4. Hululand

Though it seems a century ago now, remember when there was just Netflix for things on DVD, and Hulu for things that were still broadcasting on television? Hulu launched in 2008 as a joint venture between unlikely partners – including Fox, Disney, NBCUniversal, and eventually Time Warner – providing a streaming home for recently-aired episodes of their respective network shows. In 2019, Disney’s purchase of 20th Century Fox gave the Mouse House a controlling 60% share of Hulu ownership, and by the year’s end, Comcast and Time Warner had sold their shares to Disney, officially nesting Hulu under the company’s Direct-to-Consumer division.

However, existing licensing deals, new ones, original content, and lots of other factors keep Hulu’s library stocked with shows from multiple studios – not just Disney and ABC. Long story short, Hulu is basically the company’s “not-necessarily-for-families,” “covertly-Disney” streaming service versus the more family-oriented, Disney + Pixar + Marvel + Star Wars-focused Disney+. (Interestingly, Hulu is a USA exclusive. In every other country, the “adult-oriented” Disney streamer is STAR – a brand acquired in the Fox purchase. In some countries it’s a standalone service; in others, it’s a channel on Disney+.)

IN THE PARK: So what might await inside a Hululand? Well… Historically, Hulu’s been more of a content aggregator than a generator of new content. What Hulu does create tends to be more drama (The Great, Under the Banner of Heaven, or Dopesick), comedy (PEN15, Normal People, Life & Beth) or pseudo-documentary (Pam & Tommy, The Girl From Plainville, The Dropout) than particularly strong fantasy “worlds” you might want to be a part of… But there are a few compelling shows that might lend themselves to “Living Lands.”

The first Hulu Original that comes to mind is probably Only Murders in the Building – a comedy mystery series set in and around the fictional Arconia Apartments in Manhattan. Starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez, the show is vibrant and colorful and hilarious, and a “New York” land centered on it could be an incredible area.

Even though it’s not a Hulu Original, there’s no place better than Hululand to bring to life LOST. The groundbreaking TV series (airing from 2004 to 2010) follows the survivors of an airline crash who find themselves on a remote island somewhere in the Pacific. But what begins as a scripted “Survivor” quickly evolves into something else, as the ensemble discovers not just underground bunkers, abandoned laboratories, employee housing compounds, ancient temples, “Others,” and a mysterious monster who inhabits the island, but that each of them may have been brought to this metaphysical place for a reason… 

Leaping forward, backwards, and sideways in time, LOST was a cultural phenomenon… And sure, as with all zeitgeist-defining, shared cultural experiences, sticking the landing wasn’t easy. Some people detest LOST’s much-anticipated finale. But the fact remains that in LOST, writers crafted an absolutely incredible mythology and a gripping world that would be incredible to explore.

While we’re at it, we might as well dedicate a land to ABC’s other J.J. Abrams project that ran concurrently with LOST… Alias was a slick, stylish spy series starring Jennifer Garner (and a series of wigs) as Sydney Bristow – a young woman who discovers that the covert task force she’s been working for isn’t really a black ops division of the CIA, but an international crime organization. Recruited by the real CIA as a double agent, Bristow’s global espionage adventures send her on secret missions that invariably end with cliffhangers (using a novel structure for television, essentially having the next 40-minute “story” start halfway through the episode and conclude halfway through the next).

But like LOST, Alias also has a twist on the genre… Slowly but surely, the steely spy aesthetic begins to collide with something much more ancient: the inventions of a Renaissance artist named Milo Rambaldi, whose prophecies turn into a puzzling mystery of ancient artifacts… The world of Alias is action-packed and larger than life, slowly assembling into a global race against time foretold centuries ago. And boy, would it be fun to step into… 

When Disney acquired 20th Century Fox, they became the parent company for the FX channel, acquiring distribution for shows like Rescue Me, Pose, What We Do in the Shadows, The Americans, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The “FX” lineup was added to Hulu with a major component of the marketing push being the streaming of American Horror Story, an award-winning annual anthology show developed by Ryan Murphy (of Glee fame). 

Equal parts horror movie, melodrama, and over-the-top camp, the show “reboots” with a new story and setting every year, but uses a repertory cast of actors (lead, at times, by Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters, Kathy Bates, and Jessica Lange) who take on new roles each time around. American Horror Story’s highs (Murder House, Asylum, and Coven) have been great fun; its middles (Hotel, Roanoke, Apocalypse, Red Tide), middling; its lows (Freak Show, 1984, Cult, and Death Valley), almost unwatchable. But as a landmark series with some intensely memorable settings, it might be interesting to see how AHS could be adapted to a theme park format…