We may earn a commission from links on this page.
Credit: Hulu
The movies and television shows below are the best of what’s coming to Hulu this month—according to me. Because I’m an expert at watching things. This month, Hulu is streaming the premieres of Paradise, Going Dutch, and Goosebumps: The Vanishing—all new shows worth considering. There’s also underrated, recent scary movies Sleep and Stopmotion, if horror is your thing. That’s not all, of course; read on for all the best and most notable shows and movies coming to Hulu in January.
Going Dutch
In this clash-of-military-cultures comedy series from Fox, Denis Leary stars as Patrick Quinn, an outspoken, by-the-books colonel banished to a chaotic, unimportant military base in the Netherlands and asked to bring discipline back to the installation. The show also stars Danny Pudi as Quinn’s righthand man and Taylor Misiak as his estranged daughter. If you’re looking for an update of Gomer Pyle, USMC, this might be the show for you.
Starts streaming January 3.
Paradise
In this political thriller series, Sterling K. Brown plays Xavier Collins, a Secret Service agent suspected of assassinating the President of the United States. In an effort to clear his name, Collins delves into the shadowy web of secrets and conspiracies underneath the surface of the idyllic communities where the nation’s most powerful people live. Paradise was created by This is Us creator San Fogelman; its cast includes Nicole Brydon Bloom, Aliyah Mastin and Percy Daggs IV.
Starts streaming January 28.
Goosebumps: The Vanishing
This horror series stars Friends’ David Schwimmer as Anthony, a divorced dad hosting his twin teenage children Devin and Cece for the summer at his Brooklyn home. Anthony only has one rule: Stay out of the basement—like that’s going to happen. The mystery under their feet leads the twins and their friends to dark secrets connected to the disappearance of four teenagers in the 1990s and a supernatural entity of immense power.
Starts streaming January 10.
Sleep (2023)
Korean psychological thriller Sleep balances nuanced characters with a slow-burn ghost story about the world we inhabit while we dream. Jung Yu-mi and Lee Sun-kyun play Soo-jin and Hyun-su, a married couple with a baby on the way whose seemingly tranquil domestic lives are shattered when Hyun-su starts talking in his sleep, saying “Someone’s inside.” Spooky!
Starts streaming January 21.
Stopmotion (2023)
A tortured artist whose most disturbing creations become real isn’t the most original plot in horror movie history, but if it ain’t broke, why fix it? The art in this case is stop-motion animation, the creepiest kind of animation, and the creation that comes to life, The Ash Man, is a stop motion figure made of raw steak and roadkill, so it’s going to get grisly. Stopmotion was written and directed by acclaimed stop motion animator Robert Morgan, so the details are spot-on.
Starts streaming January 7.
Paddington (2014)
Universally admired family flick Paddington proves that CGI characters can be lovable and memorable and that children’s movies can be emotionally affecting without being mawkish and sentimental. Nailing the tone in a movie about a bear in a red hat in the modern world is a hell of a balancing act, but Paddington pulls it off without seeming to break a sweat. A true classic you should revisit.
Starts streaming January 1.
Sorry to Bother You (2018)
Rapper Boots Riley’s cinema debut is a fearless provocation that’s hilarious, surreal, and crammed with pointed social commentary. Atlanta’s Lakeith Stanfield plays Cassius “Cash” Green, a telemarketer who’s stuck in the boiler room until he learns to “talk white.” Cash’s new vocals (provided by a voiceover from comedian David Cross) opens up a new world of money and power that only costs your soul to enter.
Starts streaming January 1.
2024 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony
This year’s winners of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Musical Excellence Award were Jimmy Buffett and The MC5, and inductees included A Tribe Called Quest and Ozzy Osbourne, proving that the words “rock and roll” don’t describe anything. But whatever; it’s still cool to see performances like Cher and Dua Lipa’s duet of Cher’s “Believe,” The Roots backing up Robert “Kool” Bell for a medley of Kool and the Gang classics, and Demi Lovato and Slash playing classic rock from Foreigner.
Starts streaming January 2.
Shifting Gears
Tim Allen returns to TV with Shifting Gears, a throwback sitcom that’s rife with snappy wisecracks and a laugh track from a live studio audience. I didn’t think they made shows like this anymore. Allen plays Matt, the wisecracking owner of a classic car restoration shop. Kat Dennings plays his wisecracking, estranged daughter who moves back to Matt’s home with her wisecracking children in tow.
Starts streaming January 9.
Doc
The “doc” at the center of this medical series is Dr. Amy Larsen. Played by Molly Parker, Larsen is the chief of internal medicine at Minneapolis’s Westside Hospital. The twist that separates Doc from other doctor shows is that Larsen was in a traumatic car accident that wiped her memory of the last eight years. She’s still a good doctor, though, and continues treating patients while trying to piece her lost years back together. It’s an intriguing concept, and medical shows are TV staples for a reason, so this one deserves a watch.
Starts streaming January 8.
Scamanda
Amanda Riley was a charismatic young mother who told everyone she had cancer. Her community and church rallied around her, she raised a ton of money, both in real life and online, and she inspired many with her blog about her illness. Except it doesn’t seem Amanda ever actually had cancer. This docu-series tells “Scamanda’s” story through interviews with victims and footage of Scamanda, whose commitment to her scheme for over 10 years included faking medical photos and documents, shaving her head, and more.
Starts streaming January 31.
Last month’s picks
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew
This live-action series set in the Star Wars universe stars Jude Law, Ravi Cabot-Conyers, and Ryan Kiera Armstrong. It follows the adventures of four children who are lost in space and meet strange aliens and have wild adventures on the quest to find their way home. “Star Wars, but with little kids” sounds like a terrible idea, but the show has earned overwhelming approval from critics who praise its whizz-bang action and lighthearted tone. It’s the kind of show both kids and their parents will get very into.
Starts streaming December 3.
A Sudden Case of Christmas
Danny Devito, Andie MacDowell, and Wilmer Valderrama stars in this holiday trifle set in The Dolomites, Italy. In it, a young girl named Claire, played by Antonella Rose, learns that her parents are splitting up. But she wants one last Christmas together with the family, and even though it’s August, everyone agrees. Hulu describes this original Christmas flick as a “fun, warm, touching family comedy,” and I won’t argue.
Starts streaming December 13.
My Feet Are Killing Me, Seasons 1-2
I didn’t know there was a show called My Feet Are Killing Me until this morning when I learned that two full seasons will be streaming on Hulu this month. The reality show covers a pair of podiatrists who take on the most messed-up feet on earth. If you like medical show and you want to see huge toes, weird growths, and all kinds of foot-related medical grotesquery, this show is for you.
Starts streaming December 3.
Sugarcane
This critically acclaimed documentary from National Geographic aims to uncover what happened at St. Joseph’s mission, a Catholic native residential school in Canada. Evidence of unmarked graves was found on the grounds in 2021, leading to an investigation that uncovered long-buried secrets and revealed the troubling history of Canada’s boarding schools for Native people.
Starts streaming December 10.
Blink
Directed by Oscar winners Edmund Stenson and Daniel Roher, Blink is a family-friendly documentary about the Lemay-Pelletier family of Montreal. After three of their four children are diagnosed with incurable, degenerative eye disease retinitis pigmentosa, their parents take them on a trip around the world to see the most beautiful and majestic things on earth before their vision disappears forever.
Starts streaming December 17.