Hulu has tons of great, high-profile shows along with hidden gems. When it comes to miniseries, the streamer excels in this department. There are many from which to choose, some based on real-life events, others adapted from books, and some unique stories. But they all take you on a journey through single seasons with a limited number of episodes.
Perfect for binging in a single day or over a weekend, many of these Hulu miniseries earned awards, all of them high praise from critics and viewers, alike. With incredible acting, compelling stories, and carefully wrapped up plots, they can be called, without hesitation, masterpieces on television.
'Dopesick' (2021)
Image via HuluThe opioid epidemic in America is a hot topic, one of the biggest pharmaceutical issues facing the country today. Dopesick sets out to shed light on it and the saga of Purdue Pharma, a privately held company manufacturing pain meds that was hit with lawsuits, fines, and eventually filed for bankruptcy. As one of the best shows about the war on drugs, the series shows the tragedies families face as a result of opioid addiction and the role of pharmaceuticals and government agencies in regulating these drugs.
Based on the Beth Macy non-fiction book Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America, Dopesick is about much more than just entertainment. Taking place across different timelines, it has characters meant to be composites of real-life figures with a few characters as straight fictional versions. It's a drama with meaning, shedding light on a serious issue in a way that brings attention to real life through dramatization. It's no surprise the series went on to receive 14 Emmy nominations.
'Tiny Beautiful Things' (2023)
Image via HuluTiny Beautiful Things takes you on a journey with Clare (Kathryn Hahn), a writer who ironically gets assigned a popular advice column at the same time that her life seems far from put together. Based on the Cheryl Strayed book of the same name, Hahn's performance in particular is praised in this series, which earned a pair of Emmy nominations, including one for Hahn.
Collider reviewer Taylor Gates loves how the show aims to inspire hope and encourage you to go after your dreams, whether you think it's too late to do so or not. With half-hour episodes, it's a quick and easy binge, too. "The show made me weep pretty much every episode," says Gates, "but I never felt as if it was trying to induce tears."
'Pam & Tommy' (2022)
Image via HuluEarning 10 Emmy Award nominations, Pam & Tommy is a fictional retelling of the life and romance of model and actor Pamela Anderson and musician Tommy Lee, as well as the events that led to the release of their infamous unauthorized sex tape. The show uses Amanda Chicago Lewis' Rolling Stone article "Pam and Tommy: The Untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Sex Tape" to frame its story, including how the tape was allegedly stolen, put together, and sold.
Collider's Carly Lane says the biographical drama's clear intent is to "shine an unfaltering spotlight on true events" and she appreciates how it focuses on demonstrating how the fallout of the events impacted the two people at the center of the controversy, long after the world moved on to the next shiny thing. Pam & Tommy successfully tells a story of "celebrity, the paper-thin divide between publicity and privacy, and what happens when human intimacy is swallowed up by glossy headlines," she concludes.
'The Dropout' (2022)
Image via HuluAmanda Seyfried does a phenomenal job portraying Elizabeth Holmes in The Dropout, founder of healthcare startup Theranos that was eventually embroiled in lawsuits relating to the company's claims that it created a way to perform accurate blood tests quickly and efficiently with very little blood. It would have been a game-changer for medicine but turned out to be false.
The Dropout, one of the best eight-episode miniseries, was named as such because Holms famously dropped out of Stanford University to pursue this company. The series follows Holmes from the time she begins forming the company to the bitter end, and all the drama that occurs in between and after. Based on the ABC audio podcast of the same name, the series earned six Emmy nominations, Seyfried winning for her depiction of the deep-voiced convicted fraudster.
Collider Exclusive · Taylor Sheridan Universe Quiz
Which Taylor Sheridan
Show Do You Belong In?
Yellowstone · Landman · Tulsa King · Mayor of Kingstown
Four worlds. All of them brutal, complicated, and built on power, loyalty, and the price of survival. Taylor Sheridan doesn't write heroes — he writes people who do what they have to do and live with the cost. Ten questions will reveal which one of his worlds you were made for.
🤠Yellowstone
🛢️Landman
👑Tulsa King
⚖️Mayor of Kingstown
FIND YOUR WORLD →
01
Where does your power come from? In Sheridan's world, everyone has leverage. The question is what kind.
ALand, legacy, and a name that's been feared and respected for generations. BKnowing the deal better than anyone else in the room — and being willing to walk away first. CReputation. I've earned it the hard way, and everyone in the room knows it. DBeing the only person both sides will talk to. That makes me indispensable — and dangerous.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
Who do you put first, no matter what? Loyalty in Sheridan's universe is always absolute — and always costly.
AFamily — blood or chosen. The ranch, the name, the people who carry it with me. BThe company — or whoever's signing the cheques. Loyalty follows the contract. CMy crew. The men who stood with me when it counted — I don't abandon them for anything. DMy community — even when my community is a powder keg and I'm the only thing stopping it from blowing.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Someone crosses a line. How do you respond? Every Sheridan protagonist has a line. What matters is what happens after it's crossed.
