The 10 Best Hulu Shows of 2022

You probably use Hulu to watch your favorite network shows, like Abbott Elementary — unless you use it to watch your favorite FX shows, like Atlanta — unless you use it to catch up on shows that ended years ago, like Lost. But hopefully you've also checked out this year's Hulu original shows and other Hulu exclusives, because they're worth your time.

TV Guide's list of the 20 best TV shows of 2022 features a pair of Hulu-exclusive shows — Reservation Dogs and The Bear — from the streaming partnership formerly known as FX on Hulu (FX-produced series that stream exclusively on Hulu without airing on cable first). Another, Fleishman Is in Trouble, made our list of the year's best episodes (alongside, yes, Reservation Dogs and The Bear), and actors from Hulu originals This Fool and The Girl From Plainville made our list of the year's best performances. (Catch The Bear on there, too.) Throw it back to our summer ranking of the 100 best shows on TV, and you can add Only Murders in the Building, Shoresy, and Under the Banner of Heaven to the list of Hulu shows that have impressed us lately.

Because it isn't really the end of 2022 until we've compiled even more lists, we've rounded up Hulu's 10 best shows of the year in one place. We stuck to shows that are exclusive to Hulu, which means FX-produced Hulu shows like Reservation Dogs and The Patient are fair game, but FX originals are not. Sorry, Atlanta and Better Things. We miss you. And while The Handmaid's Tale barely missed our list this year, we salute it for doing its thing.

More recommendations:

• The best shows on Hulu
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• The best shows of 2022
• The best episodes of 2022
• The best performances of 2022

Reservation Dogs

Reservation Dogs is the ideal show to kick back with — until it breaks you down. Sterlin Harjo's indie-style comedy about teens on the rez moves and feels like nothing else on television, punctuating its dry, low-key sense of humor with strong emotion and spiritual meditation. The FX-produced series was already great in Season 1, but in Season 2, it was exquisite: one of this year's very best shows. As the friend group fractured, Reservation Dogs delivered a series of short stories about the endless process of grief and growing up, led by warm performances from stars D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Devery Jacobs, Paulina Alexis, and Lane Factor. Every episode felt like a new high point. -Kelly Connolly

Fleishman Is in Trouble 

Based on Taffy Brodesser-Akner's 2019 novel of the same name, Fleishman Is in Trouble is a biting, slow-burning divorce dramedy about unreliable narrators, getting older, and the paths life takes us down. Jesse Eisenberg stars as Toby Fleishman, a recently divorced liver doctor whose new experimentation with the New York City dating scene is complicated when his ex-wife (Claire Danes) drops their two children off at his home without warning and promptly disappears. You might be tempted to believe you know where this story is headed, but we recommend sticking with it. It's funny, sad, and special. -Allison Picurro

Ramy 

Ramy, Ramy Youssef's semi-autobiographical dramedy, returned this year with a bold third season that proved it hadn't lost a step in its two years off the air. Ramy (played by Youssef) is still in a perpetual battle with himself, unable to find the balance between becoming what he believes to be a "good Muslim" and doing the things a lot of American twentysomethings do, like dating and partying. It's an insightful and heartfelt look at faith, family, and how being a dirtbag won't actually get you very far in life. -Allison Picurro 

The Bear

A true sleeper hit, The Bear took us all by surprise when it captured mass attention after arriving all at once on Hulu in the middle of the summer with minimal fanfare. But Christopher Storer's kitchen dramedy about a struggling sandwich restaurant called the Original Beef of Chicagoland is more than just fodder for horny tweets. It's difficult to think of many other shows that are able to so eloquently weave the internal war of ambition with the all-consuming process of grief in a way that feels honest, examining the ways emotions manifest differently in different people. Anchored by stellar performances from Jeremy Allen White (finally in the starring role he's long proved himself capable of), Ayo Edebiri (a standout), Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Lionel Boyce, The Bear is a frenetic, stressed-out, and unmissable portrait of humanity. -Allison Picurro 

