(Photo by Phillip Caruso/Hulu)
Best Hulu Original Shows and Movies by Tomatometer
Updated February 14, 2020
The Handmaid’s Tale’s award-season success helped establish Hulu as a major player in the originals game. While the streaming service first entered households as a way to watch current network shows without cable or broadcast, it has evolved into a content creator in its own right.
In 2018 the streamer debuted Stephen King anthology Castle Rock, Sean Penn series The First, 9/11 miniseries The Looming Tower, British dramedy The Bisexual, a Catch-22 minseries from George Clooney, and a TV anthology version of Four Weddings and a Funeral from Mindy Kaling. Upcoming shows include an adaptation of the bestseller Little Fires Everywhere from Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, and many more.
Rotten Tomatoes put together a guide to Hulu originals you can stream in their entirety in between new episodes. Here are 32 Fresh-rated original series and seven movies you can only find on Hulu. To be included in our list of the best original Hulu movies and series, titles must be Fresh (60% or higher).
Recently added: Series: High Fidelity, Hillary
HULU SERIES
Synopsis: In the future, the first human is sent to Mars to explore the possibility of interplanetary colonization....
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Synopsis: A four-part documentary series about the life & 2016 Presidential campaign of Hillary Rodham Clinton....
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Synopsis: A horror event series from prolific, award-winning producer, Jason Blum's independent TV studio. The series includes 12 super-sized episodes, with...
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Synopsis: A thriller centering on a San Francisco forensic neuropsychiatrist who spirals into a perilous world of mistaken identity, police corruption...
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Synopsis: A family struggles with relationships, marriage and power during a controversial religious movement in this drama series....
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Synopsis: In the darkest depths of cyberspace, there is another world. A lost dimension, home to wonders unseen, terrors unspeakable, and...
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Synopsis: Wu-Tang: An American Saga is set in 1990s New York City during the height of the crack cocaine epidemic and...
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Synopsis: An English teacher travels back in time to stop JFK's assassination, but many elements threaten his mission....
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Synopsis: Based on Joseph Heller's seminal novel of the same name, Catch-22 is the story of the incomparable, artful dodger, Yossarian...
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Synopsis: A reality-show parody that centers on six well-pampered ladies living in Orlando, Fla....
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Synopsis: During the Autumn of 1942, in occupied France, U-612 is now ready for its maiden voyage, preparing to head into...
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Synopsis: A female record-store owner in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, uses music to reflect on past relationships in this TV adaptation of...
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Synopsis: From Executive Producers Lorne Michaels and Elizabeth Banks comes Shrill, a comedy series starring Aidy Bryant (Saturday Night Live) as...
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Synopsis: A sitcom about an ob-gyn who wishes her personal life were as successful as her professional one and matched the...
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Synopsis: A psychological-horror series set in the Stephen King multiverse, Castle Rock is an original story that combines the mythological scale...
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Synopsis: Six teenagers with nothing in common join forces after discovering their parents are evil-doers....
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Synopsis: Counter-terrorism FBI agent John O'Neill is out to prove his suspicion that the U.S. was targeted by Al Qaeda around...
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Synopsis: Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of...
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Synopsis: The Act is a seasonal anthology series that tells startling, stranger-than-fiction true crime stories. The first season follows Gypsy Blanchard,...
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Synopsis: Spring breakers are getting murdered in Neptune, thereby decimating the seaside town's lifeblood tourist industry. After Mars Investigations is hired...
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Synopsis: A painfully funny comedy series that explores the differences between dating men and women from the perspective of a person...
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Synopsis: Drama series following the story of a much-loved TV star who is faced with an accusation of historical sexual offences....
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Synopsis: This Way Up is a comedy about moving on, moving forward and trying to find happiness. Aine, played by writer...
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Synopsis: A janitor is called upon to save humanity from alien invaders....
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Synopsis: Looking For Alaska is an 8-episode limited series based on the John Green novel of the same name. It centers...
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Synopsis: A bachelor and his divorced sister raise a teenager together and support each other through the trials of the dating...
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Synopsis: Sarah Silverman discusses her views on the current emotional state of the country....
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Synopsis: Two 13-year-old middle-school friends deal with the awkwardness of adolescence in 2000....