AQuietly, decisively, and in a way that sends a message to everyone watching. BI outmanoeuvre them legally, financially, and politically before they even know I've moved. CDirectly. Old school. You cross me, you hear about it to your face — and then you deal with the consequences. DI absorb it, calculate the fallout, and find the move that keeps the whole system from collapsing.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
Where do you feel most in your element? Sheridan's worlds are as much about place as they are about people.
AWide open land — mountains, sky, silence. Somewhere you can see trouble coming from a mile away. BThe oil fields of West Texas — brutal, lucrative, and indifferent to whoever happens to be standing on top of them. CA mid-size city where the rules haven't quite caught up yet — fertile ground for someone with vision and nerve. DA rust-belt town built around a prison — where everyone's life is shaped by what's inside those walls.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
How do you feel about operating in the grey? Nobody in a Sheridan show has clean hands. The question is how they carry the dirt.
AI do what has to be done to protect what's mine. I'll answer for it eventually — but not today. BGrey is just business. The line moves depending on what's at stake, and I move with it. CI have a code — it's not the law's code, but it's mine, and I don't break it. DI've made peace with it. Keeping the peace requires compromises most people don't have the stomach for.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
What are you actually fighting to hold onto? Every Sheridan character is fighting a war. The real question is what they're defending.
AA way of life that the modern world is doing everything it can to erase. BMy position — and the leverage that comes with being the person everyone needs to close a deal. CRelevance. I've been away, I've been written off — and I'm proving that was a mistake. DWhatever fragile order I've managed to build — because without it, everything burns.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
How do you lead? Authority in Sheridan's world is never given — it's established, maintained, and constantly tested.
ABy example and force of will. People follow me because they believe in what I'm protecting — and because they know what happens if they don't. BThrough negotiation and leverage. I don't need people to like me — I need them to need me. CBy being the smartest, most experienced person in the room and making sure everyone quietly knows it. DBy being the calm centre of a situation that would spiral without me — and accepting that nobody thanks you for it.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
Someone new arrives and tries to change how things work. Your reaction? Every Sheridan show has an outsider disrupting an established order. Sometimes that outsider is you.
AThey'll learn. Or they won't. Either way, the land was here before them and it'll be here after. BI figure out what they want, what they're worth, and whether they're an asset or a problem — fast. CI was the outsider once. I give them a chance — one — to show they understand respect. DNew players destabilise everything I've built. I assess the threat and manage it before it manages me.
NEXT QUESTION →
09
What has your position cost you? Nobody gets to where these characters are without paying for it. The bill is always personal.
AMy family's peace — maybe their innocence. The ranch demands everything, and I've let it take too much. BRelationships, time, any version of a normal life. The job eats everything that isn't nailed down. CYears. Decades in some cases. Time I can't get back — but I'm not done yet. DMy conscience, mostly. And the ability to ever fully trust anyone on either side of the wall.
NEXT QUESTION →
10
When it's over, what do you want people to say? Sheridan's characters all know the ending is coming. The question is what they leave behind.
AThat I held the line. That the land is still ours and everything I did was worth it. BThat I was the best at what I did and that no deal ever got closed without me at the table. CThat I built something real, somewhere nobody expected it, and I did it on my own terms. DThat I kept the peace when nobody else could — and that the town is still standing because of it.
REVEAL MY SHOW →
Sheridan Has Spoken You Belong In…
The show that claimed the most of your answers is the world you were built for. If two tied, both are shown — you're complicated enough to straddle two Sheridan universes.
🤠 Yellowstone
🛢️ Landman
👑 Tulsa King
⚖️ Mayor of Kingstown
You are a Dutton — or you might as well be. You understand that some things are worth protecting at any cost, and that the modern world's indifference to history, to land, to legacy, is not something you're willing to accept quietly. You lead from the front, you carry your family's weight without complaint, and when someone threatens what's yours, you don't escalate — you finish it. You're not cruel. But you are absolute. In Yellowstone's world, that combination of ferocity and loyalty doesn't make you a villain. It makes you the only thing standing between everything that matters and everyone who wants to take it.
You thrive in the chaos of high-stakes negotiation, where the money is enormous, the margins are thin, and the wrong word in the wrong room can cost everyone everything. You're a fixer — the person called when a situation is already on fire and needs someone with the nerve to walk into it. West Texas oil country rewards exactly what you are: sharp, adaptable, unsentimental, and absolutely clear-eyed about what people want and what they'll do to get it. You're not naive enough to think this world is fair. You're smart enough to be the one deciding who it's fair to.
You are a Dwight Manfredi — someone who has served their time, paid their dues, and arrived somewhere unexpected with nothing but their reputation and their wits. You adapt without losing yourself. You build loyalty through respect rather than fear, though you're not above reminding people that the two aren't mutually exclusive. Tulsa King is for people who are still standing when everyone assumed they'd be finished — who find, in an unfamiliar place, that they're more capable than the world gave them credit for. You don't need a throne. You build one, wherever you happen to land.
