The 105 best shows on Hulu right now (August 2022)

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has catapulted his career from iconic professional wrestler to one of the highest-paid actors in the world. But his road wasn’t always an easy one, and some of his childhood stories are as unbelievable as they are wonderful life lessons. He fashions these stories into this sitcom, set up in the year 2032 as Johnson, now running for U.S. President, recalls how he is able to relate to the everyday people of America. Through flashbacks of his time at three ages, including grade school, high school, and college, fans see what life was like for a young Rock, who his mom affectionately called “Dewey.” From cavorting with some of the most well-known wrestlers as part of a wrestling family from a young age (his father is wrestler Rocky Johnson) to his unique stories about growing up without money and dealing with typical (and atypical) coming-of-age issues, it’s both funny and sweet. What makes the show all the more entertaining is that the stories stem from real events that happened in Johnson’s life.

Irish comedian, actor, and writer Aisling Bea both wrote and stars in this British comedy-drama about Aine, a young single woman living in London and teaching English as a second language. The story picks up after Aine leaves a rehabilitation center following a nervous breakdown and deals with picking up where she left off in life. That includes coping with both the personal and professional pressures, with the help of her worried sister, Shona. Its first season was a huge success, with a perfect 100% audience score and a 92% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which described the show as a comedy about “moving on, moving forward, and trying to find happiness.” Season 2 starts streaming on Hulu beginning July 9, giving you lots of time to binge season 1 first.

Although it didn’t attain immortality like its unending older brother The Simpsons (which now has the most scripted episodes of any prime-time series), Matt Groening’s other cartoon, Futurama, established an identity of its own as a funny, often poignant vision of the future. The show follows Philip J. Fry (Billy West), a delivery boy who stumbles into a cryogenic pod and wakes up a thousand years in the future. He ends up working for an interplanetary delivery company, working with a variety of colorful characters, including steely cyclops Leela (Katey Sagal) and hard-drinking, sociopathic robot Bender (John DiMaggio). Futurama is an inventive comedy, with every episode going in some wild directions, and it has an incredible cast of oddballs to bounce off each other.

Before he was the mastermind behind Marvel’s cinematic universe, Joss Whedon was known for creating memorable television series such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly. While the latter only lasted for one season before it was ultimately canceled and later revived with the film Serenity, it has garnered a rabid cult following. The sci-fi series is set just after an interplanetary civil war between the populated inner system planets and the outer planets, where life resembles the American West. The series is well known for its cast of likable characters, including Nathan Fillion’s Mal Reynolds, who captains the titular ship and is arguably the coolest space criminal since Han Solo.