The 13 Best Shows on Hulu Right Now (July 2020)

Firefly didn't last very long, but it burned bright while it was here. This western-in-space from creator Joss Whedon weaves elements of science fiction, comedy, adventure, and drama into a compelling product that's underpinned by fun and interesting characters.

Captain Mal Reynolds (Nathan Fillion) aims to misbehave, as he and his motley crew shuttle cargo, passengers, and intrigue from world to world. Joined by war buddy Zoe (Gina Torres), pilot Wash (Alan Tudyk), and a variety of other colorful characters, Mal finds himself wrapped up in a mystery that involves a peculiar passenger (Summer Glau) and her uptight brother (Sean Maher).

Hulu has a lot of great anime, far too many options to dig into here, but Cowboy Bebop is a special case. It combines slick animation, a fantastic score, excellent voice work on both the Japenese and English language tracks, and a smart story that doesn't overstay its welcome. Clocking in at a tight 26 episodes in its single season, this show is all meat and no filler, even if Spike (Kōichi Yamadera, Steve Blum) and Jet's (Unshō Ishizuka, Beau Billingslea) bell peppers and beef always seem to come up lacking in the beef department.

Cowboy Bebop is a bit of a genre-defying space western. Bounty hunters Spike and Jet are joined aboard the Bebop by con artist Faye (Megumi Hayashibara. Wendee Lee), eccentric hacker Ed (Aoi Tada, Melissa Fahn), and a peculiarly smart corgi named Ein. Powered by an outstanding soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, this is a show that will grab you and won't let go.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is unique in that most TV shows have to present at least one likable character that the audience can identify with. There are no such characters here. The show is about a group of friends that run a bar, but virtually every episode revolves around them being terrible people and doing terrible things to each other, and the result is some of the funniest stuff on television.

Dennis Reynolds (Glenn Howertson) is a narcisistic sociopath who co-owns a bar with dim-witted Mac (Rob McElhenney). Their illiterate childhood friend Charlie (Charlie Day) and Dennis' sister Dee (Kaitlynn Olson) both work at the bar. In season two, Danny DeVito joins the cast in what has to be the most bizarre role of his career. In one episode, he bursts naked from a leather couch. In another he eats trash while wearing a singlet.



Letterkenny is a comedy about small town life and problems, featuring the daily times and tribulations of the hicks, the skids, and the hockey players. Prototypical hick Wayne (Jared Keeso) runs a farm with his friends Daryl (Nathan Dales) and Squirrely Dan (K. Trevor Wilson). While this is a comedy, and there is a lot of humor to be had, the fast-paced, deadpan wordplay woven into the dialog is Letterkenny's true calling card.

If you haven't heard of Letterkenny, that's probably because it ran for a full six seasons on Canadian streaming service Crave before Hulu brought it to US audiences. It's a rare case of having years of surprisingly solid entertainment dropped in your lap like that, but that's exactly what happened if you haven't yet dug into this show.

Atlanta is the story of Earn (Donald Glover) as he navigates daily life in Atlanta, GA. Earn has dropped out of college and has no permanent place to live, but he desperately wants to prove himself to his girlfriend (Zazie Beetz) and take care of his daughter. When his cousin Alfred (Brian Tyree Henry) is about to hit it big as a rapper under the stage name Paper Boi, Earn sees an opportunity.

Serving a star vehicle for creator Donald Glover, who also raps under the name Childish Gambino, Atlanta has received a number of awards and accolades. It won a Best Television Series Golden Globe, while Glover himself took home a Best Actor Golden Globe The show was also named one of the top 10 television programs by the American Film Institute Awards alongside dozens of other awards and nominations.

Sons of Anarchy is essentially MacBeth re-imagined with the backdrop of an outlaw motorcycle club. Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) is the prodigal son of the man who started the club, and his very existence, along with his interest in his father's original philosophy regarding the club, threatens his step-father (and current club leader) Clay Morrow (Ron Perlman).

Over the course of seven seasons, Sons of Anarchy weaves a gripping narrative as Jax and Clay struggle to keep ahead of the law, clash with other motorcycle clubs and each other, and try to keep the club together and above water. The show took home a number of awards over the years, with Katey Segal winning a Best Actress Golden Globe.

