crisis is also an edge-of-your-seat adventure, but here those elements come together beautifully. (You can give cinematographer Tehillah de Castro a bit of credit for that.) Smart, prescient, and nearly unprecedented, How to Blow Up a Pipeline is more than worth the stream.
Alien
Alien was originally released in 1979, but it has lost none of its potency in the intervening years—which isn’t something most fortysomethings could say. By now you probably know the story: The crew aboard the spacecraft Nostromo, including warrant officer Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), put a presumably slight pause on their trip back to Earth in order to respond to a distress call from a nearby planetoid. But what they discover is a bizarre alien life form that seems to delight in knocking off crew members in new—and frequently terrifying—ways. Can you say Facehugger? Or Chestburster? Alien is also noteworthy for being the film that kicked off a bona fide, and legendary, sci-fi/horror franchise—and introduced the world to Ridley Scott, who changed the genre game yet again with his next feature, Blade Runner.
Rye Lane
Raine Allen-Miller made a splash at Sundance in 2023 with her directorial debut, which offers a playful twist on the typical rom-com. Yas (Vivian Oparah) and Dom (David Jonsson) are both twentysomethings reeling from recent break-ups. After a chance—and rather awkward—first meeting, the pair spend a day wandering around South London, bonding over their shared experience, finding cheeky ways to get over the mourning of their previous relationships, and maybe discovering that romance is not dead after all.
Triangle of Sadness
Think of it like Gilligan’s Island, but with more class commentary and vomit. When a bunch of rich people head out to sea on a luxury yacht, their plans are thwarted when a terrible storm leaves many of them stranded on a beach where none of their money or power can help them survive. That already gives away too much, but suffice to say, if you like The Menu-esque critiques of the excesses of wealth with just as many dark-comedy twists, this Oscar-nominated film is right for you.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
OK, so this might be the movie that turned the idea of “lesbian period drama” into a trope, but it’s also one of the best modern queer romance films around, alongside Moonlight and Carol. Set on an isolated French coast in the late-1700s, writer-director Céline Sciamma’s film centers on a young aristocrat woman, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is betrothed to a wealthy Milanese man. When Héloïse’s mother hires Marianne (Noémie Merlant) to paint a portrait of her daughter, the two women fall in love and have the kind of heartbreaking affair that made lesbian period dramas so undeniable in the first place. You’ll be transfixed.
Spencer
Look, there are probably far too many Princess Diana movies and TV shows already. But this one, directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Kristen Stewart as the one-time Princess of Wales, focuses on one specific Christmas at Queen Elizabeth’s Sandringham Estate in a way that narrows down just how complex each day Diana’s life with the royal family must have been. Yes, the backdrop is the divorce rumors surrounding Diana and Prince Charles (Jack Farthing), but the story is about her relationships within the family and the life she left behind to join them.
Nomadland
This film from director Chloé Zhao, about one woman’s post–Great Recession quest through the American West, won a ton of Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress for lead Frances McDormand, and Best Director and Best Editing wins for Zhao. Zhao also won for Best Adapted Screenplay for her adaptation of WIRED contributor Jessica Bruder’s book, also called Nomadland. It’s a bracing look at the modern American dream.
Fresh
Noa (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a single woman who is on the lookout for a partner but tired of the online dating scene. When she meets Steve (Sebastian Stan), a quirky, handsome stranger, she decides to give him her number. The two hit it off on the first date and eventually find themselves making plans to spend a weekend away—which is when Noa realizes that Steve has been hiding a few disturbing details about himself. Ultimately, Fresh stands as a lesson in the horrors of dating in the digital age (both real and imagined).
Palm Springs
Given the existence of Harold Ramis’ near-perfect Groundhog Day, it takes a whole lot of chutzpah for a filmmaker to add another picture to the infinite-time-loop rom-com canon. But writer-director Max Barbakow did it anyway with Palm Springs, and audiences are thankful he did. Building upon the rules originally established in Groundhog Day, Palm Springs offers its own unique twist on the story. Instead of showing one person (Billy Murray’s Phil Conners) slowly being pushed to the brink of insanity because he’s the only one who seems to be experiencing the phenomenon, Palm Springs has three wedding guests—Nyles (Andy Samberg), Sarah (Cristin Milioti), and Roy (J. K. Simmons)—living the same day again and again and working together to find a way out of it.
