The burden of perfection -- at least the perfection presented in today's Hulu for the Holidays feature, Gattaca -- would be too much for any of us to handle. That becomes evident when Vincent (Ethan Hawke) puts into motion a plan that will help him realize a lifelong goal: to go into outer space.

The twist to Gattaca is that, in this not-so-distant future, average humans ("In-Valids") can't go into space -- only members of the genetic elite, or "Valids," can. So Vincent, an In-Valid, goes to great lengths to become eligible for space travel, scrubbing himself down daily in the shower, using blood samples from a real "Valid," even undergoing orthopedic surgery to make his stature a match for his adopted persona. Just days before Vincent is scheduled to go into space, though, a murder at Gattaca Aerospace Corporation threatens everything. With the police tracking the identity of a mysterious "In-Valid," Vincent must avoid exposure or risk losing it all.

A thriller, futuristic drama and cautionary tale, Gattaca convincingly sets up a society in which genetics trump all, thanks to a winning screenplay and direction from Andrew Niccol (The Truman Show).

Don't forget that Hulu for the Holidays continues with more TV, site features and movies next week. On Monday, we'll be adding another season of an underrated medical mystery show, plus some news programming with a focus on business.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

In between all the turkey and the football, Hulu for the Holidays has a Thanksgiving treat for you: Air Force One, an action thriller that puts Harrison Ford in the White House (and on the presidential jet), taking a stance on terrorism that sounds pretty familiar in the post-9/11 universe.

Gary Oldman plays the leader of a group of Soviet neo-nationalists who pose as a news crew who have clearance to fly on Air Force One as the President and his family return to the U.S. from Moscow. And then, of course, there's Glenn Close as the Vice President, bringing a pragmatic, intelligent approach to the role as she negotiates with the bad guys.

For me, part of the fun of these semi-vintage movies is looking for actors from other shows and movies. In Air Force One, a detective from the CBS series Cold Case makes a brief cameo at Ramstein Air Base, while Paul Guilfoyle (Detective Brass from CSI: Las Vegas) is more visible as the White House Chief of Staff. You'll also notice Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) as the Defense Secretary and William H. Macy (Fargo) as Major Caldwell, as well as Bill Smitrovich -- a man who has made a career out of appearances on police and legal shows -- as General Northwood back at the Capitol.

As for tomorrow, while you're enjoying that leftover turkey sandwich, don't forget to check back on Hulu for a science fiction movie that's all about perfection.

Happy Thanksgiving,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

In today's Hulu for the Holidays debut, the Montana wilderness sets a breathtaking backdrop for Robert Redford's cinematic adaptation of Norman Maclean's novella, A River Runs Through It. With Oscar-winning cinematography from Philippe Rousselot, the film chronicles the coming of age of two brothers in the 1920s.

"All good things -- trout as well as eternal salvation --come by grace, and grace comes by art. And art does not come easy." And so brothers Norman and Paul learn the art of fly fishing from their father, a Presbyterian minister (played by Tom Skerritt) who uses a metronome to teach the boys the rhythms of casting. As the boys become men and grow apart, a love of fly fishing remains a common bond.

As you'd expect, Paul (Brad Pitt) and Norm (Craig Sheffer) both rebel in their own ways, Paul one day finding his own rhythm while trout fishing, later moving on to more dangerous pursuits. Meanwhile, Norman goes on to Dartmouth, channeling himself into his writing as he finds a rhythm of his own: teaching. And when he returns to Montana six years later, he finds his little brother at the top of his game. But as part of the family starts to unravel, who will be man enough to get things back on track?

Hailed as a story for all generations, A River Runs Through It remains timeless and a great way to start off the holiday season. Hulu for the Holidays continues again tomorrow, with a blockbuster movie that will have you saying "Get off my plane!"

Happy holidays,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Our Beijing team has been working behind the scenes on a special detail that appears when you search for an actor on Hulu. Whenever possible, our database shows that particular star's face in each of the tailored search result images -- what we call "adaptive thumbnails." Our Hulu How-To Videos section features a video walk-through of this feature, but here I've done a search for "Kristen Wiig," SNL's new it-girl.

Search for another actor, and the same thing happens: The results will display thumbnail images that feature the new star -- even if both actors appear in the same videos. Here's what happens when you search for another SNL cast member, Blizzard Man himself, Andy Samberg.

