Hulu had some great TV shows in 2025, but there are a handful that ended up letting us down majorly!
Overall, 2025 was a good year for Hulu originals. They had critical acclaim with Dying For Sex, a monster hit with Paradise, and some smaller but good shows such as A Thousand Blows, along with The Bear improving in its fourth season. However, the streamer also offered up some series that looked good on paper, only to turn out hugely disappointing.
They had great actors wasted on bad scripts, failed to meet their potential and in at least one case, a series landing on every “worst of TV 2025” list. Here are five shows Hulu offered this year that were huge letdowns and proof that all the talent in the world can’t save a poor series.
1. All’s Fair
How does he do it? How does Ryan Murphy bring together some astounding casts and then stick them into such an awful show? It’s not like people were expecting award-worthy theater from this new legal dramedy, but they at least expected some campy fun. What they got was an utterly nonsensical series that tries to paint rich people in a sympathetic light alongside bizarre turns and character shifts.
No one acts like a real person (a woman's reaction to learning she won't get anything in a divorce is to throw herself off a balcony) and the story beats range from outrageous to predictable. The fact it's played mostly straight just makes it comedic, and not in a good way. The lack of self-awareness to its awfulness only adds to it.
The acting is all over the place. Kim Kardashian is shockingly flat and lacking charisma, only able to deliver lines in a single tone and expression, made worse by how she’s the main character. On the other end of the spectrum, Sarah Paulson is overacting every scene in embarrassing fashion. Naomi Watts, Glenn Close, and Niecy Nash try but are let down by the horrible scripts. It may be getting a second season, but it’s astounding this show got on the air in the first place.
2. Good American Family
It’s refreshing to see Ellen Pompeo in a role outside of Grey’s Anatomy. It’s too bad it had to be in this poor limited series based on the true story of an American family who adopts a Romanian orphan who they later claim is an adult. Like too many shows of this type, the series wasted too much time on padding the tale out with four episodes on the parents before shifting to the child Nadia’s point of view.
While the potential was there for a thriller mixing with tear-jerking drama, the series couldn't quite nail the tone right. It also waited too long to get at the truth of the tale and too many liberties with the actual events.
The series couldn’t balance the drama with the too-comedic aspects, strange musical choices and while there were good performances (such as Christina Hendricks), Pompeo, and Mark Duplass were miscast in their lead roles. It's further proof some stories are stretched out too much for streaming TV. The series never lived up to the actual tale, and while truth is stranger than fiction, fiction should at least be more entertaining.
3. Only Murders in the Building
It’s not that the fifth season of OMITB was bad. It just wasn’t nearly the fun that fans had expected from this mystery-comedy show. The central mystery of who killed doorman Lester didn’t engage as past tales did and failed to spark, muddied by subplots involving billionaires and land deals. While Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez were still fun to watch, their characters were more caricatures this year than delving into real development.
The season took too many strange detours and the attempts to explore the backgrounds of Charles, Oliver and Mabel failed to make much impact. The banter and chemistry of the leads remained strong, but odd bits such as Paul Rudd voicing a robot were way too showy.
The fantastic guest cast of Tea Leoni, Renee Zellweger, Christoph Waltz, Meryl Streep and more seemed wasted in this messy tale. The show relied too much on fake-out episode endings and cliffhangers were instantly resolved the next week. It all came together for a rushed conclusion that felt unearned and lacked the fun of previous years. Hopefully, the next season heading to London gives the series a much-needed spark.
4. Chad Powers
The premise of Chad Powers isn’t bad: Glenn Powell as a disgraced football star who dons a disguise and joins a small college team to recapture his glory days. If this had been a 90-minute Netflix comedy, it’d be a fun watch. But dragging it out to six episodes is too much. An entire episode is just Powell running around town to find his missing mask and the concept is weaker with so many people failing to realize who he is.
It's a one-joke premise stretched way too far to be funny. Too many characters are clichés we've seen in scores of college-set TV shows, and it's a blatant attempt by Hulu to get their own Ted Lasso but forgot why that show worked.
The show can’t find the right balance between bawdy comedy and heartwarming, and the main character is far too unlikeable to get behind. The comedic lines are hit-and-miss and while Powell has amazing charisma, he seems limited in a TV role. It’s not helped that the first season is only six episodes, so the storyline has barely started. Perhaps the coming second season can see some improvement, but judged by its first year, Chad Powers falls far short of the goal line.
5. Nine Perfect Strangers
Some shows are simply not meant to have second seasons. Nine Perfect Strangers proves it, as after a rough yet entertaining year in 2021, it returned in 2025 as a complete mess. The absence of original writer David E. Kelly was felt as the series brought back Nicole Kidman as the mysterious Marsha, now running a “clinic” in the Bavarian Alps for rich folks with major issues (who lacked the star power of the first year).
From the beginning, the show appeared too much in love with its "daring" style and the lush setting. Sadly, a snowy mountain scape lodge lacked the appeal of the first season's tropical setting. The cold and frozen landscape enhanced how empty and unappealing this season was.
The psychedelic trips of the first season became rote and dull this year. There’s a flatness in both the writing and acting (Kidman emotes more in her AMC ads) and while there are twists, it lacks the sheer fun of the initial year. The only thing worse than being bad is being boring. Forget perfect, this season was barely watchable and a huge comedown from its inaugural season.