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Spoilers The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

Thanks for spoiling EVERYTHING. No, really, thanks so much. The show isn't on for me until 7 pm tonight, which is still over 3.5 hours from now.

Keeping it vague for the first 24 hours is the civil thing to do. We don't all get Hulu and have to wait for scheduled air times.
 
So, from last week.

"Who doesn't love Corinthians, especially First Corinthians?" Gotta love the call back to Trump's faux pas in 2016 where he cited "Two Corinthians."

Also from last week.
June: We do not stop fighting. So, what's next? What do we do now?
Mark: You can make an impact. You should step up. Put your power to use.
June: I don't feel comfortable doing that.

June, the queen of unintentional irony. She just gets through saying they have to keep trying, to double down, and then immediately refuses to do what Mark suggests she should have been doing since her arrival in Canada. Yes, I know it looks like she changes her mind by the end of the episode, but still. It's like, "practice what you preach, June."

Now, this week.
DON'T WALK IN THE ROAD! WHAT ARE YOU THINKING? THERE IS A PERFECTLY GOOD SIDE WALK RIGHT THERE! YOU WERE STANDING ON IT! WHY ARE YOU... oh, geez, now look what happened!

Of course, June is made of steel. She gets ran over TWICE but is out of the hospital the same day? And really? They are coming to arrest Luke? He should get a medal. There may not be evidence of June getting ran over twice (but maybe there is), but it's clear enough the guy ran her over and would have finished the job had Luke not gotten there in time. Luke was clearly defending June.

Hey Mark, how about granting Luke and June asylum? How about helping them actually get out of the country by doing more than just giving them a fake ID and dropping them off at the train station.

That whole sequence, along with June's relationship/interaction with Serena Joy this season is just bizarre.
 
So... anyone wonder why they didn't just put the refugees on planes, rather than take a train that will obviously never arrive where they say it will? Cram however many hundreds/thousands of people together for days, with no obvious source of necessities, on tracks vulnerable to attack... what could possibly go wrong?

And if they actually did get to Vancouver, what kind of boats are available to get them to Alaska - cruise ships? Ferries? How does the showrunner intend to depict Canada between Toronto and Vancouver?
 
Aren't their rail roads straight to Alaska? Why bother stopping at Vancouver?

Trains can haul more people with less fuel than airplanes. Planes might be faster, but they aren't always practical, especially for the bean counters.

I know it's a TV show and some suspension of disbelief is required. I'm confused by the power structure of Gilead. Is the national capital in Boston/somewhere in Massachusetts or is it in Washington DC? Is Lawrence a local regional ruler or is he part of the top national government leaders? He seems to be a top dog, but he's not in the capital? Also, despite Gilead being the size of the contiguous 48 states, the country seems small, doesn't it? True, Hannah is in Colorado, but is that the only wives school? Is Aunt Lydia in charge of all the handmaids in Gilead? Is there only 1 Red Center?
 
I am also confused about the size of Gilead. We know their is rebellion going on in Chicago. Texas is it's own separate country. No clue as to what is going on in California. Also what is Mexico doing about having this country next to it's border. What about Puerto Rico and Guam. I was for awhile under the assumption that Gilead controlled maybe all of the East Coast but that control ended around the MIdwest and BIble Belt and who knows what was happening on the other side of former America.
 
I agree about the size of Gilead. I can't remember the book well enough, but I was under the impression that Gilead consisted of the East to the Midwest at most. Even last season, I thought Chicago was one part of a larger rebellion and reflected the westernmost border of Gilead.

As for this episode, I get that the refugees are meant to be an analogy for how conflict refugees are treated in the US and Europe--but I didn't buy Luke's dilemma. In Canada, when Luke was first questioned by the RCMP he would have been informed of his rights and if there were a pending investigation into his actions or possible charges so he could get a proper lawyer. It was an obvious case of self-defense and the death of the driver shouldn't have had anything to do with charges being laid at that point. At most, it would have created a situation where anti-refugee groups might protest and target June and Luke more intensely, and there might be a larger inquiry into what happened. All of this would have been made clear to them beforehand. It was just a dramatic, poorly thought out, set up to create some kind of finale.
 
Someone posted a map of Gilead on YT back around the 1st/2nd seasons. No idea if an updated one exists.
 
Finally got around to watching the finale. This whole season, I've felt quite adrift and unengaged. Like I said before, I'm finding it harder and harder to give a damn. Doesn't help that the show has made it absolutely clear that we're suppose to care about Serena and that she'll have a path towards redemption. Ugh.

Just about the only thing in the entirety of the finale that brought a smile to my face was Janine telling Naomi exactly how she felt about her and that Naomi is completely deluded into thinking for a moment that they were "friends" (not unlike Serena's delusion about June). And then telling Lydia NO to the very notion of her going back to beg forgiveness.

Despite my misgivings and apathy with the show at this point (and the loss of Emily and yes, I get I'm the only person who seems to care about her absence), I'll probably still watch the final season for closure's sake. It's certainly not for the love triangle, which is dependent on a relationship that I've never been sold on.
 
I take it that we're probably not getting season 6 any time soon, due to the writers' and actors' strike.
 
Funny this thread comes back up... I just finished Season 1 for the first time. Never read the book. It's been on my radar for years, but for some reason I always assumed this was some kind of Chaucer-esque historical drama about a handmaid in the 13th century or something and...

