15 Must-Watch Drama Shows on Hulu Right Now (September 2025)

This prequel to the Alien franchise from FX television veteran Noah Hawley (Fargo, Legion) focuses on the efforts of Earth’s corporations to achieve immortality. One of these techniques involves downloading the consciousness of humans into the bodies of synthetic beings. Wendy (Sydney Chandler), the lead character, is one of these hybrids — the mind of a dying child uploaded into an adult synthetic body. She and her fellow hybrids, known as the “Lost Boys,” undertake a dangerous mission aboard the USCSS Maginot, a deep-space research vessel, to find extraterrestrial specimens — bringing them into the path of the Xenomorphs that will eventually appear in Alien.

Scary, stylish and intelligent, Alien: Earth enriches the world of the Alien franchise while tackling big philosophical questions about what it means to be a human being.

This post-apocalyptic political thriller follows a murder investigation taking place in a secret underground city after an extinction-level event, and it’s one of the most gripping shows on Hulu. Paradise has been nominated for several Emmys, including Outstanding Supporting Actor for James Marsden in his role as the murdered President of the United States and Outstanding Lead Actor for Sterling K. Brown as the Secret Service agent trying to uncover the truth.

Full of shocking twists, imaginative worldbuilding and compelling performances, Paradise has been a breakout hit that will have you craving a second season — luckily, it’s already been renewed for one.

Connell Waldron (Paul Mescal), a popular and good-looking rugby player, is the son of a housekeeper who works for the family of his awkward and unpopular classmate, Marianne Sheridan (Daisy Edgar-Jones). The duo finds an unexpected connection that starts as clandestine sex but develops into something much more complicated. Based on the novel by Sally Rooney, Normal People follows Connell and Marianne through the end of high school into their young adult lives at Trinity College in Dublin and beyond. 

The beautifully filmed and emotionally intelligent series explores how each character’s past experiences inform their relationship — and how their insecurities and assumptions keep them from communicating what they actually want. The subtle nuances of their relationship are portrayed beautifully by Mescal and Edgar-Jones. It’s poignant and heartbreaking, yet ultimately an uplifting exploration of identity, intimacy and love.

Created by Dan Fogelman, This Is Us explores the lives of the Pearson family, juxtaposing siblings Kevin (Justin Hartley), Kate (Chrissy Metz), and Randall (Sterling K. Brown) — known as the “Big Three”— alongside their parents, Jack (Milo Ventimiglia) and Rebecca (Mandy Moore). The narrative intricately weaves together past and present, revealing how pivotal moments and decisions shape the family’s dynamics over the years. Through its emotional storytelling, the series examines themes of love, loss, and the enduring bonds that tie family members together, resonating deeply with audiences because of its relatable portrayal of life’s challenges and triumphs.

In addition to giving us one of our favorite TV dads ever in the form of Jack Pearson, This Is Us blends drama with humor throughout every character’s setbacks and triumphs. It’s a character-driven story that explores universal human experiences. Ventimiglia, Brown and Moore deliver particularly unforgettable performances.

Will Trent is a police procedural with an unconventional hero at the heart of the series. Will (Ramón Rodríguez) is a gifted investigator for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation who struggles with dyslexia and the trauma he endured growing up in foster care.

No one understands what Will went through more than Angela Polaski (Erika Christensen), his on-and-off-again lover and a homicide detective with the Atlanta PD. Will and Angela frequently have to work together, but their relationship may prove to be toxic for both of them. And yet they seem destined to remain in each other’s orbit no matter what.

Will Trent is streaming on Hulu.

Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) isn’t known for his friendly bedside manner in the TV series that shares his name. But Dr. House is the medical equivalent of Sherlock Holmes and an expert in his field. He’s also difficult to deal with, even among the people he considers friends.

For the early part of the series, House works with three younger doctors — Eric Foreman (Omar Epps), Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer) and Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) — to crack some of the most difficult cases in modern medicine. But it was House who kept bringing viewers back with his acerbic wit and his hilariously sour demeanor. 

House is streaming on Hulu.

The old West lives on in the form of Justified‘s lead character, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant). Raylan handles himself like a gunslinger, and he’s been known to shoot first and shoot later. 

As punishment for his unconventional style of justice, Raylan is banished to the Kentucky field office, not far from his crime-infested hometown, Harlan. Raylan’s frenemy, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins), is both his ally and his adversary throughout the show’s six-season run. Each season follows an unfolding storyline that dramatically brings Raylan and Boyd back into each other’s orbits.

Justified is streaming on Netflix.

Only the first 20 seasons of Law & Order are streaming on Hulu, but that should be more than enough to keep you binge-watching through the end of the year. Series creator Dick Wolf pioneered the modern legal procedural drama as we know it, and the Law & Order franchise hasn’t been off TV since the original series debuted in 1990.

