The Best Streaming Service Right Now in 2023 (If You Had to Pick Just One)

Which streaming service has the best programming in March if you only want to pay for one?

March 3, 2023

There’s a good chance that, if you’re in front of a screen this March, it’s going to be because you’re watching college basketball. But those student-athletes do, on occasion, have to take breaks to eat and sleep, and what are you supposed to do then? Read?!

If you’re cutting down on your expenses by cancelling ALMOST all your non-hoops streaming subscriptions, let us tell you the ONE you should keep for March: Hulu.

A quick note on our criteria: Since you may well pivot to different platforms each month, we prioritize series that you can watch in their entirety in the current month. And that just happens to be true of all Hulu’s original series premieres this month!

If you have a little extra cash from having fewer nights in February to go out, we also have a suggestion for a second streamer that’s worth the money in March; scroll down to see which and why.

Noteworthy Original Series

__History Of The World, Part II __(Mar 6)

In 1981, writer-director Mel Brooks released History Of The World, Part I, in which he retold significant historical events in the most ridiculous possible way. That film featured some of the most important comic actors of the day, including Harvey Korman, Cloris Leachman, Shecky Greene, Madeline Kahn. Forty-odd years later, the Part II promised by the first movie’s title has arrived, as an eight-episode series rolling out on four consecutive days, miniseries-style. Many of the performers in Brooks’s original repertory company have left us, but apparently today’s biggest comedy stars have been eager to work with him: the cast includes Sam Richardson, Pamela Adlon, Jason Mantzoukas, Sarah Silverman, Kumail Nanjiani, Jennifer Lewis, and many more.

__UnPrisoned __(Mar 6)

As a TV star, Kerry Washington has primarily stuck to drama, following her six years on Scandal with the tense miniseries Little Fires Everywhere. Since then, though, she’s gotten a little goofier in fare like the musical comedy The Prom, a guest performance on The Simpsons. Now, she’s headlining her first sitcom. In a story loosely based on the real life of Tracy McMillan, the novelist who also created the series, Washington plays Paige, a single mother who must make room in her life for her father Edwin (Delroy Lindo), who’s just been released from serving a prison term.

__Up Here __(Mar 24)

Husband-and-wife songwriting team Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez have won Oscars, Grammys, and an Emmy (to date) for their work in Coco, Frozen, and WandaVision (so yes, if you’ve ever had to endure a six-year-old’s rendition of “Let It Go,” you have the Lopezes to blame). When they aren’t writing for the screen, they’re making stage musicals, like Up Here, which has now been adapted as a musical rom-com series. In 1999 New York, Lindsay (Mae Whitman) meets Miguel (Carlos Valdes), but can they quiet the doubts in their heads long enough to find love with each other?

__RapCaviar Presents __(Mar 30)

RapCaviar started out as a wildly popular Spotify playlist, and is now conquering other media, starting with this docu-series, featuring artists like Jack Harlow, Roddy Ricch, and City Girls. In the show’s first clip, Tyler, The Creator and Pharrell Williams describe how each has influenced the other’s work; later episodes address current events from the perspective of artists pushing the industry forward.

Noteworthy Movies

__Triangle Of Sadness __(Mar 3)

Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) are models whose very active Instagram feeds get them invited on a private yacht trip with unimaginably wealthy plutocrats. Things don’t quite go as planned, causing a radical reversal of the power structures that everyone formerly took for granted. The film’s impressive run through award season has culminated in Oscar nominations for writer-director Ruben Östlund in both the screenplay and directing categories, as well as a nomination for Best Picture.

__Boston Strangler __(Mar 17)

With the titular serial killer on the loose, homicide detectives are pursuing the case with, perhaps, more urgency than care. Not so for journalist Loretta McLaughlin (Keira Knightley), who doubts the official story and risks her personal safety to uncover the truth. The cast also features Chris Cooper, Alessandro Nivola, and The Gilded Age’s newest money, Carrie Coon and Morgan Spector.

