Hulu Originals Coming Soon: First Trailer For Samberg’s Palm Springs
This list contains the best, most highly-rated originals Hulu offers ranked by critical consensus. These are the best shows on Hulu right now.
This article is more than 2 years old
Hulu has been around since 2008 beginning with the HULU Syndication network. The service then began offering TV shows from the major TV networks and for a long time that was their hook. Slowly they started to offer movies to keep up with the competition. And now, firmly entrenched in the streaming services world, Hulu has developed a strong knack for original programming. While they aren’t large on quantity (though now being owned by Disney, those numbers may change) they are definitely large on quality.
Here are the most exciting shows coming soon to Hulu…
Hulu Originals Coming Soon
Palm Springs | Coming in July 10, 2020
Originally slated to debut at the cancelled 2020 SXSW Film Festival, Palm Springs has now been acquired by Hulu and will be available to audiences there. The movie stars Andy Samberg in a new riff on the classic Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
Here’s the first trailer for Palm Springs…
Groundhog Day is a classic and while most would normally be averse to anyone touching that movie with a reboot, Palm Springs takes a different enough direction to make it totally worthwhile. I’m in.
Animaniacs
The beloved, zany cartoon from the 90s is being resurrected. The entire original voice cast will return including Rob Paulson as Yakko, Jess Harnell as Wakko, and Tress MacNeille as Dot. Better still they’re bringing Pinky and The Brain back with them too, with Paulson returning to voice Pinky and Maurice LaMarche back as Brain.
Paulson confirmed it to ComicBook.com saying, “It’s impossible to quantify what a compliment that is …to be able to do that again, with Maurice, with Tress, with Jess. Yakko, Wakko, and Dot are back and so are Pinky and the Brain.”
A return date for the show hasn’t been set yet, though most expect it to arrive on Hulu some time in the fall of 2020.
Terminator: The Series
The last Terminator movie, Terminator: Dark Fate, was something of a failure at the box office. Critics and audiences didn’t seem to care for it either. But with Terminator’s parent company 20th Century Fox now owned by Disney, it’s safe to assume Disney would like to make some money off the IP.
It’s clear after multiple failures though, that Terminator movies just don’t work anymore. So word is that Disney is bringing Terminator to back TV. The rumor claims that the show will be produced by Terminator creator James Cameron. Cameron also produced the last movie, Dark Fate, and even though it failed he’ll inexplicably be continuing the plot of that film for the TV show.
The claim is that the TV show will pick up right where the Terminator: Dark Fate movie left off. The cast that survived that movie, including Linda Hamilton will return. That means you should not expect to see Arnold Schwarzenegger back.
Terminator is too adult for Disney Plus, so it would make sense that Disney will drop it on their more adult-focused content streaming platform.
More on the Terminator series as it develops.
Terminator has been a TV series before. In 2008 Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles debuted on Fox and despite fairly positive response, Fox did what they always do to science fiction shows and cancelled in pre-maturely.
Current Hulu Originals
The Great
The Great stars Elle Fanning as Catherine the Great and Nicolas Hoult as Peter III. It’s a satire loosely based on the real facts of Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who overthrew her husband and ruled the country from 1762 to 1796.
More importantly, the wit is sharp and biting and it’s a lot of fun.
This list contains the best, most highly-rated originals Hulu offers ranked by critical consensus. These are the best shows on Hulu right now.
RAMY
- 97% Positive Reviews From Critics
Ramy Hassan is in conflict with himself. He’s a first-generation Egyptian-American who finds himself on somewhat of a spiritual journey. He is torn between what his Muslim community feels he should do and living his life like all the other millennials are living. The struggle is real and the results are often comical and heart-breaking. So much so that this freshman Hulu original comedy starring Ramy Youseff won recently its first Golden Globe.
PEN15
- 93% Positive Reviews From Critics
This Hulu original comedy stars comedians Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle who portray teenage versions of themselves. The setting is the year 2000 and our two stars are back in middle school. Yes, their older selves are playing their younger selves in this look back at their teenage lives. It’s a funny way to re-experience teenage life through the eyes of adult teenagers.
SHRILL
- 92% Positive Reviews From Critics
Aidy Bryant (SNL) stars in this Hulu comedy based on the novel Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West. It follows an overweight young journalist as she tries to navigate life while juggling an unreliable boyfriend, a boss who is a perfectionist and sick parents while trying not to change herself.
FUTURE MAN
- 91% Positive Reviews From Critics
Josh Hutcherson plays janitor Josh Futterman, a 9-5’er by day and video gamer by night. Biotic Wars is a game pretty much everyone has given up on as unbeatable. But Josh somehow does. But after he beats it, the two main characters from the game suddenly appear on a mission. They need to convince Josh to travel with them so he can save the world. It doesn’t take much as Josh finds himself traveling through time with his newfound pals trying to save the world.
