18 Must-Watch Shows on Hulu Right Now (May 2025)

A group of Utah-based TikTok influencers, once seen as a picture-perfect group of parents, saw their secrets start to unravel after Taylor Frankie Paul revealed that she and her husband had been “soft-swinging” with other couples.

This series, which dropped 10 out of the 20 season 2 episodes on May 15, follows this group of women as their loyalties shift after the scandal that rocked their group. The drama is explosive, but it’s also a fascinating exploration of the thriving online world of Mormon motherhood on social media. The women juggle religious expectations, family obligations and maintaining a “proper” public image, as well as their relationships with one another in a juicy reality series that’s shockingly addictive.

The cult of wellness rears its ugly head in this drama series, which stars Nicole Kidman as Masha, an enigmatic wellness guru who uses extremely unorthodox (and by most metrics unethical) methods to “transform” and “heal” the wealthy guests on her exclusive retreats.

The second season just premiered and features a cast of A-listers, like Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians), Annie Murphy (Schitt’s Creek), Christine Baranski (The Good Fight) and Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus). While the first season featured a tranquil, summery setting, season 2 takes viewers to the Swiss Alps. Bundle up, things are about to get dangerous.

On July 22, 2005, bombing suspect Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed by the Metropolitan Police Service at a subway stop in London. That much is true, but the circumstances surrounding his death are still debated today. The new four-episode series Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes dramatizes the events leading up to de Menezes’ death, and the public outrage that occurred after it was revealed he was innocent. 

Russell Tovey and Emily Mortimer lead the cast as members of the London police force who make a fatal error in judgment, and newcomer Edison Alcaide plays the innocent and doomed Jean. Suspect is always fascinating to watch, even if the truth it presents is sometimes tough to take. 

A strong candidate for the best sitcom made in the 21st century, Modern Family chronicles the comical — and often complicated — interactions of the extended Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker family: the patriarch Jay Pritchett (Ed O’Neill), his younger Colombian wife, Gloria (Sofia Vergara); Jay’s daughter Claire (Julie Bowen), her husband Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell); Jay’s son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his husband Cameron (Eric Stonestreet); and all their offspring. 

The show ran for 11 years, and while there’s some wear and tear in the later seasons, Modern Family retained its good-natured humor that made it an instant hit. The cast is uniformly strong, but Burrell, Vergara and Stonestreet are the show’s stealth MVPs. 

The Met Gala may be over, but that doesn’t mean your obsession with fashion has to stop. The Bold Type is just the show to watch to satisfy those haute couture cravings. The Freeform series explores the lives of three young women working at Scarlet, a woman’s magazine overseen by editor in chief Jacqueline Carlyle (Melora Hardin). 

While it has some soap opera elements, The Bold Type is mostly a straightforward drama series that’s fully invested in its complex female characters. Hardin is terrific as the steely but not unreasonable boss, but a pre-White Lotus Meghann Fahy steals every scene she’s in as Sutton. 

Everyone has a bucket list, essential things you want to do before you pass away, and Molly (Michelle Williams) is no different. She’s stuck in a boring marriage with Steven (Jay Duplass), who won’t have sex with her, and her life is pretty boring. When Molly finds out she has terminal breast cancer, she kicks Steven out, moves in with her best friend Nikki (Jenny Slate) and decides to enjoy everything life has to offer before she dies. That includes having lots of sex, and Molly is determined to explore her desires while still reconciling with her fate.

This premise sounds ridiculous, but it’s based on a popular podcast, also called “Dying for Sex,” which documented creator/author Molly Kochan’s sexual journey after her cancer diagnosis. The Hulu adaptation is largely faithful to the podcast’s playful black humor, and Williams is excellent as the newly liberated Molly. Dying for Sex is a dark comedy that deals with serious issues, but the show never loses its odd sense of humor.

It’s every parent’s worst nightmare — one minute your child is there, and the next they are gone, possibly forever. That’s what Eliza Blix (Andor‘s Denise Gough) experiences when she goes to pick up her daughter Lucia (Beatrice Cohen) after a sleepover at a friend’s house and can’t find her. She can’t find her friend’s family either, and she eventually discovers that the house was a short-term rental and that no one permanently lives there.

What happened to Lucia? And who was the “family” that seemingly kidnapped her? The Stolen Girl has a can’t-miss premise and delivers on it throughout its five gripping episodes. Gough is outstanding as a mother who can’t believe the worst is happening to her and matching her is Jim Sturgess as her husband Fred, who is hiding more secrets than Eliza would like.

