The best TV shows to watch on Hulu
27.08.2023 - 15:17
/ polygon.com
/ Keri Russell
/ Best
Streaming services have everything these days. They don’t really — in fact, the average streaming library is substantially smaller than you think it is — but it can certainly feel like it when you’re wading through lists of shows. These are not decisions to take lightly; committing to a show is inviting it into your home, heart, and head for several hours at least.
Of the streamers out there, Hulu is maybe the most TV-literate, thanks to its roots as the original streaming platform for a lot of network shows back in the day. Nowadays its collection feels more in line with the hodgepodge of influences that we’ve come to expect from streaming: an ever-shifting collection of TV and movies, with shows inherited in complicated licensing agreements (Hulu is owned by Disney, which makes Hulu its site for FX and FXX shows, which is different than FX on Hulu shows). Hulu doesn’t have everything, but it has enough that it can feel overwhelming to scroll through the service looking for the next great hit.
So, if you’re looking for a sure thing, how do you whittle it down and find the best thing to watch tonight (and, if you’re lucky, the night after, and the night after that, and the night after)? Here are some of the best TV shows to pick from on Hulu.
Russian spies, posing as the perfect American family, worming their way through the government and gaining access to the highest state secrets. By the 2010s, this thought was a smidge too tame for the sort of espionage the U.S. political system was facing — a throwback to Cold War paranoia that was quaint fiction in the face of real-life consequences. But The Americans makes this story feel sincere at every turn (perhaps even more so than the actual couple it was based on, not to mention the other Cold War spies implanted on either side of the Pacific).
Following Elizabeth (Keri Russell, who continued high-stakes government work in The Diplomat) and Philip Jennings (Perry Mason’s Matthew Rhys), The Americans deftly marries their relationship with their spywork. The masterstroke of the show is its patience: letting the work — on their relationship, their mission, or beyond — methodically build, until finally it explodes. That could be a major blowout, but the brilliance of the show is how the stakes feel immediate no matter how big or small they are in the classic sense. The Americans is a slow boil in the best sense of the term, the sort of exquisite foundation that marks everything feel grounded, and blessedly, remarkably real. —Zosha Millman
There are few better versions of TV than hangout TV, and nobody is doing it better right now than Reservation Dogs. The show follows four misfit teens who live on a reservation in Oklahoma, whose tight bond was cemented