Win a free year of Hulu and binge these killer shows
In the fight for streaming rights, the viewer is the true winner. We have extensively detailed our love of binging on Netflix and Amazon, and as soon as Apple TV comes out with something interesting, we’ll dive into that too.
Luckily, we’re offering you the chance to win a one-year Hulu giveaway for twelve glorious months of bingeable, addictive streaming. Just click here to get yourself entered into the giveaway.
While Hulu is packed with well-known favorites like 30 Rock, Seinfeld, Community, and Broad City, there are a host of original programs that make it worth the $5.99 a month (or nothing if you win our prize!).
Shadowhunters
Over three perfect, impossibly short seasons, Shadowhunters gave us a perfect adaptation of Cassandra Clare’s The Mortal Instruments. It’s funny and sweet and smart and has so many perfect leather jackets for us to obsess over.
While we will mourn forever the loss of a fourth season, the Shadowfam can catch up on a truly perfect show on Hulu.
The Orville
We initially thought The Orville was a low-brow knockoff of Star Trek: The Next Generation, and we were right – until it became so much more. The Fox program spent two seasons building up a perfectly flawed cast of characters that easily transitioned from absurd comedy to hard science in the span of each 45-minute episode.
Those waiting for a third season can expect more misadventures and freedom in storytelling in 2020, as Hulu will officially stream the space opera.
Showrunner Seth MacFarlane made the announcement at San Diego Comic-Con, adding that The Orville “has evolved and become more ambitious production-wise,” resulting in a production delay.
That’s fine with us, though. Good things are worth the wait.
The Handmaid’s Tale
The first season of The Handmaid’s Tale was a revelation. The Hulu program is a pitch-perfect adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s eponymous book, detailing Offred’s (Elisabeth Moss) servitude as a handmaid in the terrifying dystopia of Gilead.
While the second season veers into uncharted territory, giving us a broader view of Gilead and the rest of the world and outlining how slippery a slope it is for people to sacrifice their freedom for perceived safety.
The second season also gives us an alliance of sorts between Offred & Serena Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski).
The Handmaid’s Tale is not an easy watch, but thankfully Hulu only releases an episode once a week to watch in fear & dread.
Future Man
Josh Futterman (Josh Hutcherson) is a janitor who completes the unbeatable video game Biotic Wars, after which the two game protagonists pop up and recruit his services to help fight in the actual Biotic Wars of the future.
And that’s just in the first episode!
In three seasons, Future Man went all over the universe to the future and back. After Hulu renewed the comedy series for a third season including any number of crazy plot twists, we were heartbroken to learn its run had ended. Raise a glass to Josh, people.
Castle Rock
Annie Wilkes is coming to Castle Rock!
Do you need more than that? Mean Girls goddess Lizzy Caplan is slated to portray our favorite misery-inflicting villain in the second season of Castle Rock.
And it’s debuting on October 23rd. We’re so ready.
Harlots
ITV and Hulu combined forces to produce one of the bawdiest, campiest, most deliciously scandalous shows in recent years. Both Harlots and The Handmaid’s Tale came out on Hulu at the same time, and both dealt with sex work in a refreshingly honest way. Harlots, in particular, has been striking in its portrayal of female oppression.
Show creators Moira Buffini (Byzantium) and Alison Newman (Bad Girls) developed a drama focused on a brothel owner and her efforts to raise her daughters in 18th-century London. Even when the women on Harlots succeed, there’s an uncomfortable gnawing sense that it can’t last, and that forces are coming to destroy any hard-earned victory they’ve managed to achieve.
Harlots came back for a third season, with the indomitable Liv Tyler. We watched for the costumes, but stuck around for the killer drama. Harlots is unquestionably television writing at its very pinnacle.
Difficult People
We love a show with a title that tells you exactly what you’re getting. Hulu’s Difficult People is about people . . . who are difficult.
Julie (Julie Klausner) and Billy (Billy Eichner) are delightfully borderline evil, with a never-ending supply of ridiculous schemes. In the first episode, they hatch a plan to bottle and sell the water that comes in the water fountains at libraries.
Difficult People grew even more confident (and deranged) during the three seasons it ran, commenting on everything from politics to subway etiquette to compromising in relationships.
Veronica Mars
It was on UPN, then it was on The CW, then it disappeared for what felt like forever, then there was a 12-minute long YouTube video that felt like a backdoor pilot for Veronica Mars as an FBI agent, then it was turned into a movie, and then Veronica Mars finally, finally found a home on Hulu.
Veronica Mars, or its probable working title How Veronica Mars Got Her Groove Back through Solving Cases of Mayhem and Murder, continued the legacy established in the first season. Kristen Bell is a one-woman Columbo, and her efforts to bring some sort of justice to Neptune, CA always felt like a losing battle, but one we could not stop watching.
The city is a microcosm of systemic, pervasive problems found across the U.S.; Veronica Mars deals with racism, sexism, revenge porn, police brutality, and more. It’s also a sick reflection of the idea of Hollywood glamor, and how nothing that looks perfect actually is. The fandom might not love S4 of Veronica Mars, but we’ll always hold the first few seasons in high regard as close to teen TV perfection.