When it premiered in 2017, The Handmaid’s Tale quickly became a show shaped by — and of — the moment. Adapted from Margaret Atwood’s celebrated novel of the same name, the show’s tale of women being oppressed in a fictional society called Gilead resonated with viewers just as President Donald Trump’s first term was starting. The Handmaid’s Tale was so successful that it continued long after Atwood’s story had ended, with the show following lead character Offred/June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) as she joined a revolutionary movement to help bring down Gilead.

The long-running Hulu series finally came to an end this May, providing conclusions for the tales of June, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski), Luke (O-T Fagbenle), Nick (Max Minghella), Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and more. But the story of Gilead is far from over, as Hulu is already preparing for a spin-off series, The Testaments, based on Atwood’s sequel, that will focus on Aunt Lydia and a few other familiar characters.

Truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, and it doesn’t get any stranger than the case of Natalia Grace. Natalia (Imogene Faith Reid) is a 7-year-old Ukrainian orphan with a rare form of dwarfism who is eventually adopted by a kind American couple, Kristine (Ellen Pompeo) and Michael Barnett (Mark Duplass). But Natalia’s new parents begin to suspect something is seriously wrong with her and eventually accuse her of not being a child at all.

It only gets stranger from there, but to spoil any more would ruin the experience of watching Good American Family, the new eight-episode limited series on Hulu that dramatizes a real-life case that has eerie similarities to the horror movie Orphan. Far away from the soapy romances of Grey Sloane Memorial Hospital, Grey’s Anatomy’s Pompeo shows a different side than what viewers are used to seeing, while Duplass expertly conveys all the contradictions of a parent who has to make an impossible choice. It’s a disturbing watch, but an entertainingly campy one, too.

One of the breakout shows of 2025, Paradise has a can’t-miss premise that makes bingeing the series a breeze. The President of the United States (James Marsden) has been killed, and no one knows why. Only Secret Service agent Xander Collins (Sterling K. Brown) can solve the mystery, but will his past trauma — and the sudden reappearance of a long-dead wife — prevent him from finding the killer?

Paradise is a political thriller mixed with a bit of science fiction. It’s set not in the present, but three years in the future, when an unknown doomsday event has forced most people underground. That gives the series a unique edge few shows have, and makes you want to find out not only who killed the president, but what forced everyone into hiding and how it is connected with the show’s central mystery. With a cast that includes Julianne Nicholson as a rich woman with some secrets to hide, Paradise is a show that feels like Hulu’s version of Lost mixed with 24. 

Detective Ember Manning (Jenna Coleman) has a lot on her plate. A recent widow, she has to investigate a mysterious fire in a scenic small town that seems to exist only in British crime shows. Yet this seemingly simple case of arson leads her to another case involving the abduction of a young girl years ago, and the two seemingly unrelated crimes have a personal connection that will change Ember forever.

The Jetty doesn’t offer anything new to the genre, but what it does, it does well. The central mystery is genuinely compelling and at four episodes, the show doesn’t waste any time at setting up its red herrings before giving viewers a satisfying resolution.

As Ember, Coleman hits all the right notes, making her detective flawed enough to be believable and relatable. The main highlight, however, is the show’s stunning cinematography, which makes great use of its moody West Yorkshire and Manchester filming locations.

With a title like High Potential and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Kaitlin Olson in the lead role, it’s understandable that some might think this show is a comedy about marijuana. Instead, Olson stars as an LAPD cleaning lady with a “high potential” IQ of over 160. When she helps her cop co-workers solve a case, she’s hired as a consultant and paired with Detective Adam Karadec (Daniel Sunjata), who can barely stand her.

The combination of a kooky main character and an unconventional crime-solving duo makes High Potential the spiritual successor to shows like Monk and Psych, which both had long runs on cable TV. High Potential could have a long life as well due to Olson’s sparkling presence and the sturdy, crime-of-the-week cadence the show utilizes to great effect. 

One of the most acclaimed miniseries ever made, Shōgun is as advertised – simply great. Based on James Clavell’s 1975 historical novel, the 10-episode series takes place in 17th-century Japan. When a Dutch trading ship carrying valuable weapons crash-lands on the Izu Peninsula, it instigates a war among the region’s five ruling clans. One of the ship’s survivors, John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis), is captured by Lord Yoshii Torangaa (Hiroyuki Sanada), and the two men realize they have more in common than they initially thought. Faced with a common enemy, the two men forge an uneasy alliance.

An immediate sensation when it was released in February 2024, Shōgun won just about every award there is: Emmys, Golden Globes, you name it. All of it was deserved, as the show features superb acting, cinematography and direction. Shōgun feels as epic as silver screen classics like Lawrence of Arabia, and its historical sweep is always grounded in quiet character moments. A second season is on the way, which promises more breathtaking visuals and stunning battle sequences.