This Fool

Comedian Chris Estrada plays a 30-year-old man who isn't in any rush to grow up; he still lives at home with his parents in South Central Los Angeles, he's more than happy to avoid any confrontation with the gang members in his neighborhood, and he works at a gang rehabilitation non-profit called Hugs Not Thugs with his streetwise cousin, Luis (Frankie Quiñones). Quiñones gives one of the best performances of the year as Luis, who straddles the line between wanting to stay hard for the streets and struggling to throw down because of his age (he can barely make a fight because he ate too many Bagel Bites). If that's not enough to pique your interest, the always welcome and incredibly funny Michael Imperioli appears as the program's founder. Matt Ingebretson, Patt Bishop, and Jake Weisman, the trio behind the cult hit Corporate, co-created the series with Estrada, and deliver a slick crossover in a mid-season episode. -Tim Surette

Under the Banner of Heaven

This FX-produced true crime adaptation is stacked with exceptional performers. The excellence starts with Andrew Garfield, who shows that he's the most open-hearted actor working today with his performance as Jeb Pyre, a detective whose Mormon faith is shaken while he investigates a horrifying double murder. It continues with Gil Birmingham as Bill Taba, an agnostic Native American detective and Pyre's partner; Daisy Edgar-Jones as a woman whose independence is a threat to the men in her husband's family; and a frightening Wyatt Russell and never-better Sam Worthington as Mormon brothers descending into violent fundamentalism. The limited series is a tense and powerful meditation on faith and truth. -Liam Mathews

Only Murders in the Building

Only Murders in the Building is the murder mystery New York deserves. The comedy-crime-farce hybrid took us all by surprise in Season 1 — who knew we needed a mystery this cozy? Who knew Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez would be this great together? Who knew Sting would be involved? The series returned for Season 2 with a slightly less cohesive mystery but an even sillier spoof of true crime obsessives and an even more impressive guest cast (Shirley MacLaine!). As long as Only Murders is anchored by its main trio's rapport, it can get away with anything. -Kelly Connolly

Shoresy

You'd think a spin-off of the cult Canadian comedy Letterkenny focused on its most despicable character — the one-dimensional dirty hockey bro Shoresy — would be little more than a showcase for more colorful "your mom" jokes, but creator Jared Keeso has crafted one of TV's best underdog sports comedies by diving deeper into what makes Shoresy tick. The guy hates to lose more than he likes to win, creating a vulnerable desperation to him as he puts together a team of misfits to keep his club from folding. By the end of the six-episode debut (fastest hockey season ever!) you'll feel the power of being part of a team and how sports can hold a community together. -Tim Surette

The Patient

The genius team behind The Americans, Joe Weisberg and Joe Fields, came back to TV this year as the genius team behind The Patient, an FX-produced psychological thriller miniseries starring Steve Carrell as a therapist who is taken hostage by a serial killer (Domhnall Gleeson), who wants to curb his homicidal urges through therapy. The first step toward not murdering people is admitting you have a problem. -Tim Surette

The Girl From Plainville

If you can stomach just one more dramatization of a true story, then save room for The Girl From Plainville. Hulu's take on Michelle Carter, the high schooler at the center of the 2014 "texting suicide" case that saw her boyfriend, Conrad Roy, kill himself after Carter texted him encouragement to do so, focuses the story on Carter and Roy rather than the sensationalism of the alleged crime. It's a more thoughtful take than other recent true-story series like The Dropout, Super Pumped, and WeCrashed, studying the possible mental health issues, depression, and teenage isolation that drove Carter (Elle Fanning) and Roy's (Colton Ryan) behaviors. Fanning and Ryan are fantastic as the star-crossed teen lovers, garnering sympathy out of something so tragic as their long-distance relationship unfolds, and the series avoids the big mistake others commit: Instead of making heroes out of its central characters, it makes them fully dimensional. -Tim Surette