Which Hulu Shows Made “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century”?

Find your next watch with quick show summaries and streaming links, updated throughout The New York Times’s 5-day reveal

Discover the 41 confirmed picks available to stream on Hulu from The New York Times’s “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century.” We’ve added each selected pick available on Hulu, so read on to see which shows were selected, where they rank, and how to watch.

About The New York Times’s “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century”

The New York Times’s “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century” was chosen by hundreds of stars, showrunners, and industry insiders. Beginning September 21st, and over the course of five days, The New York Times announced 20 shows each day until all 100 had been revealed.

We’re highlighting shows available to stream on Hulu, but you can see all 100 selections in The New York Times’s complete coverage.

Picks From “The 100 Best TV Shows of the 21st Century” On Hulu

Find out if any of your favorite Hulu shows have made the list and perhaps discover a new show to obsess over.

The Wire

Ranking: 2nd

HBO presents this gripping and totally unvarnished drama series that chronicles the vagaries of crime and law enforcement in Baltimore.

Watch: The Wire*

*The Wire is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Mad Men

Ranking: 3rd

In 1960s New York City, in the glamorous, high-powered Golden Age of advertising, enigmatic ad man Don Draper fights to stay a step ahead of the rapidly changing times and the young executives nipping at his heels at one of Madison Avenue's most prestigious agencies.

Watch: Mad Men*

*Mad Men is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Succession

Ranking: 4th

When a media tycoon considers retirement, each of his four grown children begins angling for their piece of the pie in this series.

Watch: Succession*

*Succession is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Game of Thrones

Ranking: 6th

The epic HBO drama series based on the acclaimed book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George R.R. Martin.

Watch: Game of Thrones*

*Game of Thrones is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Veep

Ranking: 7th

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the Vice President of the United States in this hilarious HBO comedy series.

Watch: Veep*

*Veep is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

30 Rock

Ranking: 8th

The life of the head writer at a late-night television variety show. From the creator and stars of SNL comes this workplace comedy. A brash network executive bullies head writer Liz Lemon into hiring an unstable movie star. A self-obsessed celeb, an arrogant boss, and a sensitive writing staff challenge Lemon to run a successful program without losing her mind.

Watch: 30 Rock

Curb Your Enthusiasm

Ranking: 9th

Larry David stars as himself in this comedy series that follows him as he lands himself in various predicaments.

Watch: Curb Your Enthusiasm*

*Curb Your Enthusiasm is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

FX’s Atlanta

Ranking: 10th

FX’s Atlanta revolves around Earnest "Earn" Marks (Glover), a loner who returns to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia (The Peach State) after dropping out of Princeton. Upon his arrival, he discovers his cousin Alfred has become Atlanta's hottest new rap act. The show follows the cousins on their way up through the Atlanta rap scene, where their opposing views on art, commerce, success, and race will make their quest anything but easy. Earn is extremely smart, observant, and lost. As a disillusioned millennial, he struggles to find his calling or "brand" and feels that the game of life is fixed so that he can never win. He recognizes that Alfred’s overnight YouTube popularity has the potential to become a life changing opportunity for them both - if he can rein in his cousin's "act first, think later" attitude and get used to his drug-addled, possibly psychic (but definitely odd) sidekick Darius. As Alfred’s manager, Earn may finally find something to which it’s worth committing his energies.

Watch: FX’s Atlanta

Girls

Ranking: 13th

A young woman and her three friends struggle through their post-collegiate years in NYC in this coming-of-age comedy series.

Watch: Girls*

*Girls is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Six Feet Under

Ranking: 15th

The award-winning HBO drama series that takes a darkly comic look at a dysfunctional L.A. family that runs a funeral business.

Watch: Six Feet Under*

*Six Feet Under is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

The Office (U.K.)

Ranking: 16th

The genre-defining mockumentary from Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, following the insufferable David Brent as he "manages" his team at an unglamorous paper company.

Watch: The Office (U.K.)

