New Shows on Hulu

TV Lists Hulu
New Shows on Hulu

Co-owned by Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal, and partnered in one way or another with all four major broadcast networks, Hulu seems like a modern-day miracle of collaboration between competitors. This gives subscribers a central hub for a variety of new shows on Hulu, from Hulu originals to FX on Hulu to the latest network offerings. We’ll update this list with all the new series available on Hulu.

Here are 10 new shows on Hulu:

1. Class of ’09Release Date: May 10, 2023
Creator: Tom Rob Smith
Stars: Brian Tyree Henry, Kate Mara, Sepideh Moafi
Genre: Sci-fi, thriller

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Kate Mara, Brian Tyree Henry, Sepideh Moafi: Take a bow. Those three, with an extra emphatic nod to Henry (the brilliant “Paper Boi” from Atlanta) are the saving graces of Class of ’09, an otherwise serviceable but occasionally disoriented FBI thriller from FX (streaming on Hulu). Without them, this could have been an outright failure, and was guaranteed to be forgettable; with them, it’s a solid eight-episode miniseries that won’t go down as one of the greats, but will absolutely grab and hold your attention. The story here, from creator Tom Rob Smith (London Spy), is deceptively simple: The FBI class of ’09, many of them recruited from outside law enforcement, are considered a special group destined for greatness until certain fissures emerge that set them against each other. The action jumps from three set time periods: ’09 itself, when they’re all undergoing training, the “present,” as they try to infiltrate and dismantle a white supremacist group in the face of terroristic threats, and the “future,” circa 2034, when an all-seeing surveillance network designed for noble purposes (haha!) is either manipulated by humans or becomes self-aware to the point that it makes pre-emptive arrests based on thoughts, or something. All of this? It’s fine. A little cluttered, a little nonsensical, a little philosophically out of whack, but not totally risible, either. Squint your eyes a little, and it’s almost timely. —Shane Ryan


2. Saint XRelease Date: April 26, 2023
Creator: Leila Gerstein
Stars: Alycia Debnam-Carey, Josh Bonzie, West Duchovny, Jayden Elijah, Michael Park, Betsy Brandt
Genre: Thriller

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Split among three different time periods, Saint X follows the events leading up to and following the death of Alison Thomas, a college freshman who went missing on her family’s winter break vacation to the Indigo Bay resort in the Caribbean. Across eight episodes, we jump between the Thomas Family’s trip in the early 2000s, the childhoods of the men who worked at Indigo Bay who are suspected to be Alison’s murderers, and the life of her younger sister two decades after her death, in the present day. Non-linear storytelling is generally something that works well when it comes to mysteries, but Saint X just isn’t able to get a grip on the format. The present-day storyline following Alison’s sister, Emily (Alycia Debnam-Carey), is the most even of the three if only because it has us following the fewest people at once. After moving to Flatbush’s Little Caribbean neighborhood with her boyfriend, Emily ends up in a cab driven by Clive (Josh Bonzie), one of the men suspected of raping and murdering her late sister. Triggered by this event, Emily decides to slowly insert herself into Clive’s life for the sake of finally figuring out the truth of what happened to Alison. Her life slowly starts to unravel as she becomes more and more obsessed with him and her craving for the truth, and while that may sound interesting, Debnam-Carey and Bonzie are wholly unable to carry what little they’re given to work with. A more focused set of scripts would have undoubtedly helped the actors out with their performances but instead, we got a limited series that is the poster child for why ensemble casts are a hit-or-miss kind of asset. No show should have an eight-episode run and feel too long, but Saint X does, and we can only hope that the next time Hulu adapts something similar, it actually gives us something sturdy to grip onto. —Kathryn Porter


3. Tiny Beautiful ThingsRelease Date: April 7, 2023
Creator: Liz Tigelaar
Stars: Kathryn Hahn, Sarah Pidgeon, Quentin Plair, Tanzyn Crawford
Genre: Comedy, drama
Paste Review Score: 9.2