Jesus F Christ. There's enough nightmare fuel in Season 1 to last me until I die. It literally gave me nightmares about trying to escape from a Red Centre with my wife. What a show.
 
Richard S. Ta said:
Funny this thread comes back up... I just finished Season 1 for the first time. Never read the book. It's been on my radar for years, but for some reason I always assumed this was some kind of Chaucer-esque historical drama about a handmaid in the 13th century or something and...

Jesus F Christ. There's enough nightmare fuel in Season 1 to last me until I die. It literally gave me nightmares about trying to escape from a Red Centre with my wife. What a show.
Click to expand...

And it somehow gets worse!
 
Charles Phipps said:
And it somehow gets worse!
Click to expand...

Me and my wife intended to marathon through the whole show back to back, but we have had to take a break between season 1-2. It's a lot to process.

My understanding is that Season 1 covers the book and everything beyond that is fresh material which is on some level supervised, but not written by Atwood?
 
Richard S. Ta said:
Me and my wife intended to marathon through the whole show back to back, but we have had to take a break between season 1-2. It's a lot to process.

My understanding is that Season 1 covers the book and everything beyond that is fresh material which is on some level supervised, but not written by Atwood?
Click to expand...

Yes, the book is an intimate story about a woman trapped in a house with no idea of who can be trusted and an intense claustrophobic feeling that ends ambiguously.

June becoming Solid Snake is all original.

It also makes some changes like the Gilead aren't explicitly genocidal against brown people in the show. Because while it arguably white washes them (and the Far Religious Right are pretty damn racist in RL), it would just end up hurting POC actors.
 
Charles Phipps said:
Yes, the book is an intimate story about a woman trapped in a house with no idea of who can be trusted and an intense claustrophobic feeling that ends ambiguously.

June becoming Solid Snake is all original.

It also makes some changes like the Gilead aren't explicitly genocidal against brown people in the show. Because while it arguably white washes them (and the Far Religious Right are pretty damn racist in RL), it would just end up hurting POC actors.
Click to expand...

Got it!

The general consensus seems to be that the show tails off a bit as it goes on, but it's still worth a watch. I'm invested enough in the characters and the world to want to continue. It's a very well made show and Elisabeth Moss is just fantastic.
 
Richard S. Ta said:
Got it!

The general consensus seems to be that the show tails off a bit as it goes on, but it's still worth a watch. I'm invested enough in the characters and the world to want to continue. It's a very well made show and Elisabeth Moss is just fantastic.
Click to expand...

Generally speaking the consensus is it's fine. There's some silly parts and June's plot armor becomes unbelievable but it continues to thrive on the all too believable story and politics. Plus much-much suffering.
 
Richard S. Ta said:
Me and my wife intended to marathon through the whole show back to back, but we have had to take a break between season 1-2. It's a lot to process.

My understanding is that Season 1 covers the book and everything beyond that is fresh material which is on some level supervised, but not written by Atwood?
Click to expand...
Mostly. There are a few bits of the second season mentioned in the novel, and flashbacks that tell us what happened right after June was captured.

Charles Phipps said:
Yes, the book is an intimate story about a woman trapped in a house with no idea of who can be trusted and an intense claustrophobic feeling that ends ambiguously.

June becoming Solid Snake is all original.

It also makes some changes like the Gilead aren't explicitly genocidal against brown people in the show. Because while it arguably white washes them (and the Far Religious Right are pretty damn racist in RL), it would just end up hurting POC actors.
Click to expand...
People who complain about the race-related elements of the show... :sigh:

I stay away from the female-hosted YT reaction channels because I'm beyond tired of the constant screeching about "how DARE they show white women suffering" and none of them appear to understand that slavery didn't just happen in the U.S.; it's been going on all over the world, for millennia, and no particular race/ethnic group has been immune. They're not receptive to hearing this, and few have bothered to read the novel. I've told them that there were NO black or other POC in the novel, so isn't it better to have a diverse cast?

Example: Moira in the 1990 movie was played by Elizabeth McGovern. She did a good job of it, but of course the movie follows the novel to a greater extent than the TV show does... mostly. The ending isn't like the novel at all. If they wanted to keep the ambiguous ending, that little bit at the end shouldn't have been there (since audiences must have a happy ending...).

At least in the TV show we got to know what happens to Moira after she and June reunite at Jezebel's. In the novel Moira disappears from the story and Offred never knows what becomes of her.

Richard S. Ta said:
Funny this thread comes back up
Click to expand...
I posted because a certain somebody dropped a 'like' on one of my posts. :p
 
Timewalker said:
I stay away from the female-hosted YT reaction channels because I'm beyond tired of the constant screeching about "how DARE they show white women suffering" and none of them appear to understand that slavery didn't just happen in the U.S.; it's been going on all over the world, for millennia, and no particular race/ethnic group has been immune. They're not receptive to hearing this, and few have bothered to read the novel. I've told them that there were NO black or other POC in the novel, so isn't it better to have a diverse cast?
Click to expand...

I mean, the complaint is that the black women weren't oppressed ENOUGH. The book fans were basically saying, "the black women wouldn't be Handmaids because the Gillead would want all-white babies."

Which is to say this is not really a relevant comparison.

The show allowed POC Handmaids because they didn't want racially homogeneous casting.
 
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