FX’s The Americans

Ranking: 17th

FX’s original drama The Americans stars Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys as undercover Soviet spies in the U.S. during the Cold War in the late ‘80s.

Watch: FX’s The Americans

I May Destroy You

Ranking: 18th

After being sexually assaulted in a nightclub, Arabella's life changes irreversibly, and she is forced to reassess everything, including her career, friends, and family.

Watch: I May Destroy You*

*I May Destroy You is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Chernobyl

Ranking: 19th

Starring Jared Harris, Stellan Skarsgard, and Emily Watson, Chernobyl tells the story of the 1986 nuclear accident in this HBO Miniseries.

Watch: Chernobyl*

*Chernobyl is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

The White Lotus

Ranking: 21st

A social satire set at a tropical resort, this limited series follows various guests and employees over one highly transformative week. Checking into the luxurious White Lotus are a group of vacationers who run roughshod over the manager and head of spa services. As darker dynamics emerge, the truths of the travelers, employees, and even the idyllic locale itself are revealed.

Watch: The White Lotus*

*The White Lotus is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Lost

Ranking: 22nd

When Oceanic Air flight 815 crashes on a Pacific island, its survivors fight for their lives. They discover the island's secrets, find signs of those who came before them, and uncover mysterious bunkers. The survivors are diverse: a doctor, an escaped fugitive, a con man, an Iraqi interrogator, a Korean couple, an obese lottery winner, and a man cured of his paraplegia by the island. They must work together if they want to stay alive. But as they discover during their time on the island, danger and mystery loom behind every corner, and those they thought could be trusted may turn against them. Even heroes have secrets.

Watch: Lost

Band of Brothers

Ranking: 28th

This landmark ten-part HBO miniseries recounts the remarkable achievements of an elite team of U.S. paratroopers in World War II.

Watch: Band of Brothers*

*Band of Brothers is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Survivor

Ranking: 31st

Sixteen castaways sign up to be marooned on a tropical island in the ultimate battle for survival and a $1 million prize.

Watch: Survivor

Schitt’s Creek

Ranking: 34th

When filthy rich video store magnate Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy), wife Moira (Catherine O'Hara), and their kids, David (Dan Levy) and Alexis (Annie Murphy) suddenly find themselves broke, they are forced to live in the town they once bought as a joke.

Watch: Schitt’s Creek

The Pitt

Ranking: 36th

Still reeling from the effects of the pandemic and the loss of his beloved mentor, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (executive producer Noah Wyle) welcomes a fresh batch of med students and interns to the understaffed and overcrowded emergency department at Pittsburgh’s Trauma Medical Center, affectionately referred to as The Pitt. Joining a diverse staff of residents, surgeons, nurses, and EMTs, the newcomers soon learn the highs and lows of emergency medicine – all while Robby contends with a hospital administration intent on cutting costs. Realistic and resonant, each episode of The Pitt tackles one hour of the staff’s shift, providing a visceral look at the challenges facing healthcare workers in today’s America as seen through the lens of the frontline heroes working around the clock to save lives.

Watch: The Pitt*

*The Pitt is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

Homeland

Ranking: 38th

An American soldier who was presumed killed in Iraq returns 8 years after he went missing. But after the joy of his homecoming dies down, suspicions arise as to whether he was really an American hero or if he was part of a sleeper cell planning a terrorist attack.

Watch: Homeland

Broad City

Ranking: 46th

A bottle of wine tastes just as good when you pay for it with all pennies. That's a fact. And no matter what the city throws at twenty-somethings Abbi and Ilana, these broads are all in. Catch the totally fresh series based on the acclaimed digital shorts.

Watch: Broad City

Normal People

Ranking: 49th

Emmy® Nominated Based on Sally Rooney’s best-selling novel, Normal People is an exquisite, modern love story about how one person can unexpectedly change another person's life and about how complicated intimacy can be. It follows Marianne and Connell over several years, both from a small west of Ireland town, but from very different backgrounds, as they embark on an on-again/off-again romance that starts at school and continues through college, testing their relationship as they explore different versions of themselves.

