Thread for discussion of the Hulu adaptation of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale

Granted, I haven't yet seen episode 3, so maybe that will allay some fears, but I've found this season frustrating already. I really like what they are doing in Canada, I like the diplomatic concerns triggered by the Waterford's arrest, it's interesting to see that develop. And the probing into the trauma that these kids went through in Gilead could be good, but I also appreciate anything that gives Samira Wiley more screen time.

My problem is with June being seemingly stuck in this endless loop of "do brave shit to undercut Gilead, narrowly escape, get recaptured, get tortured, repeat". It's beginning to stretch credulity that Gilead just doesn't kill her, considering all of the seemingly minor infractions that get people killed in Gilead all the time. I get that she's the driver, but the loop feels like wheel spinning while the other characters and storylines are actually moving forward.

Again, I still mostly enjoy the show - there is some great cinematography and I always love the attention paid to the architecture of Gilead and the stark contrast of what we've seen in some of the Canadian admin buildings. And, as noted, that scene with "Ripple" is beautiful and was really unexpected.

Maybe season three rights the ship wrt to June's storyline, but I was a little annoyed when she got captured again at the end.

Shit, apologies if I should have spoiler tagged. I sometimes forget that's now an option, hopefully most interested folks have seen the first two of the three released eps already.

Found S4's first episode boring, although the music--Aretha Franklin, Carole King, Grateful Dead--was encouraging.

I didn't go near this for three or four weeks, I had gotten so bored, but I'm caught up now, ready for the finale (Wednesday, I believe). Once June is in Toronto, things picked up again. The two or three episodes in the middle--back in captivity and brutalized, then escape and getting to Toronto--were a low point. It was like it turned into Mad Max or something--interminable.

I don't know if Wednesday is just the season finale or the end. I know I could find that answer in three seconds, but I don't want to know as I watch (so don't answer that). I really, really hope this is it.

On December 10, 2020, ahead of the fourth season premiere, Hulu renewed the series for a fifth season.[9]

Aargh! No problem, I brought it up. Then I hope something truly amazing happens Wednesday that justifies another season...Gilead turns out to be a Truman Show-like alternative reality that characters step in and out of, something like that. (The geography of this show does confuse me. Meeting with Nick the driver? We'll arrange that right away. Visitors from Gilead for the Waterfords? Waiting in the lobby.)

Lawrence is one of those characters whose almost every line cracks me up. "Hello, Canada!" Can't even begin to figure him out, but he is witty.

Nick's not just a driver any more, he's a Commander now. I agree with you about the geography being confusing though. I think Nick & June met in some kind of neutral zone.

As for season 5, I suspect June is going back to Gilead to be with Nick and try to get Hannah out. She seemed a lot happier with Nick than she does with Luke.

"Mad Max: Interminable" would be an awesome name for a Mad Max sequel.

(xpost) I called him Nick the Driver, but I knew that--I meant more that Gilead seems like it's just across the river suddenly, and people come and go as they please. I read the Vulture review after I posted and the writer commented on the same thing:

The Canadian–Gileadean border is much more porous than we’ve been led to believe. Just a few episodes ago June was forging an NGO ID card to make it across Lake Michigan while American citizens wept on chainlink fences, desperate to storm the boat. But in “Progress,” new lines of communication are set up left and right. June simply calls Lawrence on his desk phone. Boop boop beep, the numbers are punched, and there he is, ready to chat treason. The Putnams — a high-ranking family and part of the leadership chain — not only jet into Canada, they also pay a little social visit to their friends in international war crimes jail, bearing navy blue baby sweaters and what I’m assuming are Cuban cigars. Nick too shimmies up into the land of eternal snow, taking what must have been an exhaustingly long car ride to meet June, without attracting any notice or suspicion.

Now that June is across the border, it seems as though the line has disappeared. Tuello (despite Lawrence’s claim that the Americans “don’t have a pot to piss in”) can arrange any call, any visit. Presumably, he and other government agents have contacts on Gilead’s side, spy-craft methods for arranging such rendezvous. But “Progress” makes it all appear so simple that I wondered why the hell Tuello didn’t just reach into Gilead last season and pluck June out himself.

I suspect June is going back to Gilead to be with Nick and try to get Hannah out.

I think so, yeah. The one thing E9 was clear about was that no matter how rational and supportive and pretty much perfect in every way Luke is, the bond of Gilead between June and Nick is much deeper than that.

The whole Aunt Lydia subplot has again become interesting; feels like she's learned something about the carrot and the stick, and she's about to transform into a better human being, possibly even join the resistance (even though she seems like the ultimate company man).

Yeah, I fully expected her to have Janine tortured when she was recaptured, but for whatever reason she decided not to.

Aargh! Messed up the coding...Don't read the above post if you're following along. Sorry.

I give up.

Tried to post this a couple of times the night of, but I've just learned that you can't hide things with paragraph breaks. So once more, just to keep it in this thread.

Three things that made me laugh in the season finale:

-- Moira referring to Serena as "his Viking-ass wife"
-- Lawrence: "It was worth a shot"
-- getting the pandemic in there: "Yes, Fred--we can Zoom"

Spoilers: 1) The big revenge scene was worth the build-up. (I knew that somehow, Fred and his "it" would be parting ways.) Only thing I didn't like was bringing back Lesley Gore on the soundtrack. I get the (too literal) relevance, obviously, but I'm not crazy about the song, and I think they could have done much better. 2) Found the ending somewhat confusing, or at least that no words were exchanged--Luke was able to just look at June and realize that she was heading back to Gilead? 3) Does June now target the Viking-ass wife?

The guy who plays Tuello is good.

Praise be that this season is over. It's gotten so vague and contradictory and repetitive. Obviously I'll still watch the final season but I don't feel like anyone's actually doing anything clever or useful?

Didn't realize this had resumed (they're five episodes in)--evidently I'm the last person on this board who'll make the effort to finish. I've got Atlanta to catch up with too; will probably go back and forth.

Me neither. And it's not even the final season - there's a 6th planned?!

Seriously? I just assumed this was it.

First episode of S5 wasn't bad--better than today's Jays game, for sure. I found S4 exceedingly convoluted, but it looks like it's now settled into a very focused revenge drama, headed for a showdown between the mom and the mother-to-be. (Or at least I thought so till news of this sixth season.)

Four episodes into S5, and I think it's a definite rebound from the last one or two. The ending of E2 was one the show's best ever. Eerie cover of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" in E4.

It's not started in the UK yet but I think is coming soon.

23rd october

If you had soured as much as I had, give the new season at least two episodes.

i never got far into S3. premise too exhausting to me, better served by a two season series.

E5 takes a song that Tarantino completely wasted in Pulp Fiction and does it right.

Finished E7, so caught up. How sappy you find it (if there's a "you" left) will depend. I found it moving--I've been waiting almost since the beginning for something similar, probably the only reason other than inertia I've stuck around.

I'm almost caught up--two episodes left in S5--and I've found this a much more satisfying watch than a lot of you apparently did. The relationship between June and Serena has evolved in interesting directions over the course of the series.

I'm finally reading The Testaments so no spoilers please but I'm curious as to how the TV show was written with some of the plot points I've read so far (that weren't in The Handmaid's Tale book)? e.g. baby Nicole. Did Margaret Attwood direct the story for the tv show or was The Testaments out before the later seasons of the tv show was written? I can't remember when each came out.

Haven't read the book, so I don't know, but your revive reminded me to check on S6; with the strike, now pushed back to next year.