The Best Movies and Shows on Hulu Right Now

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The Disney-owned Hulu streaming service is still, more than 15 years into its existence, thought of first as a repository for new television (and, for many cord-cutters, the “live TV” option of choice) and second as a library of indisputable TV classics, usually in their entirety. But savvy viewers can also find a rotating library of movies, both new releases and recent classics, rivaling the collections of many of its competitors — if they know where to look. We’re here to help.

We also have lists of the best movies and TV shows on Netflix, the best of both on Disney+ and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video.

‘Anatomy of a Fall’ (2023)

Sandra Hüller is electrifying as a novelist who becomes a suspect in her husband’s mysterious death in this riveting character drama from the writer and director Justine Triet. The Academy Award-winning screenplay lays out the narrative piecemeal, stubbornly refusing to tell us exactly what happened or how to feel about it; in doing so, Triet slyly toys with our assumptions and sympathies. We keep waiting for big revelations (one way or the other) that are pointedly not delivered, leaving us to read the behavior embedded in Hüller’s tricky, Oscar-nominated performance, which deftly conveys a boiling stew of (often contradictory) emotions. (For more knotty character-driven drama, stream “Master Gardener” or “Stars at Noon.”)

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‘Origin’ (2023)

After taking on grand historical moments and Disney-funded science fiction, Ava DuVernay’s latest feels like a conscious back-to-basics move — a low-budget, shot-on-film drama that deals with familial and personal dynamics, in the modest key of her early features “I Will Follow” and “Middle of Nowhere.” But the concerns of her 2014 film “Selma” and her 2019 television mini-series “When They See Us” are still very much on her mind, as she follows Isabel Wilkerson, a Pulitzer Prize winner played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, through the yearslong process of researching and writing her book “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.” DuVernay successfully crafts a necessary work that grapples with the fullness of oppression, throughout various cultures and histories, and when all the threads come together at the conclusion, it’s frankly breathtaking. Our critic wrote, “Few American movies this year reach so high so boldly.”

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‘Big’ (1988)

Tom Hanks earned his first Oscar nomination for his bravura performance as a boy who gets his wish to “be big,” waking up in the body of a grown man who, left with few choices, has to make his way in the big, bad city. “Hanks is an absolute delight,” our critic wrote, reveling in his character’s innocence and guilelessness, but “Big” is no mere acting exercise; the director Penny Marshall builds to both big laughs and tender moments, aided immeasurably by not only Hanks’s fine work but that of Mercedes Ruehl as his terrified mother, Robert Loggia as his disarmed employer and (especially) Elizabeth Perkins as the woman he effortlessly charms. (For Hanks’s serious side, stream “Captain Phillips.”)

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‘Rye Lane’ (2023)

The debut feature from the director Raine Allen-Miller is a swiftly paced and endlessly satisfying compressed-timeframe romantic comedy (in the vein of “Before Sunrise” and its follow-ups) with a delightfully of-the-moment voice and feel. Dom (David Jonsson) and Yas (Vivian Oparah) meet-cute in an art gallery bathroom; he’s crying in a stall over a fresh breakup, and she’s nursing a broken heart as well (albeit more quietly), and they wind up spending a few whirlwind hours baring their souls and helping each other settle their romantic scores. It’s a venerable setup, rendered with vibrancy and inventiveness by Allen-Miller, and the screenplay by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia is full of witty, quotable dialogue. But the whole thing would fall apart without the bulletproof chemistry of Jonsson and Oparah; you want them to end up together so much, and that’s half the work of a great rom-com. (Rom-com fans will also love “Brown Sugar.”)

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‘Little Women’ (2019)

Louisa May Alcott’s novel is among the most often adapted in all of cinema, but the screenwriter and director Greta Gerwig’s take is delightfully fresh, flush with structural innovations, meta-textual flourishes and exuberant performances. Chief among them is Saoirse Ronan (Gerwig’s “Lady Bird” leading lady), who plays Jo March, a would-be writer for whom, as Nora Ephron would much later put it, “everything is copy”; Florence Pugh is ebullient as baby sister Amy, while Timothée Chalamet is properly swoony as the young man who, in a way, comes between them. Gerwig’s film is, per our critic, “generous, sincere, full of critical intelligence and honest sentiment,” an adaptation that both honors its predecessors and forges its own path.

