Head’s up; season 3 premieres today on Hulu.
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Oh goody! I get to go first!?
To start off, thank you alphaboi867, for the heads up; I had no idea it was back.
The tone continues to stray from the first season, but of course it has to, as the whole story arc has changed.
I think I need to watch the last couple of eps from S2 to refresh my memory. There’s the usual recap at the start and I had somehow forgotten about Aunt Lydia’s fate. I also can’t quite recall what the deal is with Bradley Whitford’s character.
I’ll wait to see if anyone else chimes in, but if anyone does, was Serena sent to an asylum or to the wall?
Serena went home to her mother. It’s actually a little odd since her mother is a Widow living a very comfortable life apparently without on her own (unless Serena has an unseen brother).
Cmdr Lawerence is very hard to read, but I like that. So far I get the impression that his major problem with the regime is that the theocratic bullshit is skewing their priorities and making them waste resources (like making a neonatologist work domestic service). I was expecting Hulu to drop 3 episodes at one so there was a lot to take in.
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My opinion: this show has gone from one of the best serial dramas on TV to one of the worst, in just two seasons (that has to be some kind of record.) The tight writing, gripping plots, sharp direction and editing, stark and dramatic lighting and composition, all of it, are gone - replaced by tedious, asinine contrivances that are either too boring or too confusing, all apparently shot using a camera with a dusty pillowcase draped over it.
There was one moment and one moment only, where a bit of the old HT poked through: the sequence where June/Offred in Martha disguise walks through the city street leading to the laundry area, where she is told that handmaids are not allowed (because of chemicals in the air, presumably risking their childbearing ability) and we see a brief glimpse of the industrial workers of Gilead. That’s what I want to see on the show - world-building, immersion, a sense of Gilead being a real place inhabited by real people and not just an abstract notion of oppressive dystopia peopled by the same handful of characters in every scene. I want to see the laundry workers of Gilead, I want to see the janitors, I want to see the barracks where the soldiers live, I want to see the scientists who work on whatever scientific shit they need, I want to see the guys who design the propaganda banners that will be displayed on the street - and so on.
I know that there are primary protagonists and antagonists who need to be the focus of the story, but there is still room for the other stuff too. Or, rather, there WOULD be room, if the directors exercised a little bit of judicious editing for economy of scene and story. Not every scene with dialog needs to have three second pauses between the lines. Not every shot of characters doing something dramatic needs to be in slow motion. Many of the scenes in the first episode of this new season could have been half as short and equally effective. They’re wasting precious minutes of the show by running down the clock with bloated filler.
I’ve also seen just about enough of Bradley Whitford’s character, Lawrence. We get it, the guy is sarcastic and aloof. As it is, he’s practically channeling Bill Murray as Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic every time he finishes a sentence, like we’ve got to be hit over the head with the fact that he’s a real quirky character. Enough! The Waterfords have also just about worn out their welcome, their overwrought personae are becoming one-dimensional and tedious.
Get it together, Hulu.
I tend to agree. This season has been very lackluster.
I’ve only watched the first episode and was very underwhelmed. Once they ran out of book the writers seem to have real trouble making a coherent story. Some great looking scenes but it doesn’t really seem to make any sense.
Yeah, the worldbuilding leaves a lot to be desired. Also Kylie Jenner threw a Handmaid themed birthday party complete with signature cocktails like Under His Eye Tequila and Praised Be Vodka. :rolleyes:
I’m still enjoying it. I’m invested now - I have to see it to fruition!
I like that her new digs are an Underground Railroad for Marthas, but I think it would have been better for if it had been revealed more gradually. Also, I was totally confused when that one Martha got shot. Seems like they crammed way too much stuff in that one episode (or perhaps I need stop multitasking while watching this show).
I did like how Serena’s mother went from a fount of loving kindness to evil all-knowing bitch in a matter of seconds, though. I should have guessed that was coming, but I didn’t.
Perhaps highly ranked widows get generous pensions. I imagine that women in her position might also earn some cash by doing work for the church and whatnot.
Aunts have many privileges, including driving the their own scooters. 
We saw a flash of the old Serena Joy, but there’s only so much she can do behind the scenes and we know how suddenly her mood shifts. On the other hand she has a lot less left to loose now. And as cruel as the Handmaid system is she does have a point; events like this reception make everyone uncomfortable and don’t really serve a point. It’s bad enough that Handmaids have to silently watch as their stolen children are publicly paraded before them by other people they have to act like happy party guests (who stay in the kitchen & can’t eat from the buffet) at the risk of brutal punishment if they step out of line. And it’s not like Janine isn’t already known for mental problems. What I’m really curious about is whether Aunt Lydia is going to suffer any kind of consequences for her actions. I mean I doubt beating Janine is the issue, but she did loose control in a room full of horrified Wives & Commanders and a baby (as opposed to having Janine dragged out of the room and punished later). Everything we’ve seen so far suggests she’s the highest ranking Aunt in the district, but she clearly answers to someone. Either there’s an unseen Commander overall in charge of the Red Center or maybe she answers directly to the District Council?
I’m having trouble suspending disbelief with this whole subplot of trying to get Fred and Serena back together. They are in a dystopian patriarchy where women are used as breeding stock and forbidden to read. You think a simple instruction to go back to your husband and do what he tells you would be dreadfully easy to enforce. Hell, we did that sort of thing in this country 30 or 40 years ago.