There are so many great movies on Hulu, that it’s easy to overlook the TV selection as well. In the fall season, Hulu gets the all of the shows from Fox and ABC the day after their broadcast premiere. That let’s you sample as many of the new shows on your own time as you like. But in the summer, there just aren’t as many options to watch. So you’ll have to be more discerning about your choices.
That’s why we’ve put together this list of the three underrated shows on Hulu that you need to watch in August. Our first pick is a Hulu original that went largely under the radar last year. Next, we have a short-lived sitcom, followed by a documentary that first made its debut on History over a decade ago.
Black Cake (2023)
Hulu
Oprah Winfrey produced the adaptation of Charmaine Wilkerson’s novel Black Cake, but it was Marissa Jo Cerar who translated the book to television. The mystery here isn’t about how or why Eleanor Bennett (Chipo Chung) dies in the present, it’s about how she lived. Following Eleanor’s death, her children Byron (Ashley Thomas) and Benny (Adrienne Warren) are given recordings that she made before her passing.
Through these recordings, the narrative shifts to the ’60s as we learn that Eleanor was once known as Covey (Mia Isaac), a young woman from Jamaica whose life was upended by her father. Eleanor kept all of her secrets as Covey until she died, but the revelations of her past will still have an impact on her children in the present.
ABC may have canceled Not Dead Yet, but like the ghosts on the series itself, it can have a digital afterlife on Hulu despite its short two-season run. Nell Serrano (Gina Rodriguez) isn’t dead, but her journalism career might be after a lengthy hiatus while she was married and living in London. Now that she’s back at the SoCal Independent, Nell is relegated to writing obituaries. And that’s where the ghosts come in.
Either Nell is going crazy or she’s really seeing visions of dead people who have unfinished business on Earth. Sometimes, they help Nell write their obituaries. Other times, they give Nell a much-needed push to work on her own problems.
What images come to mind when you think of Playboy Magazine? The Playboy Bunnies? An elderly Hugh Hefner rocking a smoking jacket? Or all of the naked women who have appeared in centerfolds for decades? The print magazine may be gone, but the brand remains to this day.
History’s documentary How Playboy Changed the World makes the argument that the magazine challenged social norms and helped usher in a sexual revolution. And if you remember the old joke about reading Playboy for the articles, then you may be surprised to learn that the magazine actually ran fiction and nonfiction pieces from some of the most-prominent authors of the era. The magazine has an interesting story, which has been compressed to a feature length documentary for television.
Futurama returns for its 12th season July 29—a fact that just a few years felt like an impossibility. Thanks to Hulu, the oft-canceled and oft-revived series dropped its first new episodes in 10 years in 2023, and there are more to come even after this latest batch of 10. Its continuing existence is assured for now, so there’s only one question left to ask: is it still worth tuning in?
io9 watched the first six episodes for this (spoiler-free!) review, and the short answer is “yes.” There’s no new ground being broken here; taken as a whole, the episodes represent exactly what fans expect from Futurama, which is 31st century shenanigans galore revolving around the misfits of Planet Express.
Also present as usual are clever plots that reflect on 21st century culture, which this time around includes NFTs—a concept still so confusing in the far future that only the kid characters fully understand it—as well as the perils of chatbots, toxic-positivity co-workers, and fast fashion. There are also more timeless themes, including childhood trauma (cleverly viewed through a lens that borrows heavily from Squid Game), animal rights, the search for family roots, and the difficulties in building friendships as an adult.
And, of course, there’s all the stuff that really makes Futurama, Futurama: the hilariously weird asides, the pun-laden product names, the momentary gross-outs, and the lightning-fast oddball references that make you want to rewind to double-check your own eyes.
Along with that goes the fantastic cast, especially John DiMaggio as Bender, who finds ways to make even his character’s well-worn catchphrases sound funny every time, but also Billy West (who plays Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zapp Brannigan, and Zoidberg), Katey Sagal (Leela), Phil LaMarr (Hermes), Lauren Tom (Amy), and the flexibly voiced Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, and David Herman as various other characters. There are, as always, guest stars in season 12, but we won’t spoil their reveals here.
Season 12 of Futurama, created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening and David X. Cohen, debuts July 29 on Hulu; it’s a weekly episode drop, so you’ll have to wait until the end of September if you want to binge it all at once.
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