Hulu Stealth Drops BBC Thriller 'Better'

Once upon a time, not all that long ago (about a decade, give or take), there weren't that many options for lovers of British television to pick from. Netflix was only just releasing its first original streaming series. Hulu was the way to watch American television shows you missed on broadcast legally; Amazon and Acorn TV had only recently started streaming their library of movies and TV shows that had previously only been for sale. For most of us, it was PBS or bust.

That all changed with Netflix's smashing success of House of Cards and its move in 2014 to import entire sections of the BBC library wholesale to help fill the gaping maw it had created. Amazon and Hulu quickly followed suit, Acorn TV was bought by AMC Networks, which also picked up BBC America, BritBox launched, and on and on. Nowadays, sites like Telly Visions work full time keeping it all straight for viewers of what is coming when and where, and whether it's worth watching.

However, it's not your imagination that keeping track of all this is not easy. Take today's news that Hulu has just premiered all five episodes of the BBC thriller series Better. Don't feel bad if you hadn't heard of it before; the show premiered in February 2023, just before Valentine's Day, as counter-programming the lovely dovey fare that usually dominates that weekend. Despite a stellar cast and comparisons to Happy Valley, it didn't make much of an impact on either iPlayer or BBC One.