Based on the Margaret Atwood book of the same name, The Handmaid's Tale is a gritty, near-future piece of speculative fiction. Following a second American civil war, the few remaining fertile women are forced into child-bearing slavery as "handmaids" to the most powerful men in society. The women are thoroughly dehumanized and forced to act as surrogates for women who are unable to bear children.

June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss), an assistant book editor before the civil war, is subjected to this brutal practice when she is separated from her child and husband. Renamed Offred, she finds herself handmaid to the powerful Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes). Though her only desire is to reunite with her family, her goals change when she is forced to bear a child and is approached by a resistance group.

The Venture Bros. answers a question that nobody ever really asked: what happens to boy adventurers like Johnny Quest and the Hardy Boys when they grow up? The answer given here is Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture (James Urbaniak), a mediocre scientist stuck living in the shadow of his long deceased, though still much more successful father. He is joined by bodyguard Brock Samson (Patrick Warburton) and sons Hank (Christopher McCulloch) and Dean (Michael Sinterniklaas) who are forced into the role of boy adventurers just like their father.

Venture is dogged by his own failure to live up to his father's legacy as well as by a rotating cast of super-villains like The Monarch (McCulloch), his girlfriend Doctor Girlfriend Doc Hammer), eastern European dictator Baron Werner Unterbheit (T. Ryder Smith), and invisible-limbed Phantom Limb (Urbaniak).

Bringing us the story of the 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, MASH is a sitcom that's better described as a dark comedy with elements of drama. Trapped in a Korean war that somehow lasts for more than a decade, maudlin surgeon Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is joined by a colorful cast of characters that includes drinking buddy Trapper John McIntyre (Wayne Rogers), and headstrong head nurse Hot Lips Houlihan (Loretta Switt).

There's so much great exclusive content on Hulu, and so many good shows come out each year, that this list is heavily weighted toward more recent fare. Hulu has dozens of fantastic older shows though, and MASH stands at the top of the heap. This biting commentary on the realities of war is somehow still one of the greatest sitcoms of all time almost four decades after it went off the air.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer started life as an ill-received movie that has gained cult status over the years. The show is a re-imagining of the movie, keeping some elements and tossing others. Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is an ex-cheerleader who moves to small town Sunnydale after an incident at her old school involving vampires. Joined by new friends Xander (Nicholas Brendon) and eventual witch Willow (Alyson Hannigan), Buffy ends up fighting a whole lot more than vampires.

Creator Joss Whedon pitched the show as being high school as a horror movie, and the many monster-of-the-week episodes play to that perfectly. The larger story arc episodes, and the characters that grow and change over the course of the series, elevate it beyond that.

Solar Opposites is an animated science fiction comedy from the mind of Justin Roiland, who also brought us Rick and Morty. This Hulu exclusive tells the story of two aliens and their offspring after they accidentally crash land on earth while escaping their dying planet. Unlike Roiland's first show, which broadly parodies various science fiction movies and tropes, the humor of Solar Opposites centers mostly on the aliens interacting with their new environment.

The thing that makes Solar Opposites unique is that instead of most episodes featuring an A plot and a B plot, a bunch of episodes also have a C plot running in the background that takes most of the season to pay off. It only receives a bit of attention here and there, but it's the most interesting thing about the show by the end of the first season.

In the mood for a little spy action? Burn Notice delivers exactly that, as the story of burned spy Michael Westen. Mike finds himself stuck in his home town of Miami after being burned, forced to take odd jobs that require his unique skill set, as he tries to uncover the identities of the people who burned him. Joined by ex-girlfriend Fiona Glenanne (Gabrielle Anwar) and former Navy SEAL Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell), Mike quickly turns Miami's criminal underbelly on its head.

This exciting spy thriller ran for seven seasons, spawned a TV movie, and took home a fair few awards, accolades, and nominations over the years. Supporting actress Sharon Gless, most well known for portraying Christine Cagney in Cagney & Lacy, won the Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Emmy for her portrayal of Michael Westen's mother.