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Synopsis: Two well-meaning coworkers become entangled in a criminal conspiracy when one of them answers a phone that was left behind...
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Synopsis: This comedy series zeros in on two irreverent, people-hating best friends in New York City....
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Synopsis: Ramy Hassan is a first generation Egyptian-American who is on a spiritual journey in his politically-divided New Jersey neighborhood. RAMY...
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Synopsis: A drama that centers on a brothel owner in 18th-century London as she struggles to raise her daughters while battling...
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HULU MOVIES
#13
Adjusted Score: 59.294%
Critics Consensus: Becoming Bond is an uproarious recreation of George Lazenby's colorful stint as Britain's greatest spy, evidencing that the gregarious Australian may be a greater raconteur than he was a 00.
Synopsis: A unique documentary/narrative hybrid chronicling the stranger-than-fiction true story of George Lazenby, a poor Australian car mechanic who, through an...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 80.46%
Critics Consensus: In the battle over Fyre Festival content, Fyre Fraud comes out swinging with a questionable interview of conman Billy McFarland and a thoughtful exploration of nefarious social strategy.
Synopsis: The Fyre Festival was the defining scam of the millennial generation, at the nexus of social media influence, late-stage capitalism,...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 80.995%
Critics Consensus: The Amazing Johnathan Documentary sets out to survey a magician's final tour -- and ends up pulling off some wildly ambitious tricks of its own.
Synopsis: What begins as a documentary following the final tour of a dying magician -- "The Amazing Johnathan" -- becomes an...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 60.924%
Critics Consensus: A thoughtful rumination on beauty standards and feminism, Tiny Shoulders goes beyond plastic observations to create an even-handed examination of Barbie's role in the broader culture.
Synopsis: A survey of 60 years of women in popular culture through the lens of the iconic doll features interviews with...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 85.595%
Critics Consensus: Led by typically outstanding work from Lupita Nyong'o, Little Monsters is a horror/rom-com hybrid that proves the zombie genre still has fresh brains to savor.
Synopsis: Little Monsters follows Dave (Alexander England), a washed-up musician who volunteers to chaperone his nephew's kindergarten class field trip after...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 86.335%
Critics Consensus: While subsequent documentaries on the subject might be more comprehensive, Untouchable offers a gut-wrenching look at horrific abuses of power.
Synopsis: The inside story of the rise and fall of Harvey Weinstein reveals how, over decades, he acquires and protects his...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 32.309%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: One author makes it his crusade to seek justice for Bill Finger, a struggling writer who was the key figure...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 92.128%
Critics Consensus: Crime + Punishment shines a brilliant light on systemic corruption, building a case for change that's as upsetting as it is ultimately inspiring.
Synopsis: Amidst a landmark class action lawsuit over illegal policing quotas, Crime + Punishment chronicles the real lives and struggles of...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 96.843%
Critics Consensus: Like its subject, Ask Dr. Ruth has a breezy charm that's hard to resist -- and a message that's as important as it is entertaining.
Synopsis: Ask Dr. Ruth chronicles the incredible life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer, a Holocaust survivor who became America's most famous sex...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 96.314%
Critics Consensus: Jawline uses one man's bid for online stardom to offer a compassionate, clear-eyed view of the risks and seductive allure of social media.
Synopsis: The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 99.353%
Critics Consensus: We love them, yeah, yeah, yeah -- and with archival footage like that, you know The Beatles: Eight Days a Week -- The Touring Years can't be bad.
Synopsis: We all know the moment. February 9th, 1964, 8:12pm EST - after a brief commercial break, four young men from...
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#2
Adjusted Score: 82.608%
Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
Synopsis: It had all the makings of a huge television success: a white-hot comic at the helm, a coveted primetime slot,...
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#1
Adjusted Score: 104.218%
Critics Consensus: Minding the Gap draws on more than a decade of documentary footage to assemble a poignant picture of young American lives that resonates far beyond its onscreen subjects.
Synopsis: Compiling over 12 years of footage shot in his hometown of Rockford, IL, in MINDING THE GAP, Bing Liu searches...
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Thumbnail photo credit: George Kraychyk/Hulu; Michael Desmond/Hulu; Allyson Riggs/Hulu