Our search team has focused their efforts on Hulu's most popular actor queries, but they'll continue to expand coverage over time. And if you feel like you're not getting the videos you expected, each of our search pages features a handy feedback form at the bottom of the results.

This is just one way we've made it easier to find the specific video you're looking for on Hulu. A visit to our home page, hulu.com, reveals another way to get to the shows, movies or clips you want more quickly. Our QuickView feature displays video information whenever you hover your mouse over a video thumbnail image, episode title or show name on Hulu. You'll get specific, video-related information -- the video's title and its duration, air date, rating and average user rating, plus a short description -- when your mouse pauses over the video title or thumbnail image; hovering over a show or movie title will provide a QuickView of the series description.

It's a neat feature that a lot of our users have asked for, and we hope it helps you determine which video is the one you're after next time you're browsing the site. For the rest of the week, Hulu for the Holidays will focus on movies with star power. Tomorrow 's title features Robert Redford behind the camera -- and familiar (if you read the tabloids, anyway) face playing a lead role.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Hulu for the Holidays goes HD today, thanks to a host of current episodes of hit TV shows -- The Office, 30 Rock, Heroes, Life and more -- in sharp high def in Hulu's just-updated HD Gallery. There, you can see the return of Michael Scott's arch nemesis, Toby; get to know Jack's buddy, Gavin Volure (Steve Martin) in greater detail; and learn what a "badge bunny" is as Crews and Reese investigate another homicide.

In addition, we've added additional seasons of a few of our most popular classic action series: The A-Team, Simon and Simon, and Airwolf. It should be enough daring van jumps, mustaches and helicopter shoot-outs to keep you busy through Thanksgiving.

These updates are just the start to a fresh week of Hulu for the Holidays, which runs until December 26. Tomorrow we'll introduce more site features, with the rest of Thanksgiving week devoted to star-studded blockbusters. Check back tomorrow to see what's new.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

In Call of the Wild, the classic adaptation of the time-honored Jack London novel, Buck is a well-loved family pet who's taken from his relatively pampered life and sold (for a mere $75) to a dog broker. Buck is shipped off to the Klondike, where he'll be expected to toil alongside gold prospectors in the harsh Alaskan wilderness. He eventually winds up in the possession of John Thornton (Charlton Heston), and together the two bond in a struggle to survive the elements. Call of the Wild is a story of loyalty, adventure and, well, the call of the wild.

Check back again next week for details about Monday's Hulu for the Holidays addition.

Stay tuned for more,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Today's Hulu for the Holidays movie, A League of Their Own, is a special one for me. It's not just because it tells the story of the All-American Girls Baseball League, a cadre of female pros who stepped up to home plate while the male pros were at war. It's because part of the movie was filmed in my hometown, Cooperstown, NY.

A sleepy little village most of the year, Cooperstown transforms the last weekend of July, when living legends -- the big leaguers who are part of the National Baseball Hall of Fame -- come to town to honor the year's newest inductees. They're joined by thousands of baseball fans who hope to score an autograph or a snapshot of their favorite players. Baseball is a hallowed sport in Cooperstown, and A League of Their Own honors that tradition.

In the movie, sisters Dottie and Kitt (Geena Davis and Lori Petty) are recruited -- by a sarcastic Jon Lovitz, no less -- to try out for the All-American Girls Baseball League. The sisters are soon teamed up on the Rockford Peaches, along with co-stars Madonna and Rosie O'Donnell and a washed-up manager, Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks). The league's priorities are a little questionable -- are they looking for athletes or pin-ups? -- but the camaraderie of the girls pulls the Peaches together, swing after swing.

What's in store for tomorrow? Check back for a high-adventure tale about a man and his companion as they struggle to survive in harsh conditions. And you can track the latest additions to our Holiday lineup with the Hulu for the Holidays widget.

Hulu's Diamond Gal,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

The first movie of Hulu for the Holidays is a family-friendly film about a boy with a lifelong dream: to play football for Notre Dame. And once Daniel Ruettiger, better known as "Rudy," set his mind to this mission, nothing could get in his way: Not a doubtful dad or an unsupportive schoolteacher, and certainly not his size. He even lacked the grades and money to attend the University of Notre Dame, but with the help of a few good-minded folks, he manages to get into the Catholic university -- and even scores a coveted walk-on spot on the football team.

Named one of ESPN's 25 best sports movies, Rudy strikes a chord because of its inspirational message. The true-life story reminds us how good things can happen to those who work hard and won't take "no" for an answer. And with around 25 minutes left, you get one of the best browbeatings in cinematic history.