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‘Modern Family’ (2009-2020)

At first, Christopher Lloyd and Steven Levitan’s family comedy looked a bit like a rip-off of “The Office,” but it left the air as one of the most successful sitcoms in television history, spinning 11 seasons of cringe and warmth out of the trials and tribulations of the Pritchett family. It’s a show that takes both halves of its title seriously, complementing the “traditional” nuclear household (led, with teeth-gritting resignation, by Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell) with a blossoming same-sex family (headed by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet) — along with their patriarch’s second family (Ed O’Neill plays the role with gruff perfection). When it debuted, our critic called it “the best new half-hour of funny television in a season rife with half-hours of funny television.”

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‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (1986)

Nestled comfortably in a remarkable run of teen-oriented pictures that included “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club,” this fast-paced comedy from the writer and director John Hughes offers up one of his most iconic characters: Ferris Bueller (played to winking perfection by Matthew Broderick), a cocky, confident, freewheeling fast-talker who cooks up a scheme to play hooky one last time with his best friend (Alan Ruck) and his best girl (Mia Sara). Hughes cheerfully intermingles broad slapstick comedy with sly character moments, subtly steering his story to an unexpectedly graceful and moving conclusion.

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‘Working Girl’ (1988)

Melanie Griffith shines, Sigourney Weaver snarls, and Harrison Ford shows off his comic chops in this sparkling Wall Street rom-com from the director Mike Nichols. Griffith stars as Tess McGill, a secretary who tires of merely daydreaming about corporate success and decides to do something about it when her back-stabbing boss (Weaver) has a skiing accident and ends up in traction. Kevin Wade’s script is reasonably wise to the ways of the boardroom, but the real draw here is the fun and flirtatious chemistry of Griffith and Ford, who team up for a big business deal, and perhaps more. Our critic deemed it “always fun even when at its most frivolous.” (“Juno” and “Boys on the Side” are similarly spiky comedy-dramas.)

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‘Jiro Dreams of Sushi’ (2012)

The chef Jiro Ono’s 10-seat sushi-only Tokyo eatery is recognized worldwide and is less a restaurant than a temple. According to those who know and work with him, it’s an extension of his personality; he’s meticulous, detail-oriented, doggedly dedicated to his craft. But has that perfectionism made him (or the people around him) happy? David Gelb’s mouthwatering documentary poses that question and further explores the chef’s philosophies of life and work, while also painstakingly capturing the careful preparation of Ono’s culinary gifts and lovingly lingering on the results.

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‘2 Days in New York’ (2012)

Julie Delpy, who plays the female lead in Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy, created a chatty-couple series of her own with her 2007 treat “2 Days in Paris” and this sequel from 2012. In “New York,” she crafts an opposites-attract story for her brash, neurotic Frenchwoman Marion and Marion’s Brooklynite boyfriend (well played by a slightly restrained Chris Rock). We then watch as their precariously balanced relationship implodes under the stress of a visit from Marion’s family. It’s both a romantic comedy and a comedy of manners, in which the politeness of familial interactions is capsized by their subtext, and the relationship bends until it nearly breaks.

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‘Sideways’ (2004)

Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church are both heartbreaking and gut-busting as a pair of middle-aged pals facing down the messes they’ve made of their lives in this prickly road movie from the director Alexander Payne. Church is a down-on-his-luck actor who’s about to get married; Giamatti is his best friend, a failed writer and wine aficionado, who takes him on a weeklong trip to wine country, where they discover some good wine, some enjoyable companionship (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh) and some uncomfortable truths. Manohla Dargis deemed it “a small masterpiece.”

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‘Bad Boys’ (1995)

In the heady mid-90s, Michael Bay was merely an ambitious young director of commercials and music videos making his feature debut with a buddy cop movie originally written for Dana Carvey and Jon Lovitz. Instead, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence filled the roles, co-starring as a pair of mismatched police detective, friends for life in spite of their pointed differences (one’s a slob, one’s a snob; one’s a family man, one’s a committed bachelor — and so on), with the common traits of catching crooks and cracking wise. Some fans prefer the unrestrained “Bay-hem” of “Bad Boys II,” from 2003, but the original is funnier and more coherent, and is boosted considerably by Téa Leoni’s charismatic supporting turn. (For more ’90s action, stream “The Fifth Element.”)

