The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

Discussion in 'Science Fiction & Fantasy' started by Skipper, Jan 29, 2017.

  1. Skipper

    Skipper Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    It's a quite delightful tale :)
    How Hulu and ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Revived 2 Careers
    I chucked at this bit :)
     
  2. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Well...those first three episodes were depressing as fuck.

    I thought Children of Men was cold, dark and brutal, but it's got nothing on The Handmaid's Tale, and that was just the first episode. I've never read the book (but I've been meaning to for years), but I feel like I've stepped into a world that's both sinister and possible. Many of the pieces are on the board right now and a cataclysm is all that is needed to happen for it to come together.

    In the second episode, I felt like vomiting. The birthing ceremony, while mundane on the surface, is an emotional travesty. The mistress pretends to give birth directly behind the actual mother, Janine, and then immediately climbs into bed and to receive the child as if she actually gave birth. Poor Janine doesn't even get to hold her own baby immediately after birth. And of course they keep her around for breastfeeding (after all formula milk isn't natural!) but the mistress can't wait to get rid of her. At least Janine gave the baby a secret name, Charlotte, as I highly suspected she would before incidentally telling June.

    The whole cast is simply fantastic, especially Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd, Alexis Bledel, and Samira Wiley. I'm sorry Moira is supposedly dead in the present and Wiley is regulated to just the flashbacks, but who knows, Janine is a bit crazy, so she could be lying and we'll see more of her.
     
  3. ALF

    ALF Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    "A world that's both sinister and possible", you say? This sounds excellent. I positively adore alternate history stories and this one sounds like it's been done right. And I'm an E-Moss fan to boot.
     
  4. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    It's supposed to be depressing.

    The book is excellent, as long as you can get into the rhythm of Atwood's prose style. Some people don't care for it, but I found that it really helped get into Offred's mind, to know what she's really thinking.

    There have been differing interpretations of Moira from novel to movie, and evidently in the TV series (I'm going to see about subscribing to Bravo, as it's being shown here on Sundays). In the novel, Moira and Offred (the novel never explicitly states Offred's real name, and in the movie she says her name is Kate) have been best friends for years, but in the movie they don't meet until they're put on the bus to be taken to the Red Center.
     
  5. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    Oh, I know it's suppose to be depressing but that doesn't take away from my shock of how depressing it is and how it never lets up. The aforementioned birthing ceremony, the systematic, cold raping, cutting out Emily's clitoris, scooping out Janine's eye in order to gain her obedience, the treatment of women as uneducated incubators and regulated to status of pets. That's the intention but it's still depressing as fuck.
     
    Last edited: Apr 28, 2017
  6. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Okay, some of that wasn't in the novel...
     
  7. Ensign_Redshirt

    Ensign_Redshirt Commodore Commodore

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    As far as I can remember the novel this seems to be a pretty faithful adaptation so far. Since it's a TV show they tend to flesh a couple of things out though. This becomes particularly apparent in the flashback scenes which depict what happened before and during the power grab of the religious fundamentalists.

    Deviations from the source material as far as I have noticed (correct me if I'm mistaken):
    - Maybe it's also due to the different medium, but the regime seems to me as even more ruthless than in the novel. The aforementioned Alexis Bledel genital mutilation scene stand out here in particular.
    - The regime's original rise to power is depicted as a direct result of the increasing and widespread infertility in women. The infertility crisis gave rise to a Christian fundamentalist movement which eventually took power and justified stripping women of their rights to ensure procreation.
    - There is possibly some larger civil war still going on in the country, at least larger than the rebel activity alluded to in the novel. Chicago is described as being "in ruins" due to intense fighting, and a rump U.S. government located in Anchorage, Alaska is mentioned. Washington, D.C. however is definitely Gilead's capital. In essence, the fundamentalists' rise to power didn't take place without resistance or bloodshed.
    - There's no racial segregation like in the novel, but the regime is persecuting and killing practicing Catholics.

    The end result resembles could perhaps be described as Children of Men meets V for Vendetta meets The Man in the High Castle.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2017
    Shaka Zulu and theenglish like this.
  8. Skipper

    Skipper Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    From the Handmaids to the Marthas, How Each Handmaid’s Tale Costume Came Together
     
  9. theenglish

    theenglish Vice Admiral Admiral

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    You've got it. It sounds like this series has the tone of the novel to be exactly right. It is a depressing depiction of a plausible world. Atwood is a "literary" writer and her prose is always very dense but rewarding if you put in the effort. It always takes me a long time to get through her novels and I read something light on the side.

