Everybody loves a good medical drama, as the success of The Pitt shows. That’s why Grey’s Anatomy continues to sit atop the streaming charts.
It’s currently the ninth most-watched show on Hulu this past week and has remained in the top 10 since becoming the second most-streamed show in 2024. With over 20 seasons to stream, that’s a lot of red hot white coat action.
If you’ve already binged one of the best Hulu shows, or if you’re looking for something medical-themed but in a different way, there’s no shortage of medical-set shows to stream online: TV networks know they’re reliable ratings-grabbers, so they’ve been making them for decades.
That makes Hulu particularly good for ER-based adventures: its catalog of network TV shows is more packed than the waiting area of your local ER. And among those shows are three that are particularly likely to get your heart monitor beeping.
ER
I need to warn you about this one: if like me you watched ER back in the day, the sight of Robbie from The Pitt (Noah Wyle) as fresh-faced junior Dr Carter will make you feel older than Methuselah. The mid-90s show is very similar to The Pitt in its fast-paced action and ensemble cast, and it made a star of a young actor called George Clooney.
The show was highly rated by critics – season 2 got the full 100% rating – but it’s worth noting that while ER was pretty good in its portrayal of gay and lesbian characters, like other shows of the 90s its portrayal of trans and intersex characters is appalling.
House
What if Sherlock Holmes, but in a hospital? That’s the elevator pitch for House, in which cranky genius Dr Gregory House (Hugh Lawrie, an incredible bit of casting) solves medical mysteries.
Like ER its second season has the full 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating, and while it’s less impactful now its high production values and its use of a terribly flawed human – House is a misanthrope and a drug addict – as the hero made it stand out from the medical drama crowd.
9-1-1
With a 94% rating for its eighth season, 9-1-1 clearly doesn’t lose any of its momentum: it gets better as it goes along. It’s about first responders dealing with traumatic events, and watching Season 1 the Financial Times predicted that “it could yet turn out to be a classic of the lantern-jawed hero genre.”
Like many shows it can teeter on the edge of silliness and sometimes falls right into it, but that’s part of the appeal: as Paste Magazine put it, “this trashy show is spectacular [and] you must immediately begin watching this nonsense.”