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‘The Royal Tenenbaums’ (2001)

Wes Anderson followed up his breakthrough film “Rushmore” (also on Hulu) with this sprawling, shambling, impeccably crafted yet emotionally overwhelming family comedy-drama. Gene Hackman turns in one of his best (and last) performances as Royal, the patriarch of the Tenenbaums, a family whose gifted children all managed to fall short of their initial promise when their parents separate; in the twilight of his life, Royal makes one last, desperate attempt to bring his family back together. Every performance is a winner, and every frame is a diorama, as is Anderson’s fashion, while the staggering pathos of the closing sequences efficiently quell the detractors who accuse the filmmaker of prioritizing style over substance. (Anderson’s later “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is also on Hulu.)
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‘All of Us Strangers’ (2023)

The writer and director Andrew Haigh loosely adapted Taichi Yamada’s spare novel “Strangers” into this lyrical, elegiac and frequently erotic story of love, loss and letting go. Andrew Scott (“Fleabag”) is spectacular as a lonely screenwriter who embarks on a casual relationship with a younger, wilder neighbor (Paul Mescal) just as he’s beginning work on a script inspired by his youth — which comes to life in altogether unexpected ways. Haigh steers his story from straightforward realism into mythical recollection without losing control of his delicate tone, and the central relationship is delightfully tender and lived-in. Our critic Alissa Wilkinson advises viewers to “just feel your way through, letting it roll over you.”

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‘Veronica Mars’ (2004-2019)

The creator Rob Thomas ingeniously fused the conventions of hard-boiled private eye noir with high school drama for this clever, moody and frequently funny three-season marvel (subsequently revived for a 2014 movie and a recent fourth season), which our critics deemed one of the best TV dramas this side of ‘The Sopranos.’ It also made a star out of Kristen Bell, who seamlessly veers from tough to vulnerable as the title character, a postmodern Nancy Drew who answers phones at her dad’s investigation agency and explores the seamy underbelly of her upper-class seaside resort town. The mysteries are top-notch (frequently intermingling season-long puzzlers with one-off cases of the week), but what makes “Mars” special is the relationships — particularly the complex, affectionate byplay between Bell’s thorny Veronica and her protective pop, played by the wonderful Enrico Colantoni. (For more high-quality coming-of-age television, try “Reservation Dogs” or “PEN15.”)

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‘I Am Not Your Negro’ (2017)

This stunning documentary concerns the life and writings of James Baldwin, but it’s less focused on tracing the arc of its subject’s life than on the potency of his words. The director Raoul Peck uses as his framework the notes of Baldwin’s unfinished book, “Remember This House,” in which Baldwin was attempting to reckon with the legacies of Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers; guided by Baldwin’s passages, Peck constructs an urgent and audacious essay about our past and our present. Our critic called it “a concise, roughly 90-minute movie with the scope and impact of a 10-hour mini-series.”

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‘The Host’ (2006)

The Oscar-winning Bong Joon Ho gleefully picks up where “Godzilla” left off with this “loopy, feverishly imaginative genre hybrid,” riffing on urban monster-movie conventions (with generous doses of environmental activism and familial melodrama thrown in). His mutant sea creature is created by the carelessness of the local government and the American military, another sharp inquiry into who the real monsters are. Bong also takes a keen interest in the human dynamics at play, and how the dysfunctional family at the story’s center comes together for a common cause.

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‘Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy’ (2004)

Will Ferrell’s breakthrough vehicle was one of the most culturally inescapable comedies of the 2000s, endlessly quoted and turned into memes, and for good reason: It’s screamingly funny, taking an absurd concept (the 1970s-set story of a local “Action News” anchor) to its absolute limit, thanks to a spot-on turn from Ferrell as a dopey blowhard; great supporting work from the likes of Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner and Fred Willard; and Christina Applegate’s perfectly modulated turn as his foil turned love interest. But it was also the feature directorial debut of the future Oscar winner Adam McKay, who was already using broad comedy as cover to smuggle in headier themes (this time of gender roles, toxic masculinity and media ineptitude). (The similarly uproarious “O Brother, Where Art Thou” is also on Hulu.)

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‘The Personal History of David Copperfield’ (2020)

The director and co-writer Armando Iannucci exhibits a light touch — even when dealing with matters of misery, poverty and death — in this merry adaptation of this classic Charles Dickens novel; Iannucci juices up the jokes, speeds up the pace and cheerfully indulges in colorblind casting. The result is a delightful mash-up of Dickens’s style and Iannucci’s own. Dev Patel is charming and charismatic in the title role; Hugh Laurie and Tilda Swinton shine in their juicy supporting roles; and Peter Capaldi is a pitch-perfect Micawber. It’s all refreshingly silly, delightfully high-spirited and gently layered with just enough pathos.