    The original story was a reaction to the Christian right wing Republicans that gained momentum under the Reagan years and many characters are direct correlations from that period. It is scary to think that we've come so much closer to the world of the Handmaid's Tale than progressed in a more humanitarian direction.
     
  10. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    I remember a quote from Natasha Richardson, who played Offred in the movie: "I never want to wear red again."

    Red is more than mere symbolism. It also makes the Handmaids really easy to spot if any of them try to escape.
     
  11. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I'd like to know how "normal" the lives of the infertile women stayed?

    Are they going to blame the infertility on cellphones?

    This is a lot darker than The Lottery.

     
  12. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    Going by the novel, the Wives tend to lead pretty boring lives, with the unspoken custom being that they take turns getting attention from the others, and the ultimate status symbol for a Wife is if the Handmaid assigned to her household becomes pregnant and produces a baby - which is promptly taken away from the Handmaid and the Wife is declared the child's real mother.

    Does the TV series address Econowives?
     
  13. Guy Gardener

    Guy Gardener Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Not yet?

    There is a taser wielding mother superior walking around, who looks past her child bearing days, but it seems less oppressive for a woman to oppress and break these modern women until they accept their lot as handmaidens.
     
  14. Marc

    Marc Fleet Admiral Premium Member

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  15. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    There isn't. In one of the interviews, they said they plan to explore other facets of Gilead, such as the colonies, and beyond the end of the novel.

    I was okay with the novel ending as it did - that we never knew Offred's real name (Atwood herself said that), and didn't know for sure beyond the speculations of the future scholars studying the tapes she left behind.
     
  16. The Nth Doctor

    The Nth Doctor Infinite Possibilities... Premium Member

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    I'm not sure how much more of the ceremonial raping I can take. Sure, it didn't happen in this episode because Fred couldn't get aroused, but that's not the end of it by any measure. His continuous attempts of "want to play Scrabble after I rape you?" is not going to lessen the sheer awfulness of the situation.

    My heart broke for June when Moira was forced to leave her behind on the subway platform. That being said, why didn't Moira go straight back to her after receiving information on the train? Why separate at all? Why didn't June tell the guard that she was being escorted by the Aunt several meters away from her?

    Well played by the director during the doctor's appointment. I didn't recognize Kristian Bruun's voice (although I really should have) so I was complete surprised when he finally revealed his face. I know the point of the obscuring was to give the doctor a sinister anonymity, but it worked on another level by initially disguising Bruun from those who would know him.

    Any hope for Serena Joy's soul is completely forsaken at this point considering mad and genuine belief that June's lack of pregnancy is something June can control and she needs to be taught to allow it. I suppose there could be a sense of brainwashing going on there, especially considering "sterile" is a forbidden word and they're taught to believe it's always the Handmad's fault, but I seriously doubt Serena Joy is brainwashed.

    I'm glad June is finding strength not just in Moira's memory, but also the in the memory of the previous Offred. I was going to say Moira's "This is fucked" is the show's motto, but "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum, bitches!" is much better. :D
     
  17. BillJ

    BillJ The King of Kings Premium Member

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    Watched the first three episodes so far. Depressing due to the sheer possibility of it all, though I find the show well done and highly entertaining.
     
  18. Ensign_Redshirt

    Ensign_Redshirt Commodore Commodore

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    Interesting. So far it seems to be a pretty faithful adaptation, so the first season will probably cover the events of the novel. After that they'll be entering unknown territory. So, will we see June starting to train as a resistance fighter in the mountains in Season 2 then? :P
     
  19. Skipper

    Skipper Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    The Handmaid's Revenge
    The Handmaid's Fury
    The Handmaid: This time is war
    The Handmaid: The Trump Strikes Back!
     
  20. Timewalker

    Timewalker Cat-lovin', Star Trekkin' Time Lady Premium Member

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    It's a good thing I've read the novel and seen the movie so many times, that spoilers here don't really matter that much, to me at least. Canadian viewers can't see these episodes until 4 days later.

    Speaking of heartbreak, there are some excellent fanfics on fanfiction.net.

    She was never in the mountains in the novel. That's from the movie.