THE ACT
- 89% Positive Reviews From Critics
This Hulu anthology series is a true-crime original. It stars Patricia Arquette and Joey King as the real-life mother and daughter Dee Dee Blanchard and Gypsy Blanchard. The story tells of Gypsy, who is in a wheelchair because her mother has told her she has cancer. Gypsy finds out she is not and never was sick and Dee Dee has been fabricating the illness because Dee Dee actually has a condition called Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
THE HANDMAID’S TALE
- 88% Positive Reviews From Critics
Elisabeth Moss stars in this hit Hulu original based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. The story is set in Gilead, a totalitarian society that was once known as the United States. In this world, environmental pollution and sexually transmitted diseases have contributed to a drastic decline in fertility rates. The remaining fertile women have been forced into sexual servitude in attempts to help repopulate the world. Moss stars as Offred, a woman who is a Handmaid tasked to bring life to the fallen society.
CASTLE ROCK
- 87% Positive Reviews From Critics
Stephen King fans hit the roof when they found out Hulu was bringing his works, his characters, his world to life. This Hulu horror series is based on everything that revolves around King’s town of Castle Rock. Familiar names populate this series that skillfully weaves the good and the evil within. Season one told the story of a Henry Deaver who comes home to defend a man who has been kept in a cage beneath Shawshank Prison. Season two’s story revolves around one of King’s best-known characters, Annie Wilkes, from Misery fame.
INTO THE DARK
- 75% Positive Reviews From Critics
Another Hulu horror series in which each episode is a feature-length movie. The first season of Into The Dark saw twelve episodes as will season two. The uniqueness of the first season was that each episode was inspired by the given holiday of each month. The episodes starred different actors for each and ran anywhere from 81 minutes to 93 minutes.
High Fidelity: The Series
High Fidelity, the much beloved John Cusack movie from the 90s, is a television series on Hulu. Cusack’s character, Rob Gordon, has been gender swapped to a woman (and so has Jack Black’s character), but otherwise it’s pretty much the same.
The Rob Gordon character is played by Zoe Kravitz, noteworthy as the new Catwoman in the upcoming Robert Pattinson starring version of Batman. Here’s the first trailer for Hulu’s High Fidelity...
Past Hulu Originals Still Available
HARLOTS
- 97% Positive Reviews From Critics
Harlots is a tough one to include on this part of the list as its renewal is still in jeopardy. It tells the bawdy tale of a war between two houses of ill repute in 18th Century London. Margaret Wells runs her brothel but is trying to make a better living for her daughters, whom she has put to “work”. So Margaret moves her brothel to where the clientele is more upscale. This puts her in direct competition with Lydia Quigley and let’s just say, the gloves are the only things coming off.
DIFFICULT PEOPLE
- 95% Positive Reviews From Critics
This comedy ran for three seasons and starred Julie Klausner and Billy Eichner as two jaded comedians trying to make it in New York. As they watch their friends and loved ones they continue to struggle with life, becoming more bitter in the process.
CASUAL
- 92% Positive Reviews From Critics
Life living with siblings. That is what Casual is about, as brother Alex finds himself now living with his sister Valerie, a newly divorcée, and her daughter. All three are testing the dating pool and it isn’t coming up roses but the relationships they are finding themselves in are casual.
THE LOOMING TOWER
- 88% Positive Reviews From Critics
This Hulu mini-series is based on a 2006 Lawrence Wright book of the same name. The series took a look at the rising threat that was Osama Bin-Laden and Al-Qaeda. It also shows the rivalry between the CIA and the FBI in what could have led up to the tragedy we know as 9/11.
MARVEL’S RUNAWAYS
- 87% Positive Reviews From Critics
This series ran for three seasons and was a Hulu hit. What happens when teenagers find out that their parents are truly evil? Not just mean to the kids evil, but TRUE evil. That’s the premise of Marvel’s Runaways. The teenager’s band together to try to stop their parents before it’s too late, all the while the parents wonder if the kids have secrets of their own.
CATCH-22
- 84% Positive Reviews From Critics
This quick six-episode Hulu mini-series was based on Joseph Heller’s novel of the same name and was brought to Hulu by George Clooney, who also guest stars. Catch-22 follows an Air Force bombardier and his trials and tribulations as he finds himself in a Catch-22, where his willingness to fly dangerous missions is considered insane but asking to be relieved of duty because of the dangerous missions is considered to be of sane mind.
11.22.63
- 81% Positive Reviews From Critics
Stephen King again. This time our author puts us in historical fashion right before the Kennedy assassination. The story involves time-travel and the question, what would you do if you could go back in time and prevent the Kennedy assassination? James Franco is about to answer that question.
THE PATH
- 77% Positive Reviews From Critics
Hulu’s original take on a religious movement is The Path. Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) stars as a member of a religious new-age spiritual movement called Meyerism. A vision causes him to question his faith, leading him to a defector and more questions about his path in life.
CHANCE
- 75% Positive Reviews From Critics
Hugh Laurie (House) returns to his doctor roots in this Hulu original. This time Laurie is a forensic neuropsychologist with a few skeletons in his closet. He is pulled into a relationship with a patient who may or may not have multiple personalities. This series is based on a book of the same name by Kem Nunn.