To me, the winning performance in Rudy comes courtesy of Charles S. Dutton, who stars as Fortune, the groundskeeper at the stadium. The rest of the cast remains familiar today, with an earnest, wholly believable performance by Sean Astin as Rudy plus Jon Favreau as his college buddy, Ned Beatty as his dad, and Vince Vaughn as the star quarterback of the Fighting Irish.

Stick around for another sports classic tomorrow -- a full-length feature that could be considered a home run.

Nobody comes into our house and pushes us around,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Over the the next six weeks, Hulu will be adding more to the site each day: more TV, more site features and more movies. To keep track of all the additions, you can check out our Hulu for the Holidays Spotlight page, or take advantage of today's new site feature. The Hulu for the Holidays widget delivers daily updates straight to your personal blog or website. (An RSS feed is also available if you prefer to have updates delivered to your inbox.)

Posting the widget to your blog or website is easy. From our Hulu Widgets page, you can copy the Hulu for the Holidays embed code and paste it on your site. The widget refreshes whenever we update our Holidays list, keeping you and your readers on top of the latest. To start watching any of the TV (Mondays) or movies (Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays) that have been posted, simply click on the episode to begin playback at Hulu.com.

Stay posted as we launch more site features every Tuesday throughout the holiday season, and check back tomorrow, when we'll reveal a feature-length film, the story of a guy who realizes a lifelong dream through hard work and determination.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Every weekday through December 26, we're introducing a new TV show, movie or site feature to Hulu, giving you a place to hang out during the holiday season. Today, we kick off Hulu for the Holidays with Thanksgiving 2008, more than two dozen videos with recipes and tips from your favorite Food Network personalities, including Tyler Florence, Bobby Flay, the Neelys and Paula Deen -- everything you need to know to prepare a scrumptious holiday feast. Wondering how you're supposed to truss a turkey? Alton Brown shows you how. Meanwhile, Giada De Laurentiis offers an Italian-inspired butternut squash gratin as an easy side dish, and Aida Mollenkamp of Ask Aida has the secret to a perfectly flaky pie crust. And then there's Tyler Florence's Ultimate Caramel Pie, which I plan to serve this Thanksgiving.

While all of that sounds delicious, Hulu for the Holidays has more in store for the next six weeks. Like today, each Monday we'll reveal a TV show, either something new to Hulu or an additional season of a classic show. Tuesdays will bring new site features, new tools or services specially designed to enhance your time on Hulu. The rest of each week will be devoted to movies, from blockbusters to art house flicks. They're titles we're all excited to offer, with a host of A-list movie stars: Harrison Ford, Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Robert De Niro, among others.

Our Hulu for the Holidays Spotlight page (hulu.com/holidays) helps you track each of the additions to Hulu. We'll unveil something new every day, so check back often.

Enjoy the show,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com

One thing that ties the Hulu team together is a love for movies and TV, so when our content partners at Sony offered us passes to a pre-screening of the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, we jumped at the chance. The movie didn't disappoint. While Daniel Craig's 007 doesn't rely on the fancy gadgets -- laser watches, explosive key chains, dagger-toed shoes -- we now associate with the Bond franchise, there was enough action to keep us enthralled, thanks to the relentless hand-to-hand combat and a few fast-and-furious chase scenes (on land, at sea, and in the air, no less). The newest incarnation of Bond is more haunted than we've ever seen him, seeking vengeance on the organization responsible for Vesper Lynd's death.

If you missed Quantum of Solace in theaters over the weekend, get a taste of the action by previewing its trailer, also featured in Hulu's Movie Trailers section, home to previews of upcoming releases, current hits and recent blockbusters. It's a great way to get a feel for what's coming to a theater near you and, like other videos on Hulu, you're free to email your favorites to friends, post them on your MySpace or Facebook page, or embed them on your personal website.

Shaken, not stirred,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Since many Hulu users have indicated that they like to search for shows and movies by title, we created a handy Browse feature on our TV and Movies landing pages. Near the top of each of those pages, you can find a "Browse" link in the grey bar.

Selecting the "Browse" link on the TV page will direct you to a page where you can Browse TV Shows alphabetically by title or network. From there, you'll find an A-to-Z list of all of our TV shows, from The A-Team to Young Hercules with Ryan Gosling, long before he started in The Notebook. You might even find a few hidden gems in the listings -- Doogie Howser, anyone? You can toggle between full episodes and clips by clicking on the appropriate tab at the top of the list.