You carry the weight of a system that is broken by design, and you do it anyway — because someone has to, and because you're the only one positioned to do it without the whole thing collapsing. Mike McLusky's world is for people who are comfortable operating where there are no good options, only less catastrophic ones. You speak every language: law enforcement, criminal, political, human. That fluency makes you invaluable and it makes you a target. You've made your peace with both. Mayor of Kingstown belongs to people who understand that keeping the peace is not the same as being at peace — and who do the job regardless.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
'Little Fires Everywhere' (2020)
Image via HuluSix years later, a lot of fans have already forgotten about Little Fires Everywhere. But the screen adaptation of the Celeste Ng novel of the same name is a gripping eight episodes that touches on motherhood, race, identity, and social class. Elena (Reese Witherspoon) is a journalist, landlady, and mother whose life intertwines with that of Mia (Kerry Washington), an artist, part-time waitress, and mother.
The situation eventually becomes dangerously tense as the very different lives of these two women reveal dark secrets of different kinds. It's a terrifying look at motherhood and the façade that is sometimes put on versus what happens behind closed doors. The show starts slowly but builds and builds to a blazing crescendo in the final episode that will make you stop, think, and question everything. Little Fires Everywhere is a 10/10 Hulu show that no one remembers today.
'Normal People' (2020)
Image via HuluLooking to sink your teeth into a romantic drama? Normal People is technically a British limited series that first aired on BBC Three but was made available in the U.S. through Hulu. Based on the Sally Rooney novel of the same name, it's about Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Connell (Paul Mescal), two secondary school then university students who fall in love.
The twist is a trope that has been done time and time again: there's a major class disparity. Connell's mother works as a cleaner for Marianne's affluent mother. Yet Marianne is a social outcast and Connell is a popular student with anxiety. There are so many elements that suggest this relationship won't work, but love is love. That said, it isn't easy. You go on a wonderful journey with the pair and all the trials and tribulations of their relationship through the 12-episode season.
'11.22.63' (2016)
Image via HuluYes, it's a weird title for a show, and, of course, as expected, it's a sci-fi gem. Does the date sound familiar? 11.22.63 is based on Stephen King's novel and depicts Jake (James Franco), a divorced teacher who is given the chance to go back in time in hopes of stopping the assassination of John F. Kennedy. But when he arrives, he gets caught up in this past life he creates as a cover and finds it challenging to balance it with the need to get the information he needs to stop the tragic murder.
With just eight episodes, 11.22.63 is a quick binge that will keep you invested all the way through. The performances and supernatural elements combined with moments of history make for a unique show. Collider's Allison Keene praises the "tantalizing" aesthetics of the show and Franco's charming performance, noting that he "shines" in the role.
'The Act' (2019)
Image Via HuluGaining renewed attention following Gypsy-Rose Blanchard's parole release in late 2023, The Act is a chilling re-telling of her story. Her mother Dee Dee, portrayed by Patricia Arquette, had been lying about her daughter Gypsy (played by Joey King) having various illnesses and disabilities. She has put her daughter through a life of treatments, procedures, and drugs she doesn't need, though it was likely due to a mental illness called Munchausen syndrome. Later, once Gypsy was a young adult, her boyfriend was charged with killing her mother, the belief being in the series that it was at Gypsy's request.
The entire story is devastating, a young child being put through such suffering and a woman meeting her end at the hands of murder. It sounds made-for-television, but knowing the biographical crime drama is based on a real-life story makes it even more emotionally powerful. Viewers loved the nuanced performances of the two leads that brought this story to life, even if there are inaccuracies compared to the true story.
'Looking for Alaska' (2019)
Image via HuluHulu is a master at delivering miniseries based on novels, and Looking for Alaska is another to add to the list. The teen drama is based on the John Green novel and follows Miles (Charlie Plummer), who enrolls at a school in Alabama in search of getting something more meaningful out of life. While there, he meets Chip (Denny Love), Alaska (Kristine Froseth), and Takumi (Jay Lee). Over time, he begins to form a greater understanding of life, love, and letting go.
The eight-episode criminally forgotten series received positive feedback for its acting, writing, soundtrack, and directing. While it isn't entirely faithful to the story in the book on which it's based, that's a good thing in this instance. It gives fans of the book a different perspective and plotlines to enjoy, while adapting the story from the pages into something that works better on screen.
'Under the Bridge' (2024)
In 1997, 14-year-old Reena Virk was beaten by a group of teenagers in Saanich, British Columbia, Canada, then murdered by two of them in one of the most tragic, heinous acts in the country's history. Under the Bridge is based on the book of the same name by Rebeca Godfrey, which itself was inspired by Reena's father's book Reena: A Father's Story.
The show tackles tough topics like bullying and race and reveals secrets of the young girls who killed the innocent young woman. There are messages of religion, faith, parenting, and school cliques, and the dangers of rebellion and getting caught up in the wrong crowds. As far as dramatic adaptations of true-crime stories go, Under the Bridge is one of the best yet most underrated ones you'll watch of late that highlights the depths of human cruelty.
Under the Bridge
Release Date 2024 - 2024-00-00
Showrunner Samir Mehta, Liz Tigelaar
English (US) ·