__Call Jane __(Mar 23)

Well before the Supreme Court decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June 24 led to an immediate rollback on U.S. abortion rights, filmmakers were addressing the issue in their work. Documentary feature The Janes, which premiered on HBO earlier in June, told the true story of the women who established an underground network for abortion access in pre-Roe Chicago. Director Phyllis Nagy released this scripted take on the organization in October; Elizabeth Banks stars as a housewife who gets involved following her own potentially dangerous pregnancy; Sigourney Weaver also appears as one of the titular Janes.

Titles Leaving In March

__Blade Runner: The Final Cut __(Mar 25)

Let’s be real: the truest fans of Blade Runner already own the Ultimate Collector’s Edition featuring all five versions of the film on Blu-ray. But slightly more casual fans can stream this version (also known as the 25th-Anniversary Edition) on Hulu until the end of the month—presumably with a second screen handy to keep track of every minute variation from previous cuts.

__Dante’s Peak __(Mar 31)

Volcanologist Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) hasn’t let himself love since falling debris from a volcanic eruption in Colombia killed his fiancée. But could all that change on his latest assignment? The USGS sends him to investigate worrying activity in the town of Dante’s Peak, Washington, which happens to have been built next to a dormant volcano. Harry has barely had time to meet mayor/single mother Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton) before that dormant volcano wakes up and causes havoc.

__Dear White People __(Mar 31)

Life isn’t always easy for Black students at Winchester University, a (fictional) majority-white Ivy League school. But Samantha “Sam” White (Tessa Thompson) gets through it, in part, by venting her grievances on Dear White People, her campus radio show. The film also introduces us to beleaguered freshman Lionel Higgins (Tyler James Williams); would-be reality diva Coco (Teyonah Parris), and aspiring comedy writer Troy (Brandon P. Bell). With such a rich cast of characters, it’s no wonder the film was later adapted as a dramedy series at Netflix.

__Heat __(Mar 31)

Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) is a skilled and disciplined thief…but he’s only as good as his crew, and when one new guy (Kevin Gage) kills a guard during a heist on an armored car, the LAPD—led by Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino)—starts closing in. Michael Mann wrote and directed this film, which is loaded with top-tier talent and generally regarded as one of the best crime dramas of the 20th century.

__The King Of Comedy __(Mar 31)

Though Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) is determined to launch a career as a standup comic in this film—director Martin Scorsese’s follow-up to Raging Bull—he is somewhat hampered by his lack of talent. When he meets comedian and talk show host Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis), Rupert convinces himself that the encounter will lead directly to a booking on Jerry’s show; when that doesn’t pan out, Rupert takes extreme measures to get himself on camera, assisted by wealthy Jerry superfan Masha (Sandra Bernhard).

__The Mummy __and __The Mummy Returns __(Mar 31)

These days, Brendan Fraser is riding high as an Oscar nominee for his role in The Whale, and GQ’s 2022 Men Of The Year cover boy. So while we wait to find out whether he wins at the Academy Awards, why not watch him in his beloved comedy-adventure franchise? Fraser plays a treasure hunter hired by librarian Evelyn (Rachel Weisz) and her skittish brother Jonathan (John Hannah) to get them to the lost city of Hamunaptra. You’ll never guess what supernatural antagonist gets in their way! All the principals—including Arnold Vosloo as the titular mummy—return for the sequel, in which Rick and Evelyn are married and still adventuring with their son. Many more sequels and spinoffs followed, but none are as delightful as these first two outings.

__The Prestige __(Mar 31)

Between his Batman films, Christopher Nolan directed and co-wrote (with his brother Jonathan) this adaptation of Christopher Priest’s novel. Angier (Hugh Jackman) and Borden (Christian Bale) are rival stage magicians in late 19th-century London, forever linked by an accident that killed Angier’s assistant, also his wife. When Borden débuts a trick called The Transported Man, Angier resolves to replicate it for his own act; in the years that follow, the two magicians’ obsession with each other embroils nearly everyone who meets them.

The Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy (Mar 31)

If you enjoyed seeing Tobey Maguire climb back into his blue-and-red suit for 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, why not revisit the titles that made Spider-Man a legitimate franchise star? Sam Raimi’s films follow Maguire’s Peter Parker through the death of Peter’s

Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson), his romance with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), his complicated friendship with second-generation millionaire Harry Osborn (James Franco), and his scraps with supervillains from the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe) to Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina) to Venom (Topher Grace).