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‘Lost’ (2004-2010)

One of modern television’s most discussed and dissected, analyzed and agonized, loved and loathed programs is this six-season story of a group of plane-crash survivors, trapped on a mysterious and (presumably?) deserted island. This simple setup proved fertile soil for shocking twists and copious fan theories, as well as for an admirably all-rules-are-off sense of storytelling, regularly veering off into extended flashbacks, flash-forwards and even the occasional flash-sideways. Some of its loose ends are frustrating, and some of the answers are unsatisfying. But it’s nonetheless a bold experiment in longform storytelling, and one whose “Wait, WHAT?” cliffhangers make for essential binge-watching. (For more mystery, try “Under the Banner of Heaven.”)

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‘13 Going on 30’ (2004)

This likably goofy and endlessly charming romantic comedy is, essentially, a gender-swapped remake of the beloved “Big,” this time with Jennifer Garner as a 13-year-old whose birthday wish to be “30 and flirty and thriving” unexpectedly comes true. Garner is warm and endearing, a loose-limbed wonder at capturing the awkward gawkiness of a teenager trapped in an ill-fitting body, while Mark Ruffalo, a recent Oscar nominee, finds just the right mixture of confusion and sweetness as her childhood friend who’s become quite the babe.

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‘Pretty Woman’ (1990)

Richard Gere mounted an unexpected comeback and Julia Roberts established herself as America’s sweetheart in this smash rom-com riff on “Pygmalion” from the director Garry Marshall. Gere is a cold and calculating tycoon who meets a charming sex worker (Roberts) while in California on a business trip, so he hires her to be his escort for the week; hilarity and romantic complications ensue. The narrative is predictability defined, but it’s easily carried to success by the charisma and chemistry of its leads, as well as a stellar supporting cast including Laura San Giacomo, Jason Alexander, Larry Miller and Marshall’s good-luck charm Hector Elizondo. (Fans of ’90s rom-coms will also enjoy “10 Things I Hate About You.”)

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‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’ (1970-1977)

You can find the DNA of this sophisticated, influential seven-season classic in everything from “30 Rock” to “The Office” to “Sex and the City.” Moore sparkles as a newly single working woman making her way in the big city of Minneapolis, where she spends her days in a bustling TV newsroom and her nights trying to reassemble her personal life. Midway through its run, our critic wrote, “Consistently tight writing and good acting have made this situation comedy the best of its kind in the history of American television.” He wasn’t wrong. (Co-star Betty White’s classic “The Golden Girls” is also on Hulu.)

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‘Bernie’ (2012)

The true story of how a beloved East Texas mortician murdered a wealthy widow could’ve made for a probing character study (or, perhaps, a tacky Netflix true-crime docuseries). Instead, the director and co-writer Richard Linklater achieves a delicate and precise mixture of dark comedy and small-town portraiture, thanks in no small part to a cast that includes Jack Black (Linklater’s “School of Rock” star) as the mortician, Matthew McConaughey (Linklater’s “Dazed and Confused” star) as the district attorney who prosecutes him and the great Shirley MacLaine as the victim, a characterization she puts somewhere between Ouiser from “Steel Magnolias” and Beelzebub. Our critic called it “gaudily vibrant.” (Black also shines in “High Fidelity.”)

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‘Brawl in Cell Block 99’ (2017)

Vince Vaughn stars as a working-class guy whose ill-advised career shift into the drug mule business takes a particularly grisly turn in this “painstakingly paced thriller” from the writer and director S. Craig Zahler. As in his films “Bone Tomahawk” (also on Hulu) and “Dragged Across Concrete,” Zahler exhibits an attentiveness to procedural detail (both in the crime movie setup and the prison movie payoff) and a worldview of inherent, grim hopelessness. His matter-of-fact brutality gives way to a kind of Grand Guignol insanity in the homestretch. Yet the acting is grounded and the characters are fully realized, while his odd detours into momentary humanism give this “Brawl” a surprising sense of gravity.

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‘How to Blow Up a Pipeline’ (2023)

Daniel Goldhaber’s eco-thriller is one of the best films of the year thus far — a gripping combination of nihilistic manifesto and suspenseful genre picture. The tautly constructed narrative follows a group of geographically disparate but like-minded activists who team up to, well, you can guess from the title. Goldhaber, working with a script he wrote alongside Ariela Barer and Jordan Sjol (inspired by Andreas Malm’s nonfiction book of the same name), puts the pieces together with the intricacy and structural ingenuity of a heist movie, while relying on our familiarity with those tropes to subvert expectations and smuggle in a deadly serious message.