Watch: Normal People

The Good Place

Ranking: 51st

From Michael Schur, executive producer of Brooklyn Nine-Nine  and Parks and Recreation comes a smart, unique new comedy that follows Eleanor Shellstrop, an ordinary woman who, through an extraordinary string of events, enters the afterlife where she comes to realize that she hasn't been a very good person.

Watch: The Good Place

PEN15

Ranking: 59th

PEN15 is middle school as it really happened. Maya Erskine and Anna Konkle star in this adult comedy, playing versions of themselves as thirteen-year-old outcasts in the year 2000, surrounded by actual thirteen-year-olds, where the best day of your life can turn into your worst with the stroke of a gel pen.

Watch: PEN15

Peep Show

Ranking: 60th

Welcome to the private world of two very ordinary weirdos. Peep Show is a British narrative comedy series seen through the eyes of the core characters.

Watch: Peep Show

Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown

Ranking: 64th

Anthony Bourdain travels the world uncovering lesser known places and exploring cultures and cuisine.

Watch: Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown*

*Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is available on Hulu with an HBO Max® add-on subscription.

The Handmaid’s Tale

Ranking: 67th

Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized “return to traditional values.” As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids, where anyone could be a spy for Gilead, all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.

Watch: The Handmaid’s Tale

Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

Ranking: 69th

Best-selling author and culinary adventurer Anthony Bourdain uncovers the best cuisine around the world. At each location, Tony dives headfirst into life's colorful and rich pageant, bringing his intellectual curiosity, empathy, wit and boundless appetite.

Watch: Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations

FX’s The Shield

Ranking: 70th

Breaking the conventional formula of the cop genre, FX’s The Shield plays out in a tough, morally ambiguous world in which the line between good and bad is crossed every day. It focuses on the tension between a group of corrupt but effective cops led by Detective Vic Mackey, a captain with the burden of bringing them down as well as reducing crime in her district, and a City Councilman out for his own political gain.

Watch: FX’s The Shield

FX’s The Bear

Ranking: 74th

FX’s comedy series The Bear is about food, family, the insanity of the grind, the beauty of Sense of Urgency and the steep slippery downsides. As the young chef Carmy fights to transform both The Original Beef of Chicagoland and himself, he works alongside a rough-around-the-edges kitchen crew that ultimately reveal themselves as his chosen family.

Watch: FX’s The Bear

Modern Family

Ranking: 77th

Today's American families come in all shapes and sizes. The cookie cutter mold is a thing of the past, as it becomes quickly apparent in the bird's eye view of ABC's half-hour comedy, which takes an honest and often hilarious look at the composition and complexity of modern family life.

Watch: Modern Family

FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

Ranking: 78th

FX's It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia features Mac, Dennis, Charlie, Sweet Dee, and Frank, five ne’er-do-wells who own and operate Paddy’s Pub in Philadelphia. Their constant scheming usually lands them in a world of hurt, yet they never seem to learn from their mistakes. As they say, some things never change. So prepare for more depraved schemes, half-baked arguments, and absurdly underhanded plots to subvert one another.

Watch: FX’s It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

FX’s Better Things

Ranking: 82nd

FX's Better Things centers on Sam Fox (Pamela Adlon), a single, working actor with no filter raising her three daughters, Max (Mikey Madison), Frankie (Hannah Alligood) and Duke (Olivia Edward) in Los Angeles. She’s mom, dad, referee and the cops. Sam also watches out for her mother, Phil (Celia Imrie), an English expatriate, who lives across the street. Sam is flawed and fierce with her love for her daughters, and her own mother as well, sometimes heaping the love on when she feels guilty. Sam’s just trying to earn a living, navigate her daughters’ lives, have fun with a friend or two and also,  just maybe,  squeeze in some private time once in a while.

