The long, hot days of August are upon us, and what better way to make the heat go away than with the time-honored tradition of curling up in front of your computer, mobile device, or TV like some sort of sentient plant? If you agree, here are three Hulu shows to check out this month.
Kindred
Kindred, the television adaptation of Octavia Butler’s classic novel pulls no punches when it comes to showing the viewers exactly how much things sucked in the past. Modern-day author and Black woman Dana James (Mallori Johnson) is living a normal life – until the day she finds herself uncontrollably sucked back into the past. Specifically, the Antebellum South.
Now, Dana must struggle to survive in a world of slavery, violence, and hate, a world where the color of her very skin makes her a target.
Superstore
If you needed a tone change after Kindred, we’ve got one for you. We’re going from a skin-crawlingly realistic depiction of the hell that was slavery and all its attendant horrors to Superstore, a wacky sitcom about employees in a big-box store.
The ensemble cast includes Honduran-American associate manager and single mother Amy Sosa (America Ferrera), business school dropout and Amy’s sort-of love interest Jonah Simms (Ben Feldman), undocumented immigrant Mateo Liwanag (Nico Santos), tyrannical store manager Dina Fox (Lauren Ash), pregnant (initially) teenager Cheyenne Lee (Nichole Sakura), and acerbic store announcer Garrett McNeill (Colton Dunn). Together, they experience all the tribulations – and hilarity – that come from working in American customer service.
Schitt’s Creek
Sill in the mood for sitcoms? We’ve got you covered. Schitt’s Creek is a hilarious story that answers the age-old question: what happens when the powerful lose their power?
After their video-store empire collapses (something all too real to former video-store owners), mogul Johnny Rose (Eugene Levy), his wife and former soap opera actress Moira (Catherine O’Hara), and his two children, son David (played by Eugene Levy’s real-life son Daniel) and daughter Alexis (Annie Murphy) are forced to move into the tiny town of Schitt’s Creek (and yes, it’s pronounced exactly the way you think it is), which they once bought as a joke.
Forced into a dingy, run-down motel, the Rose family must find a way to adapt to their drastically-changed living conditions—and get along with their new neighbors. Will they find a way to digest their big helping of humble pie? Only time will tell…
Each of these shows is streaming now on Hulu.