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‘Atlanta’ (2016-2022)

Donald Glover’s FX comedy-drama established itself as a true force in modern television — thoughtful, peculiar, cinematic, relentlessly entertaining. Glover (who also created the show, and frequently wrote and directed) stars as Earn, a small-timer with big dreams who takes the reins of his cousin’s nascent hip-hop career, with mixed results. The supporting cast is top-notch, with Brian Tyree Henry, LaKeith Stanfield and Zazie Beetz as nuanced characters interpreted with fierce precision, but the show is most dazzling for its tonal improvisations; it feels like Glover and company can go anywhere, at any time, and the results are exhilarating. (Pamela Adlon’s acclaimed “Better Things,” also from FX, is a similarly personality-driven comedy-drama.)

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‘Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood’ (2019)

All of Quentin Tarantino’s films are, in their own way, valentines to the movies — steeped in the tropes and traditions of the films of his youth, and the ways that they influenced his perceptions of human behavior and the world around him. But this hangout movie and western riff is his most direct love letter, and specifically to the cinema of the late-1960s in which it’s set, spending a few days in the life of Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio), a TV cowboy whose career is on the skids; his stuntman and right-hand Cliff Booth (an Oscar-winning Brad Pitt); and his neighbor Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie), who has a date with destiny that Tarantino carefully sets up and cleverly eludes. A.O. Scott praised its “ambling, shaggy-dog structure and the easygoing rhythm of its scenes.” (The similarly sprawling “Once Upon a Time in America” is also on Hulu; for more Oscar-winning acting, stream “Boys Don’t Cry.”)

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‘The Wonder Years’ (1988-1993)

Nostalgia tends to run in 20-year cycles, so filmmakers and television writers spent a good deal of the 1980s meditating on the 1960s — particularly the idealism of the Woodstock era, and how it faded away in the years that followed. This six-season family dramedy certainly trafficked in such wistfulness, but filtered it through a contemporary lens, as the adult iteration of its protagonist (voiced by Daniel Stern, played as a teen by Fred Savage) narrated his journey through middle and high school during this turbulent era. And the show is now seen through a prism of dual nostalgia, recalled with fondness by those who were themselves teenagers when it first aired, confirming that its stories of first love, teen awkwardness and familial rebellion aren’t confined to any specific era. (For more family-based comedy, check out “Malcolm in the Middle” or “The Family Stone.”)

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‘The Bear’ (2022-present)

Hulu and FX’s surprise smash has been roundly praised (and rightly so) for its ticking-clock intensity, and the vividness with which it dramatizes the pressures and frustrations of kitchen work. The jittery, hand-held, rapid-fire scenes of the driven but broken Carmy (Jeremy Allen White) and his chefs hustling to prep for the lunch and dinner rushes at The Original Beef of Chicagoland “look and sound like a war story that happens to take place in a kitchen,” James Poniewozik wrote last year. But that’s not what makes this show so special. It’s the deftness of the writing and the depth of the characters, with the showrunner Christopher Storer and his writers using the battles of the kitchen to sharpen the conflicts therein; equally impressive are the performances, particularly White, Ebon Moss-Bachrach as his most frequent antagonist, and Ayo Edebiri as a sous-chef trying to make her own way.

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‘NYPD Blue’ (1993-2005)

The “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law” groundbreaker Steven Bochco teamed up with the future “Deadwood” mastermind David Milch to create this hard-nosed ABC police procedural. Its combination of street language, adult themes and fleeting nudity made it the most controversial show of its season the year it debuted; “As it happens,” our critic wrote, “it’s also the best, by far.” Dennis Franz stars as Detective Andy Sipowicz, whose battles with the bottle, the brass and his own bruised psyche became the beating heart of the series over its 12 seasons; his rotating cast of partners included David Caruso (in his breakthrough role), Jimmy Smits, Rick Schroder and Mark-Paul Gosselaar; James McDaniel, Amy Brenneman, Nicholas Turturro, Kim Delaney, Garcelle Beauvais and Esai Morales are among the robust supporting cast.

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‘Theater Camp’ (2023)

Rebecca-Diane (Molly Gordon) and Amos (Ben Platt) are lifelong friends and campers-turned-counselors of the AdirondACTS theater camp, where they reunite every summer to teach a love of the stage (and pass along neuroses galore) to singing, dancing, acting children and teenagers. But when the owner-operator (Amy Sedaris, in a brief but unhinged turn) is sidelined with a medical emergency, they must put on their best show to date to save the camp they love. The subject matter, structure and mockumentary style conspicuously recall “Waiting for Guffman,” while not approaching that film’s heights of hilarity. But “Theater Camp” is more earnest and affectionate; Gordon and Platt co-wrote it with fellow camp veterans Nick Lieberman and Noah Galvin (Gordon and Lieberman directed), and their insider’s knowledge is present in every frame. And then it’s very funny, on top of that. (For more character-driven comedy-drama, check out “Results” or “Fire Island.”)

