What makes a perfect show? Is it the chemistry between the cast? Does the script matter more than the director, or vice versa? Does the show have to be excellent from start to finish, or can it be flawless in spurts? In television, perfection is subjective, but some guides provide evidence for a show’s greatness.
One guide to judging a show’s effectiveness is through its Rotten Tomatoes score. While Rotten Tomatoes has its flaws, a 100% score is undeniable. Considering that several hundred new TV shows premiere each year, receiving a 100% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes is extremely impressive, even if you don’t like the show.
A select group of shows on Hulu have the rare distinction of a 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Here are the five best.
Shoresy
The comedy series Letterkenny focuses on small-town life in a rural Canadian community. One of the characters in the series is Shoresy (Jared Keeso), a foul-mouthed and dirty hockey player who loves to win and hates to lose. Shoresy never shows his face in Letterkenny, which is fitting, considering the character is the subject of his own spinoff show.
In Shoresy, the Sudbury Bulldogs are the worst team in a small Canadian hockey league. With the team in danger of being shut down, Shoresy bets with the general manager that if he can bring a new coach, players, and style of play, the team will never lose again. However, if the team does lose one game, Shoresy will allow the team to fold. The ensuing hijinks are hilarious. Shoresy has received comparisons to Slap Shot, which isn’t a bad thing. However, the Canadian series has enough humor and wittiness to stand on its own.
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The Defiant Ones
Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, two of music’s most influential figures of the last 50 years, rose to power from two different backgrounds. Dre, a West Coast-bred rapper and producer, first burst onto the scene with N.W.A. Iovine started as a New York City record producer and worked on records from Bruce Springsteen, U2, and Stevie Nicks. Dre and Iovine found success alone, but together, they became icons, and their partnership is the subject of the docuseries The Defiant Ones.
The four-part series chronicles Dre and Iovine’s career paths from the 1980s to their collaboration in the 1990s when the rapper signed with Iovine’s Interscope Records. The duo continued their joint success by discovering Eminem in the late 1990s, carrying over into the 2000s with Apple’s $3 billion acquisition of Dre and Iovine’s Beats Electronics. The Defiant Ones is a documentary catered to hardcore music fans. However, the universal themes of hard work, determination, and the price of success will resonate with all viewers.
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The Ashley Madison Affair
Ten to 15 years ago, if you wanted to have an affair, the place to find it was Ashley Madison. With the slogan, “Life is short. Have an affair,” Ashley Madison became the site for adulterers. The idea worked, with Ashley Madison registering millions of users in the 2000s. On the verge of a billion-dollar IPO in 2015, a group of hackers called “The Impact Team" threatened to release private information of the site’s users unless the creators shut it down.
The site continued, and one month later, The Impact Team delivered on their promise by releasing more than 60 gigabytes of company data. The Ashley Madison Affair dives into the famous hack, revealing notorious details about the company’s efforts to raise profits, including using bots to attract male customers. It’s an eye-opening look into the rise and fall of a site that champions immoral behavior.
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The Good Mothers
Most mafia movies and shows center on male gangsters and their rise within the criminal enterprise. The Good Mothers flips the script and revolves around mafioso women. Based on true events, The Good Mothers starts in 2010 with the disappearance of Lea Garofalo (Micaela Ramazzotti), who was working with her daughter Denise (Gaia Girace) and Italian authorities to bring down the 'Ndrangheta mafia in Calabria.
With Lea missing, Italian prosecutor Anna Colace (Barbara Chichiarelli) convinces two other mafia mothers to help build a case against the mafia: Giuseppina Pesce (Valentina Bellè) and Maria Concetta Cacciola (Simona Distefano). These women put their lives on the line to bring down the organization from the inside and create a better future for their children. Fans of the mafia programming will enjoy the grittiness and suspense of The Good Mothers.
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Stolen Youth: Inside the Cult at Sarah Lawrence
When reading about cults, most people react by wondering how someone could ever let themselves fall prey to manipulation. In Stolen Youth, Hulu’s docuseries about a cult at Sarah Lawrence College, the viewer quickly sees how a predator could convince a group of innocent college students to take part in his sex cult. In 2010, a group of Sarah Lawrence met Larry Ray, the father of one of the students who moved into the dorm rooms.
At first, Larry proved to be an asset, cooking dinner for the kids and guiding them through philosophical seminars. However, Larry’s “kindness” quickly became cruel as he forced the kids to partake in physical labor, supply him with money, and perform sexual acts on camera. Stolen Youth includes interviews with some of the victims, allowing them a platform to discuss what went wrong and how Larry brainwashed them into doing these brutal acts.
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