Hulu, a company that was founded by NBC Universal and News Corporation to let individuals watch previous episodes of television shows, is getting into the original programming business in a big way. Today the company announced it will stream 10 original or exclusive shows of its own this summer.
In a press release, Hulu revealed it will begin streaming the shows on June 4 on both Hulu and Hulu Plus. The first show to stream, Spoilers, will be a movie "revue" show hosted by filmmaker Kevin Smith, best known for the Clerks franchise. The full list of Hulu shows streaming this summer is as follows:
Spoilers (June 4): This multi-act film extravaganza mixes lively group chats, interviews with movie and pop culture icons and animated shorts. Each week, Kevin, special guests and movie lovers passionately sound off on the year's most anticipated summer blockbusters, gushing over their favorite scenes and debating the details frame by frame.
Up to Speed (August): This new travel series was created by filmmaker Richard Linklater ("Bernie," "Dazed and Confused") and represents his first foray into episodic TV storytelling. Each week "Up to Speed" follows tour guide, historian and flaneur Timothy "Speed" Levitch ("The Cruise") as he visits the monumentally-ignored monuments of America's cities, from the shoe gardens of San Francisco to the luckiest subway grate in New York City.
We Got Next (August): A raunchy, sarcastic and out-of-bounds half-hour show about a pick-up basketball team of four guys who should never have been friends in the first place. Each week, the guys' courtside banter consistently escalates into a run of terrible advice and poor decision-making.
Rev. (June 3): Meet The Rev. Adam Smallbone. From a sleepy, rural parish, the newly promoted vicar has moved to the busy, inner-city world of St. Saviour's in East London. It's a world in which he has little experience, and it shows. It really shows. "Rev." is a contemporary sitcom about the enormous daily frustrations and moral conflicts of an inner-city vicar.
The Yard (June 7): A bizarre juxtaposition of two rival cliques of elementary school children, where tension develops much like the quintessential crime-family thriller.
Derren Brown: Inside Your Mind (July 7): Derren Brown is a performer like none other in the world. He uses psychology, magic, showmanship and suggestion to achieve things that for anyone else would be impossible. In the U.K., he is multi-award winning performer and has done a variety of huge and baffling stunts including predicting the national lottery and playing Russian roulette on live TV.
The Booth at the End (July): Xander Berkeley, best known for his roles as "George Mason" in FOX's "24" and "Percy" in The CW's "Nikita," stars as an enigmatic man occupying the corner booth of a diner. He possesses the power to grant desires, contingent upon recipients performing mysterious tasks. This half-hour psychological thriller begs the question: "How far would you go to get what you want?"
Pramface (July 19): Jamie and Laura are two young, free and single teenagers who, after hooking up at a party, soon find they have a very big complication on their hands. Laura is pregnant. So even though they barely know each other, they now have one thing in common -- and it's getting bigger.
The Promise (August 11): A BAFTA-nominated, four-part political thriller and love story. The serial drama examines the origins of the Middle East conflict in events that took place under British rule sixty years ago. The bold and honest series cuts between the life of Erin, an 18-year old Londoner in present day Israel and Gaza, and that of her military grandfather who was part of the British peace-keeping force in Palestine at the end of the second World War.
Little Mosque (June 18): A light-hearted and comedic fish-out-of-water tale about a small Muslim community that rents the parish hall of a small town church to use as a mosque. The multi award-winning, half-hour series features a cast of both Muslims and non-Muslims in storylines that the New York Times says "explore the funny side of an often misunderstood life."
Additional information about Hulu's summer series can be seen in the aforementioned press release; clips of the shows can be seen here.
Hulu's original and exclusive content comes after rival Netflix has been making an original series push of its own. The Hulu rival recently began streaming the original series Lilyhammer, and will soon begin streaming the eagerly anticipated David Fincher and Kevin Spacey show.
Additionally, the streaming giant announced plans to revive the popular Arrested Development comedy show, starring Jason Bateman and Will Arnett, which is currently being planned by its creator, Mitchell Hurwitz.
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