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‘Alien’ (1979)

The director Ridley Scott and the actress Sigourney Weaver had their mainstream breakthroughs with this hit, which ingeniously fused two of the most durable genres: the lost-in-space sci-fi thriller and the haunted-house horror chiller. Weaver is among the crew members of the commercial spaceship Nostromo, headed back home when a creature starts killing her colleagues. Jolting scares and skin-crawling moments ensue, to great effect. Our critic called it “an old-fashioned scare movie” and praised Scott’s “very stylish” direction. (For more sci-fi, stream “The Creator.”)

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‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ (2005-Present)

Countless television series tried and failed to take on the mantle of “Seinfeld,” but none did as successfully — or for as long — as “the gang” from Paddy’s Pub. The show began like a low-budget, indie riff on Jerry Seinfeld’s smash, with a similar three-guys-and-a-girl configuration and snarky, insular spirit. But the arrival of Danny DeVito in Season 2 opened up the show to wilder possibilities; it got stranger, and on occasion, nastier. But “It’s Always Sunny” has remained fresh, funny and pointed for 15 seasons and counting. Our critic wrote that the actors “are as in sync as an ensemble cast can get.” (Co-star Glenn Howerton is electrifying in the film “Blackberry.”)

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‘Archer’ (2009-2023)

When it began in 2009, this “outrageously entertaining” animated FX comedy from Adam Reed sounded like a one-joke premise, and not exactly a fresh one either: an extended spoof on James Bond-style spy stories, set at a secret intelligence agency during an indeterminate and anachronistic pseudo-Cold War period. And yet it took flight (11 seasons and counting) thanks to the show’s frisky writing, winking self-awareness, willingness to reboot itself entirely, and the skills of the uproarious voice cast, including Jessica Walters of “Arrested Development” as another unstable mother and the “Bob’s Burgers” star H. Jon Benjamin as the boozing, womanizing title character. (Fans of this absurd comedy may also enjoy “Futurama” and “Absolutely Fabulous.”)

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‘The Nightingale’ (2019)

Jennifer Kent, the writer and director of the terrifying “The Babadook,” returned with this “rigorous, relentless” riff on revenge narratives and Hollywood westerns, refracted through the prism of white supremacy and violent patriarchy. Aisling Franciosi stars as an Irish woman in 19th-century Tasmania who embarks on a perhaps ill-advised crusade for justice after a brutal assault by a powerful commander. But such a summary makes “The Nightingale” sound like a straightforward story of good and evil; Kent complicates her characters at every turn and causes us to question which side we’re on. It’s a long, brutal, difficult picture, but an undeniably powerful one.

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‘Only Murders in the Building’ (2021-present)

In this jazzy, entertaining comic thriller, Steve Martin has his first continuing television role (he also created the series with John Hoffman), alongside his frequent collaborator Martin Short and the pop star Selena Gomez. They play a trio of disengaged neighbors in an Upper West Side co-op who are thrown together by their affection for true-crime podcasts; when a fellow resident turns up dead, they decide to create one themselves. It’s wildly funny, along with being a well-crafted mystery and a keenly observed character piece. All three leads shine (as do such well-utilized supporting players as Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane), though as our critic noted, Short “steals every scene.”

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‘Spencer’ (2021)

Kristen Stewart picked up her first Academy Award nomination for her subtle yet affecting turn as Princess Diana in this atypical biographical fantasy from the director Pablo Larraín. Like his earlier “Jackie,” a character sketch of Jacqueline Kennedy told only through the lens of the days after her husband’s assassination, “Spencer” confines its time frame to a single holiday weekend near the end of Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles, and its action to a remote mansion inhabited by both the royalty of the present and the ghosts of the past. A.O. Scott praised it as “an allegory of powerlessness, revolt and liberation.” (Stewart is also in top form in “Personal Shopper”; if you like unconventional biopics, try “Ferrari.”)

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‘McCartney 3, 2, 1’ (2021)

The life and music of Paul McCartney are not exactly unexplored territory, but this engaging docu-series finds a refreshing way to approach his unparalleled body of work. The focus is on process rather than biography, as he’s joined by the producer and music savant Rick Rubin to break down the nuts and bolts of McCartney’s most memorable songs, with the aid of the original masters (with which they’re able to isolate and discuss individual elements). If it sounds egg-headed, it is, and gloriously so; McCartney has been an icon for so long, it’s wonderful to instead see him simply as a musician, who creates not via divine intervention but hard work, experimentation and trial and error.