Watch: FX’s Better Things

FX’s Justified

Ranking: 83rd

At the explosive center of the action, Western-style, gun-slinging U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens confronts murder, drugs, bank heists, mobsters, crime families, corrupt politicians, and even his own tumultuous past – and never backs down. His ultimate adversary is the cunning, complex outlaw Boyd Crowder, but the real wild card is Ava Crowder, the mysterious woman torn between the two men and both sides of the law. From creator Graham Yost and based on legendary author Elmore Leonard’s crime novella “Fire in the Hole,” it all leads to a perfectly unexpected final showdown.

Watch: FX’s Justified

FX’s Shōgun

Ranking: 86th

An original adaptation of James Clavell’s novel, FX’s Shōgun is set in Japan in the year 1600 at the dawn of a century-defining civil war. Lord Yoshii Toranaga is fighting for his life as his enemies on the Council of Regents unite against him. When a mysterious European ship is found marooned in a nearby fishing village, its English pilot, John Blackthorne, comes bearing secrets that could help Toranaga tip the scales of power and devastate the formidable influence of Blackthorne’s own enemies, the Jesuit priests and Portuguese merchants. Toranaga’s and Blackthorne’s fates become inextricably tied to their translator, Toda Mariko, a mysterious Christian noblewoman and the last of a disgraced line. While serving her lord amidst this fraught political landscape, Mariko must reconcile her newfound companionship with Blackthorne, her commitment to the faith that saved her, and her duty to her late father.

Watch: FX’s Shōgun

FX’s Reservation Dogs

Ranking: 87th

From Sterlin Harjo and Taika Waititi, FX's Reservation Dogs is a half-hour comedy that follows the exploits of four Indigenous teenagers in rural Oklahoma. Filmed on location in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, the series is a breakthrough in Indigenous representation on television both in front of and behind the camera. Every writer, director, and series regular on the show is Indigenous. This first-of-its-kind creative team tells a story that resonates with them and their lived experiences, and invites audiences into a surprisingly familiar and funny world.

Watch: FX’s Reservation Dogs

House

Ranking: 95th

Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie) is devoid of anything resembling bedside manner and wouldn't even talk to his patients if he could get away with it. Dealing with his own constant physical pain, he uses a cane that seems to punctuate his acerbic, brutally honest demeanor. While his behavior can border on antisocial, House is a brilliant diagnostician whose unconventional thinking and flawless instincts afford him widespread respect. An infectious disease specialist, House thrives on the challenge of solving medical puzzles in order to save lives.  He has assembled an elite team of young experts to help him unravel these diagnostic mysteries: neurologist Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps); immunologist Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison); and intensevist Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer). House has a good friend and confidant in oncology specialist Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), with whom he consults with on a regular basis.

Watch: House

Community

Ranking: 97th

Disbarred lawyer Jeff Winger enrolls in a local community college. While there, he forms a study group who eventually learn more about themselves than their course work.

Watch: Community

Gilmore Girls

Ranking: 99th

Welcome to Stars Hollow, Connecticut, a charming, small, and slightly off-center town known for green lawns, clapboard houses, and enough quirky characters to fill every hayride, parade, and picnic for miles. It's here that we meet headstrong 32-year-old Lorelai Gilmore, who carves out a comfortable, warm, caffeine-filled life for herself and her equally willful teenage daughter, Rory. But when Rory's attention turns from dreams of private school and Harvard to thoughts of boys and adolescent self-reliance, single mom Lorelai begins noticing more of her own rebellious youth, only 16 years ago, in Rory.

Watch: Gilmore Girls

Scandal

Ranking: 100th

A former media relations consultant to the President, Olivia Pope (Kerry Washington) dedicates her life to protecting and defending the public images of our nation's elite. After leaving the White House, the power consultant opened her own firm, hoping to start a new chapter, both professionally and personally, but she can't seem to completely cut ties with her past. Slowly it becomes apparent that her staff, who specialize in fixing the lives of other people, can't quite fix the ones closest at hand -- their own.

Watch: Scandal