Each episode splits the focus between the police attempting to solve a crime before giving way to the prosecutors who try to find justice for the victims. Many of the stories are “ripped from the headlines” of the time, but Law & Order episodes are also textbook examples of one-off stories that leave audiences wanting more.

Law & Order is streaming on Hulu.

For her follow-up to Mad Men, Elisabeth Moss starred in Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood‘s The Handmaid’s Tale. In the near future, the United States has been overthrown by the Republic of Gilead, and most of the women have few rights under the new regime.

Moss plays June Osborne, a woman who becomes a handmaiden known as Offred in the service of Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), and subordinate to Fred’s wife, Serena Joy Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski). June is little more than a slave to her new masters, but she also has a desire to be free, which will help her spark a revolution against Gilead and all that it stands for.

The Handmaid’s Tale is streaming on Hulu.

It took a decade for FX’s remake of James Clavell‘s Shōgun to come to fruition, and it was worth the wait. This show broke an Emmy record with 18 wins for a single season, including Best Drama and Best Actor and Actress in a Drama for Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai.

In the early 15th century, English sailor John Blackthorne (Cosmo Jarvis) survives a shipwreck only to find himself a prisoner of Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Sanada), one of the most powerful Shoguns in Japan. Toda Mariko (Sawai) serves as Blackthorne’s translator and his gateway into a culture that seems like a foreign world to him. Meanwhile, Toranaga is facing a pivotal crisis that will determine which Shogun rules Japan, and Blackthorne may prove to be very useful to him, whether he desires it or not.

Shōgun is streaming on Hulu.

Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton leaned on his medical training to create ER, one of the most influential drama series of the last three decades. The medical drama was uncommonly grounded and it made stars out of several cast members, including George Clooney, Anthony Edwards, Julianna Margulies, Noah Wyle, Eriq La Salle and more.

For 15 seasons, the show chronicled the lives of the doctors and nurses at Cook County General Hospital. Cast members came and went over the series’ long run, but ER maintained a high level of quality that has largely been unmatched by any similar shows that came after it.

ER is streaming on Hulu.

Mariska Hargitay holds a TV record for playing the same character for 26 consecutive seasons across the length of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. This spinoff from Law & Order originally focused on Detectives Olivia Benson (Hargitay) and Elliot Stabler (Christopher Meloni) as they investigated sexually based crimes.

Following Meloni’s departure, Benson moved to the forefront and eventually became the captain in charge of SVU’s team, including Odafin “Fin” Tutuola (Ice-T) and a new generation of detectives. Benson has also become an icon, and her legacy as a character continues to play out over a quarter century after her debut. 

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is streaming on Hulu.

In 2002, FX needed a signature original series that was on the same level as The Sopranos. The Shield was exactly what the network needed to put it on the map and establish FX as one of the top destinations for dramas. Michael Chiklis had a transformative performance as Detective Vic Mackey, the hard-nosed leader of a strike team in LAPD’s Farmington district.

For Vic, there are no lines he won’t cross to put a bad guy away. And as revealed in the pilot episode, Vic and the strike team are also corrupt and willing to murder fellow cops to protect themselves. Vic and his right-hand man, Shane Vendrell (Walton Goggins), helped define the era of the antihero, and their story is unforgettable.

The Shield is streaming on FX.

Following a season-long stint on The Shield, Glenn Close headlined her own FX drama series, Damages. The series focused on Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne), a young law associate who comes to work for Patty Hewes (Close), one of the most feared litigators in New York. Patty’s skills in court are only matched by her ruthless streak. She’s the Vic Mackey of lawyers.

Each season of Damages includes a flash forward story that offers tantalizing hints about what will happen to Ellen and Patty as the season plays out. In season 1, Ellen is accused of murdering her fiancé, and she’s convinced that Patty is the one who put a hit out on her. Each episode slowly catches up to the future events before revealing to the audience how the storylines tie together.

Damages is streaming on Hulu.

The main characters of The Americans aren’t actually Americans at all. In this ’80s Cold War thriller, Elizabeth (Keri Russell) and Philip Jennings (Matthew Rhys) are Russian spies embedded in Washington, D.C. to carry out espionage assignments for the KGB. Although they don’t initially love each other, they also have two children, Paige (Holly Taylor) and Henry (Keidrich Sellati), who have no idea their parents are foreign operatives.

The Jennings’ lives are complicated when FBI agent Stan Beeman (Noah Emmerich) moves in next door just as Phillip and Elizabeth develop real feelings for each other. This family gets a lot of blood on their hands in the name of their homeland, and the Jennings are split over the KGB’s desire to recruit Paige to join them.

The Americans is streaming on FX.

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