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‘Cheers’ (1982-1993)

Few television series run more than a decade without losing their flavor, their laughs, or their heart — but then again, few television series are as special as “Cheers.” Set in a Boston bar owned and tended by a former baseball star and recovering alcoholic (Ted Danson, in the role that understandably made him a star), “Cheers” took the conventions of the character-driven hangout sitcom and perfected them. Thanks to consistently razor-sharp writing and a flawless ensemble cast, the result was “pure comedy that was sophisticated but not pretentious.” Running 275 episodes (without a clunker in the bunch), “Cheers” has gone on to charm subsequent generations of viewers, who have found it as comforting and reliable as … well, as a trip to the neighborhood watering hole. (The show’s long-running spinoff series “Frasier” is also on Hulu.)

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‘What We Do in the Shadows’ (2019-present)

Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi adapted their hilarious 2015 mockumentary film into this FX sitcom, with “perfectly fun” results, finding the day-to-day lives (and irritations) of a group of Staten Island vampires to be a source for endless comic invention. Its quartet of undead housemates must wrestle with not only the logistics of bloodsucking but the general annoyance of roommates, and that incongruity gives the show its juice. Every member of the stellar ensemble shines, but special praise is due to Matt Berry, who finds just the right mixture of ornate theatricality and unapologetic horniness as the dandyish Laszlo. (For more comedy with an edge, try “Difficult People” and “Key & Peele.”)

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‘Abbott Elementary’ (2021-present)

Quinta Brunson’s new, yet already acclaimed, workplace comedy is more than a little reminiscent of “Parks and Recreation,” from its style (mockumentary) to its setting (a barely functioning government service) to its focal character (a cheerful optimist, also played by Brunson). But “Abbott Elementary” separates itself from such clear influences via the specificity of its storytelling; in detailing the true-to-life day-to-day woes of Philadelphia public schoolteachers, Brunson and her cast tap into a deeper well of resignation and desperation, while exploring the delightful character quirks that provide the show’s biggest laughs. (For more workplace comedy, check out “Superstore” and the original version of “The Office.”)

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‘The X-Files’ (1993-2002, 2016-2018)

Chris Carter’s sci-fi procedural has been through the creative wringer — cast changes, movie spinoffs, a two-season reboot — but it’s remained a steady presence not only on televisions, but in popular culture. The premise is simple enough: Two F.B.I. special agents, one (David Duchovny) a believer in the supernatural and the other (Gillian Anderson) a skeptic, are teamed up to investigate cases involving unexplained paranormal activities. The mythology and conspiracy theories of the show are rich, but they’re not what keep it together — it’s the explosive chemistry between its leads, who pack exasperation, intrigue and sexual tension into every interaction. (For more thrills and chills, try “Castle Rock.”)

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‘The Great’ (2020-present)

Tony McNamara, who co-wrote the 2018 hit movie “The Favourite,” brings his bawdy and irreverent approach to historical costume dramas to this uproariously funny and unapologetically fictionalized take on the rise of Empress Catherine II, aka Catherine the Great. She’s played by Elle Fanning, who seems to have a fantastic time shaking off the shackles of the quiet waifs she typically plays to embrace Catherine’s calculated cool; “Favourite” co-star Nicholas Hoult is similarly, wickedly fun to watch. (Costume-drama fans may also enjoy the “Sense and Sensibility” mini-series.)

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‘King of the Hill’ (1997-2010)

When the “Beavis & Butt-Head” creator Mike Judge landed a half-hour animated series on the Fox network, most viewers and critics were expecting more of the same. No one could have predicted that Judge would deliver one of the most nuanced family sitcoms of its era. Judge voices the central character himself, a straight-laced patriarch of a Texas family struggling to maintain his values in a changing world. Judge is uproarious and Kathy Najimy is delightful as his wife, but the stand-out is Pamela Adlon — later of “Louie” and “Better Things” — as the Hills’ sweet and strange son, Bobby. (For more character-based comedy, try “Schitt’s Creek” and “New Girl.”)