Rivals is a fun throwback to those kitschy 1980s primetime soap operas like Dallas and Dynasty, but with English accents instead of Southern drawls. Set in 1986 Great Britain, the two rivals of the title are Rupert Campbell-Black, an aristocratic Tory MP, and Tony, Lord Baddington (David Tennant), who is the managing director of a local TV station. The two men clash over who possesses more power over the fictional town of Rutshire, and they are willing to do anything to undermine each other to gain the upper hand.

Sex, money, drugs and scandal — The Rivals has it all, plus a nude game of tennis you have to see to believe. This is a show that asks you to leave your brain and taste at the door, and you’ll be glad to do it. Tennant is best known as Doctor Who, but he’s better at playing baddies — and his Tony is about as sleazy as they come. The show luxuriates in its decadent Thatcher-era setting, and you may just break out the Aqua Net in celebration. 

Elisabeth Moss is one of the best actresses around, able to elevate even OK material with her talent. The Veil isn’t as great as her previous shows The West Wing, Mad Men or The Handmaid’s Tale, but it’s still pretty good for what it is. 

Moss stars as Imogen, an MI6 agent who goes undercover to find out if Adilah El Idrissi (Yumna Marwan) is really the terrorist her bosses believe her to be. But as the two women bond while traveling across Europe, Imogen isn’t so sure she can trust anyone — not her employers, not Adilah, not even her own memories. With a terrorist attack imminent, Imogen will have to rely on her instincts and overcome some pretty significant trauma to prevent the deaths of innocent civilians.

The Veil starts strong but runs out of steam near the end, but it’s still an engrossing spy drama that will keep you guessing until the end. It’s Moss, though, who makes it all worthwhile — her Imogen is just as complex, empathetic and frustrating as her Peggy and Offred. 

Who knew murder could be so cozy? Set in a luxury apartment building in New York City, Only Murders in the Building follows retired actor Charles-Haden Savage (Steve Martin), failed Broadway producer Oliver Putnam (Martin Short) and twentysomething artist Mabel Mora (Selena Gomez) as they encounter one murder after another. To help solve these crimes, these amateur sleuths podcast their ongoing investigations, which brings them unexpected fame and unwelcome danger.

Only Murders in the Building serves up a different mystery each season with a revolving door of guest stars like Amy Ryan, Tina Fey, Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep. In its current season, the trio travels to Hollywood to oversee a film adaptation of their podcast and has to solve the murder of Charles’s stunt double, Sazz Pataki (Jane Lynch). The show is just as fresh as it was when it debuted in 2021, and Martin, Short and Gomez still have the best chemistry in streaming.

Broadcast comedies were on life support around 2020 until Abbott Elementary came to the rescue. The brainchild of creator and lead actress Quinta Brunson, the show follows the overworked and underpaid staff of R. Abbott Elementary School in Philadelphia. Janine (Brunson) and Greg (Tyler James Williams) are the most optimistic teachers around, while veteran educators Melissa (Lisa Ann Walter), Jacob (Chris Perfetti) and Barbara (Sheryl Lee Ralph) are just trying to make it through the day. And then there’s Ava (Janelle James), the school’s principal, who’d rather be doing anything else.. 

Now in its fourth season, Abbott Elementary is still as charming and funny as ever. Ralph deservedly won an Emmy in 2022 for her performance as the buttoned-up Barbara, but just as good are Walter as the teacher most likely to know Tony Soprano and James as the mean but funny Ava. Like any classic sitcom, the show is warm and welcoming, and it will make you want to watch it again and again.

A streaming sequel to the 2018 film Love, Simon, Love, Victor is set in the same school, Creekwood High, and features cameo appearances from some of the actors of the original film. The central conceit is the same: Victor (Michael Cimino) is a closeted teen who gradually steps out of the closet with the help of his friends and, eventually, his family. Over 28 episodes, the show chronicles Victor’s first romance with Benji (George Sear) and his evolving relationship with his mother Isabel (Ana Ortiz), who isn’t as accepting of his sexuality as he’d like her to be.

Teen dramas can be overlooked or looked down on, but Love, Victor is noteworthy for how seriously it takes Victor’s coming out and the effect it has on his Mexican American family. The show has its lighthearted moments, too, with the usual love triangles and heartbreak that are essential to the genre. Cimino’s Victor is charismatic enough to spend a couple of dozen half-hours with, and Ortiz’s fierce mama is the rare parent in a teen show who has more complexity and screen time than her younger costars.