Also, the more openly aggressive June becomes, I don’t understand how this society allows her to remain free. People are executed for trivial things, but she practices open defiance without consequence.
Those are interesting questions. But we won’t get answers to them.
That’s what’s wrong with this show, or rather, what the show has become, as I still hold the first season in high regard. But it’s changed. There’s no more world-building. There’s no more exploration of the interesting details of Gilead.
You may know of the concept in show-writing called “the bottle episode.” Basically an episode with a greatly scaled-back scope, with a skeleton crew of a cast, confined to a small set, heavy on dialogue. It’s a convenient contrivance for when the show’s budget, or schedule, or both, are tight. “Fly” was one such episode on Breaking Bad. Well, every episode of The Handmaid’s Tale is now essentially a bottle episode. After this season so far, I’m convinced of it.
Based on that, I expect every episode from here on out to essentially be summed up as “the same small handful of people, talking to each other, slowly, in a handful of different rooms.” And it’s a shame, because there’s so much potential, but ever since they deviated from the book, they’re out to lunch.
Well said. I’m half watching along with my wife and it seems to degenerated into long pregnant pauses interspersed with dramatic scenes with no apparent plot I can make sense of. Which is a real shame as season one was excellent.
Well the ending was certainly unexpected. :eek: What the hell is Fred’s plan here? What’s his comeback going to be if the Canadians do something really simple like demand June and him show up in person for a Family Court hearing or DNA test? :dubious: Who are they trying to fool with June meekly & silently standing in the background? I don’t see the point unless Gilead is really planning to use Nicole/Holly as a pretext to attack Canada (personally if I escaped from Gilead I’d try like hell to be resettled in Australia).
Serena was as wildly inconsistent as ever, if it weren’t so early in the season I might actually believed she’d defect. She’s obviously valuable enough not to have to worry about being tried for treason or crimes against humanity. The cassette tapes were a nice touch. I wonder if we’ll finally get to see Fred on the wrong side of a purge this season. If push comes to shove I can still see Serena selling him out and giving whatever performance is asked of her at the show trial.
Gilead is still fighting with the United States, which is probably seen as a civil war by most of the world’s nations. Attacking Canada would be a real act of aggression against another nation, and I’m not convinced that Gilead is strong enough to face the USA, Canada, and any of Canada’s allies simultaneously.
I certainly can’t believe that anyone in Canada would shed tears for Fred’s and Serena’s video – the Canadians know what’s going on in Gilead. On the other hand, Gilead does clearly have some sympathetic spies in Ontario, having fetched the baby’s medical records and all.
This past season has been garbage. No more drama. No more tension. No more world-building. No more “oh shit!” moments.
Just an unending series of the same handful of characters having slow, tedious conversations in dimly lit rooms, and close ups of Elizabeth Moss’s face grimacing. I’m so over it.
This third season has us almost ready to give up on the show. As Dread Pirate Jimbo so accurately pointed out, the first season was all about the horrors of a modern world where women have lost ALL their human rights. This last season has focused almost exclusively on babies, children, and motherhood. I believe the irony would be completely lost on the writers of the show that they have reduced women to walking incubators who ONLY care about babies and children.
I can’t figure June out, either. She is the stupidest person alive, is all I can figure. She has absolutely no concept of do the hard thing now so you can do other things in the future. She stayed in Gilead to get Hannah out? The only thing that matters to her in the world is the daughter that is safe and happy with a different family? I’ll stay in Gilead and have zero power and be at risk of being killed for literally looking at someone wrong instead of getting out and getting safe and working to fight against the whole system from the outside - best decision EVER!!! Are we supposed to be assuming that June is working up to become a resistance leader or some such nonsense?
June ain’t no Harriet Tubman, that’s for sure. Harriet got the hell out of Slavery Land (Maryland) so she could harness the resources she needed to successfully rescue her family. Because no one got a slap on the hand for being a runaway slave. You get caught and you are either going to be executed or tortured in the most public way to deter any copycats. So you get the hell out while you can and then worry about how you are going to reunite the family.
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I hate to say it, because I love the book,loved the first season, and usually adore EMoss, but making June into some badass is really not working, at least not for me. As others have mentioned, “the rules” apparently don’t apply to her; she would have been on The Wall long ago. And the scene with her and Serena by the pool, sitting back in the lounge chair and glaring at the camera? I thought she was going to go into a Dr. Evil style soliloquy. All she needed was a cat to stroke.
On a different note, I’m not sure I understand what’s going on with Emily and her wife. I realize their separation and all that followed have been traumatic but why do they seem so awkward with one another? Weren’t they happily married when Emily got detained? When they finally reunited it was like they were distant relatives or something.Has it been explained that the wife (sorry I forget her character’s name)had moved on and is with someone else or something? Why on earth would Emily stay at a hotel?
Maybe they just aren’t there yet, but I don’t understand what June is doing AT ALL. She’s becoming a bad-ass? She’s going to become the leader of the revolution? She’s just going to be all determined one minute and crying and doing something stupid the next? Work with us here, writers. Help us to understand what you’re trying to do.
I understand that they will be awkward with each other at first, but for the love of all that’s holy, start talking with each other at some point!