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Tiny Beautiful Things isn’t the show you think it will be. While the series certainly touches on weighty topics—its eight episodes wrestle with love, death, divorce, forgiveness, loss, adultery, disappointment, and rage—it’s not particularly interested in directing how we, as viewers, feel about them. Instead, much like the prickly advice column on which the series is based, the show is raw, messy, and stingingly direct, choosing to embrace uncomfortable honesty over saccharine sentiment. Adapted from Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling essay collection compiled from her “Dear Sugar” advice column, the show follows the story of Clare Pierce (Kathryn Hahn), a wife, mother, and writer, whose life is falling apart. Her marriage is in trouble thanks to her decision to give her ne’er do well brother Lucas (Nick Stahl) $15,000 from her daughter Rae’s (Tanzyn Crawford) college fund to save their family home, a choice she made without consulting husband Danny (Quentin Plair). Her day job is in jeopardy after she’s discovered sleeping at the retirement community where she works, and her writing career is stalled. Danny’s bitterly nursing his resentment toward her, Rae is struggling to find her identity with her friends and acting out as a result, and even their marriage counselor seems as though she’s not really on Clare’s side. So when an old writer friend offers her the opportunity to take over a female-skewing advice column that he, as a middle-aged white male, doesn’t have the range to handle, Clare balks. Her life is in shambles, so how in the world is she in a position to offer advice to anyone else, even ensconced safely behind the column’s anonymous “Sugar” handle? But sometimes the only way out really is through, and it’s ultimately by becoming Sugar that Clare can begin to find a way to answer some of the lingering questions in her own life. The brilliance of the show isn’t just that it knows there aren’t really any easy answers to these sorts of existential mysteries, but also that figuring them out is the work of every human lifetime. The show offers this strange-but-true comfort: That this, too, is just another step in a journey of many, and it’s okay if we don’t know where it’s all going in the end. Everyone else is just figuring it out along the way too. —Lacy Baugher Milas


4. Up HereRelease Date: March 24, 2023
Creator: Steven Levenson, Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez, Danielle Sanchez-Witzel
Stars: Mae Whitman, Carlos Valdes, Katie Finneran, John Hodgman, Andréa Burns, Sophia Hammons
Genre: Musical romantic comedy
Paste Review Score: 6.8

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What Hulu’s Up Here, the latest romantic-comedy-musical about a writer in New York City, may lack in terms of originality, it has an annoying tendency to counterbalance with undeniable charm. It’s hard to imagine the show wouldn’t meet this standard based on the creative team behind the production alone. Tony-winner Steven Levenson of Dear Evan Hansenlore (the musical, not the movie; don’t worry) co-creates with Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, the duo behind the 2015 musical adapted into Up Here, with Hamilton’s stage director Thomas Kail taking on executive producing and pilot-directing duties. It’s one of the most impressive teams you’d find on Broadway, but in spite of this, not all of their talents consistently harmonize. Up Here’s premise is knowingly bromidic: After years of aimlessness in her sleepy suburban hometown with her sleepy suburban husband, Lindsay (Mae Whitman) upends her life as a dental office assistant and grabs a one-way ticket to the Big Apple, where she begins to realize that her aspirations to make it as a novelist are not beholden to whims of the singing, maddening voices inside her head that have since dictated every moment of her life: her mother (Tony-winner Katie Finneran), father (Jon Hodgman), and sixth-grade frenemy Celeste (Sophie Hammons). Her dreams to make it as a modern single woman are interrupted when she meets Miguel (Carlos Valdes), a junior investment banker with suffocating imaginary naysayers of his own to circumnavigate: his overly adoring mother (Andréa Burns), a catty ex (Emilia Suárez), and an alpha male coworker (Scott Porter, who snags some of the show’s biggest laughs). Up Here still has a long journey if it wants to stand among the ranks of its clear forebears Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist, Schmigadoon!, and even Smash. The joke writing, song memorability, and poignant character work of those shows remain far superior, firmly nudging Up Here across 8th Avenue and relegating it to the purgatorial realm of Off-Broadway at best. At the same time, there’s something inherently winsome about the whole enterprise. —Michael Savio