You can also browse for a particular genre by clicking on any of the Hulu channel options from the filters in the left column, so that the list will show only titles that fall into our Science Fiction channel, for instance. There's also an option to arrange the list alphabetically by network at the top of the column.

The same Browse feature can also available help you find movies on Hulu. To see all of our movie titles in alphabetical order, click on "Movies" at the top of any page on Hulu (you'll also find a link in our page footer); once you're on the Movies page, click on "Browse" in the grey toolbar near the top of the page. Once again, you'll be directed to an alphabetical list of all of our full-length movie titles. (To find movie clips, click on the grey "Clips" tab on top of the list.) There, you can find everything from 20 Dates to Xanadu.

If you're the bookmarking type and use these pages often, you can always add these links to your browser bookmarks folder:
TV: http://www.hulu.com/browse/alphabetical/episode
Movies: http://www.hulu.com/browse/alphabetical/feature_film.

Surprised by some of the classics? Share your favorites in the comments section below.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Novelist, screenwriter and director Michael Crichton died of cancer on Tuesday. He was the brains behind the blockbuster hit Jurassic Park, the co-creator of NBC's hit series ER, and the mastermind behind the classic caper movie The Great Train Robbery, but also a graduate of Harvard Medical School, a researcher at the Salk Institute, and an anthropology tutor at Cambridge University. It only seems natural that much of his work centered on paleontologists and doctors.

As his friend -- and Jurassic Park director -- Steven Spielberg said, "Michael's talent out-scaled even his own dinosaurs of Jurassic Park. He was great at blending science with big theatrical concepts, which is what gave credibility to dinosaurs walking the earth. ... No one will ever take his place."

To get a taste of Crichton's work, Hulu has clips from the dinosaur thrillers Jurassic Park and Jurassic Park III, and the most recent episodes of the hospital drama ER, now in its 15th -- and final -- season. While Crichton may have only written a few episodes after selling the concept, the medical details, still integral to the show, are surely there because of his involvement.

We also have one of Crichton's earlier films, The Great Train Robbery, in its entirety. Written and directed by Crichton himself, it's a fun-loving heist flick starring Sean Connery as the mastermind behind a true-life 1855 train robbery. He's joined by his safecracker (Donald Sutherland) and a sexy accomplice (Lesley-Anne Down). You can't help but root for the bad guys in this movie -- Connery and Sutherland ensure that -- but the movie's also fun to watch knowing that Connery fell off the moving train while doing his own stunts. Crichton even had a mishap of his own during the filming when his hair caught on fire.

Though some of Crichton's work was criticized by the scientific community -- you can't clone a dinosaur from DNA found in a mosquito trapped in amber, and his 2004 climate change book State of Fear caused an uproar -- even his strongest critics agree that he had a powerful impact on our culture, getting thousands, maybe even millions, more interested in science. That's a lasting legacy that goes far beyond hit TV shows, movies and books.

Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor

Before the euphoria of Election Day wears off -- I don't know about you, but I was glued to my TV set until after 1 a.m., watching my state's results come in -- we wanted to let you know that Hulu's Election '08 Spotlight page is still around. We've added all of the election night commentary clips provided by our partners at MSNBC, as well as the full episode of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "The Final Endgame Go Time Alpha Action Lift-off Decide-icidal Hungry Man's Extreme Raw Power Ultimate Voteslam Smackdown '08 No Mercy: Judgement Day '08" or, more succinctly (thank you, Jon Stewart), Indecision '08: America's Choice.

And while Stewart and Colbert provided an hour of funny coverage last night, two of the best moments all night came from the candidates. Senator John McCain's concession speech has been called graceful and classy, a dignified way for the war hero step out of the spotlight. As he said, "And I call on all Americans ... to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here. Americans never quit. We never surrender. We never hide from history. We make history."

Shortly thereafter, President-elect Barack Obama appeared before a crowd of 125,000 in Chicago's Grant Park, delivering a hopeful acceptance speech amid chants of "Yes we can!" and "Obama," reminding us that "this is our time... to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one."

This election cycle has been full of great moments, from profound speeches like these to funnier moments courtesy of our friends at Saturday Night Live. It's been a long, sometimes bumpy, ride, but it's been this season's most riveting drama.

Hope you enjoyed the show,
Rebecca
rebecca.harper@hulu.com
Editor