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‘Freaks and Geeks’ (1999-2000)

A pre-“Knocked Up” Judd Apatow and a pre-“Bridesmaids” Paul Feig teamed up for this cult hit comedy-drama, which looks back at high school life circa 1980 through the eyes of Lindsay Weir (Linda Cardellini), a math wiz who falls in with the slacker “freaks,” and her brother Sam (John Frances Daly), a perpetually picked-on “geek.” High school nostalgia is nothing new, but Feig, Apatow and their writers approach those years with a verisimilitude that frequently feels like an open wound, finding the quiet truth in these comic situations, and only then going for the laugh, almost as an afterthought. Bonus: a cast of future stars in their early years, including Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jason Segel, Busy Philipps, Sam Levine, Ben Foster, Lizzy Caplan and Martin Starr.

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‘Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations’ (2005-2012)

This long-running showcase for the late, great celebrity chef, author and raconteur is a globe-trotting celebration of the cultures and cuisines of the world, a well-balanced mixture of destinations close (Maine, New Orleans, New York’s outer boroughs) and far (Vietnam, Russia, Egypt, Turkey), which Bourdain explores with both curiosity and bravado. He combines history, political commentary, observation and (of course) food appreciation into an undeniably appealing mix, often propelled by the sheer force of his personality. Bourdain’s willingness to go wherever the journey takes him gives his show an inspired unpredictability and infectious energy.

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‘Bob’s Burgers’ (2011-present)

Though separated by nearly two decades, “Bob’s Burgers” is something of a “Cheers” for the 21st century — television comfort food, centering on a neighborhood mainstay and the weirdos who float through its doors (though this show’s characters are allowed to veer into even stranger territory by the animated format). But it’s also a clever riff on the family sitcom, as the establishment’s proprietor is the patriarch of a decidedly oddball family; most surprisingly, it treats that family with genuine affection, peccadilloes and all. Our critic compared it to a go-to restaurant, “reliably good, visit after visit.” (For more animated fun for grown-ups, try “Rick and Morty.”)

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‘30 Rock’ (2006-2013)

Tina Fey co-created and starred in this long-running NBC metasitcom, inspired by her own experiences as head writer for “Saturday Night Live.” It’s written and played with the wink and nudge of knowing showbiz gossip and inside jokes, delivered at lightning pace. She came into her own as a performer over the show’s seven seasons, with the help of an unbeatable ensemble cast: Jane Krakowski as the show’s uproariously vain star, Tracy Morgan as a gleefully hedonistic superstar brought in to boost ratings, Jack McBrayer as the delightfully naïve network page, and (especially) Alec Baldwin as the gruff and cynical network executive in charge of the program. (For more fast-paced comedy, try “Broad City” and “Happy Endings.”)

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‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ (1997-2003)

Few shows in television history sounded less promising than a series adaptation of an unloved, unsuccessful teen horror/comedy, launching midseason on a network no one had heard of. But from the ashes of the (vastly compromised, it’s said) 1992 feature film came Joss Whedon’s reimagined and recalibrated seven-season triumph, which slyly conflated the conventions of supernatural horror and high school life, and asked which was truly the fiery hellscape. Though a little bumpy early on — it took some time for Whedon and company to find their tone (and access to convincing special effects) — once “Buffy” finds its footing, it’s unstoppable. (Whedon’s short-lived but much-loved space opera “Firefly” is also available on Hulu.)

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‘M*A*S*H’ (1972-1983)

Robert Altman’s hit 1970 antiwar comedy didn’t seem like a slam-dunk for television adaptation, thanks to its raw style and bawdy humor. The series creator and TV comedy veteran Larry Gelbart sanded away most of those edges, yet found a way to ground the show in the horrors of war while keeping the laughs digestible. Much of that was because of the chemistry and camaraderie of the flawless cast — particularly Alan Alda’s brilliantly realized characterization of “Hawkeye” Pierce, the unflappable wiseguy who found, over the course of the show’s 11 seasons, that there were some things even he couldn’t manage to make light of. (If you’re looking for a more serious medical series, stream the ’90s fave “ER.”)

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‘Friday Night Lights’ (2006-2011)

When this series adaptation of the 2004 feature film — itself an adaptation of Buzz Bissinger’s nonfiction book — debuted on NBC in 2006, our critic led her review with a succinct proclamation: “Lord, is ‘Friday Night Lights’ good.” Over the five seasons that followed, this heart-rending drama, set in the world of small-town high school football (though not, in any traditional sense, solely about that world), taught lessons, complicated assumptions, and developed some of the indelible characters in modern television — chief among them Kyle Chandler as the idealistic and committed Coach Taylor and Connie Britton as his no-nonsense wife. (For more character-driven drama, try “Justified.”)

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