5. UnprisonedRelease Date: March 10, 2023
Creator: Tracy McMillan
Stars: Kerry Washington, Jordyn McIntosh, Delroy Lindo, Marque Richardson, Faly Rakotohavana
Genre: Comedy

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This eight-episode comedy series, part of Hulu’s Onyx Collective, is based on series creator Tracy McMillan’s real life. After 17 years in federal prison, Edwin Alexander (Delroy Lindo) is getting out of jail. His daughter Paige (Kerry Washington), now a family therapist, must reconcile her complicated feelings about her (very charming) dad while raising her teenage son Finn (Faly Rakotohavana), navigating the purchase of her first home and pursuing a romantic relationship with guest star Tim Daly. Paige is great at helping others sort out their lives. But how is she at helping herself? —Amy Amatangelo


6. History of the World, Part IIRelease Date: March 6, 2023
Creators: Mel Brooks, Nick Kroll
Stars: Wanda Sykes, Nick Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, Mel Brooks
Genre: Comedy
Paste Review Score: 7.0

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Mel Brooks is a comedic genius. Admired and respected for decades, the 96-year-old multi-hyphenate is universally beloved. If you love comedy, you love Mel Brooks. So when comedian Nick Kroll was personally chosen by Brooks to make the TV series History of the World Part II, a continuation of the classic film History of the World Part I, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. But while History of the World Part II certainly works as a loving homage to a comedy icon, with Brooks’ influence easy to see wherever you look, much like the 42-year-old film it’s based on, at times the show’s humor feels like it was written in 1981. To be sure, there are several moments in History of the World Part II, which is narrated by Brooks, that are laugh out loud funny. Alexander Graham Bell being the victim of the first prank phone call, a Normandy Beach invasion barf-o-rama, and the Yalta Conference turning into an America’s Next Top Model-style photoshoot set to the song “Finally” by CeCe Peniston are all hilarious. You may only see Jack Black, Taika Waititi, Quinta Brunson, Kumail Nanjiani, J.B. Smoove, Pamela Adlon, Danny DeVito, and other familiar faces in one or two skits, but when they are ALL IN for a joke, no matter how silly, it’s engrossing and helps sell the material. That level of commitment, including from producers and series regulars Kroll, Ike Barinholtz, and Wanda Sykes, is impressive. The use of quick skits, which range from a few minutes to the length of an average commercial, is also a clever way to keep audiences engaged. Yet the show struggles because too often its humor feels so dated that anyone under the age of 45 (and many over it) will find most of the comedy too kitsch. Everyone involved in the series is clearly a fan of Mel Brooks. And while imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, when imitating something iconic from 42 years ago, more of an update than the one that was given to this series is required. The new Hulu series also makes clear that the comedy road in 2023 actually is harder to navigate than most people thought, especially when creating a program that’s ingrained with the DNA of a comedic titan. —Terry Terrones


7. Great ExpectationsRelease Date: March 26, 2023
Creator: Steven Knight
Stars: Olivia Colman, Fionn Whitehead, Shalom Brune-Franklin
Genre: Historical fiction
Paste Review Score: 5.3

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With Dickens adaptations always comes great expectations. Those expectations are not unfounded—one of the most popular writers of the Victorian era, Charles Dickens is responsible for a number of culture-defining stories, each with their own attempts at being brought to both the big and small screens. This time, FX and BBC have taken their swing at Dickens’ 1861 coming of age novel Great Expectations (which is streaming on Hulu), and sadly, this six-part limited series simply cannot live up to the, well, expectations. Created by Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight, the series follows Pip (Fionn Whitehead) as he attempts to become a gentleman and move far away from the impoverished life he leads as an orphan in the care of his sister. On the whims of an eccentric and cruel Miss Havisham (Olivia Colman), he is swept into the world of polite society in exchange for spending time with her adopted daughter Estella (Shalom Brune-Franklin). As Pip shoulders the weight of the expectations placed upon him, becoming entrenched in the seedy world of London’s infamous lawyer Jaggers (Ashley Thomas), he wonders if becoming a gentleman is truly worth the price he will have to pay to get there. That might all sound familiar, but so many changes were made when bringing this series to the small screen that it is nigh unrecognizable. The lack of centering of Pip’s youth leaves him much less endearing to the audience, especially in the later episodes. The heartless nature of this series is a running theme, with both Jaggers and Miss Havisham also suffering the same fate; these two characters become evil in a laughably cartoonish sense, only elevated from that state through outstanding performances by Thomas and Colman. This version remains just another unsuccessful Dickens adaptation at best, and a lackluster period drama at worst. Great Expectations touts a talented cast and a broken and bent version of a classic, that, unfortunately, does not equal a better shape. —Anna Govert


8. The 1619 ProjectRelease Date: January 26, 2023
Creator: Nikole Hannah-Jones
Stars: Nikole Hannah-Jones
Genre: Historical documentary

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It’s hard to believe that The 1619 Project debuted in the New York Times Magazine way back in August of 2019. The researched, informative, long-form essays described how the enslavement of newly arrived African people in Virginia was the beginning of what formed North America. The series won its creator, staff reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones, the Pulitzer Prize and also initiated years of controversy among those who said that not only were her facts wrong, but that the theories explored would too drastically change history as it was known. Now the project has been adapted for a new six-part limited documentary series for Hulu so all those who criticized it without reading it can see what it’s really all about. —Diedre Johnson


9. Will Trentwill-trent.jpgRelease Date: December 13, 2022
Creator: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Stars: Ramón Rodríguez, Erika Christensen, Iantha Richardson, Jake McLaughlin and Sonja Sohn
Genre: Mystery, drama

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TV has no shortage of police detectives, but this ABC drama still stands out. Based on the series of books by Karin Slaughter, Ramón Rodríguez stars as the title character, a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigations. Trent has the keen ability to read a crime scene and see things most other cops miss. In the series opener, Trent is investigating the kidnapping of a high school student. He’s actually the only one who figures out that a kidnapping has occurred. That arc, with guest stars Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Jennifer Morrison, comes to a conclusion next week. Episodes will also be on Hulu the day after they air on ABC. —Amy Amatangelo

 


10. Kindredkindred.jpgRelease Date: December 13, 2022
Creator: Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Stars: Mallori Johnson, Micah Stock, Ryan Kwanten, Gayle Rankin, Austin Smith, Antoinette Crowe-Legacy, David Alexander Kaplan
Genre: Sci-fi
Paste Review Rating: 5.5

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Based on Octavia E. Butler’s acclaimed 1979 novel, FX’s Kindred is a time-traveling series that uses a science-fiction angle to explore themes of racism, slavery and continued prejudice in our world today. The novel, still taught in schools, continues to resonate—which is why this is seemingly the perfect opportunity to adapt the text for the screen. Showrunner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (Watchmen) has made subtle changes to Butler’s text in an attempt to update it for modern audiences; notably, the TV series has changed the tone of Kindred from an intriguing historical mystery, instead heightening the horror aspects, among many other wrinkles. Dana (Mallori Johnson) is a young Black woman who has recently made a significant life change: moving from New York to Los Angeles in the hopes of becoming a TV scriptwriter. She hasn’t even settled into her home though when she starts experiencing a weird phenomenon where she’s transported to a 19th-century plantation. Shortly after, Dana will discover she’s intricately linked with this plantation, although she cannot stop the phenomenon from happening. Discovering why and how this is happening to Dana is where the story’s grand mystery lies. It’s a shame that this adaptation is a failure, as Kindred never manages to improve after its intriguing pilot, one that promised a compelling mystery and plenty of tense moments. Instead, the focus is on ancillary characters that are not only obnoxious but lifeless as well, and spends the bulk of the story down on the plantation. Ultimately, this is a mystery that I won’t be returning to find out the answers to. —Max Covill

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