Hulu dropped the first 3 episodes Monday. It’s weird how much I’ve been looking forward to thus given how much I dislike the prequel (aka the new), but I managed to watch the first episode last night. I was not disappointed. It didn’t take long for Serena Joy to show her true colors. I knew that there was going to be a big surprise at the end, but I was expecting the train to be rerouted to Gilead, not for June’s mother to show up alive and well. 
On a side note where did they get those train cars and is ut even possible to take a train to Alaska over freight tracks?
Damn, we just had episode six “Janine”, and no one has chimed in yet. We might be the only two dopers watching! I’m usually on the reddit boards.
I have to say I’m surprised at a new season after all this time. I just figured they killed it. Now I’ll have to reopen my Hulu account.
Whatever awful thing Warton has in store for Serena she deserves it. I can understand the rational behind installing a crematorium in Jezebels, who does idea was it to not have security cameras and give Marthas unrestricted access to it? 
Nothings changed since High Commander Winslow mysteriously dissappeared inside the same Jezebels.
I’m watching, haven’t watched the most recent episode yet. The delay between seasons 5 and 6 was way to long.
I started season 6 and realized I had no idea what was going on. I watched some recaps of season 5 and I barely remembered half of it! So I rewatched the last two episodes of 5 and felt sufficiently prepared to continue. Way too much time passed between seasons, IMHO.
I’ve watched through episode 5 and I just really can’t see how they’re going to successfully land this. It seems like they’ve wasted so much time in both this season and prior ones for very little advancement of the plot towards a (plausible) resolution. I’ll finish the season since it’s the last one.
Where exactly is New Bethlehem? I assumed it was Nantucket or Marthas Vineyard, but it’s suspiciously easy to get to from Boston by car all hours of the night. Do Commanders have access to a 24 hour ferry service?
My thought that it was close to the border, more like upstate New York or Vermont.
So am I the only one who wonders if Mayday was so quick to send June back Gilead after her screwup is because they kinda hope she dies? Also if Serena were to be decapitated what animal’s head would you like get stuck on her body for the parade?
Not happy about this next episode in three minutes. “Execution” doesn’t seem to me to be the definition of an attack plan that was well done.
Well, at least Lawrence got a good send-off. And Aunt Lydia finally snapped.
The idea of sending a bunch of handmaids out to kill commanders and their wives with box knives seems ridiculous, ineffective, and a good way to get a bunch of handmaids killed. I’m also not clear on how or why this was supposed to kick off an insurrection.
Leaving that aside, I actually think this was one of the better episodes in quite some time. Lawrence is able to complete his redemptive arc through both his adoptive daughter and then getting on the plane. Death was his only way out - he would be considered a war criminal anywhere outside of Gilead, and probably within Gilead at this point as well. Nick is also finally killed off, although arguably it was an easier death than he deserved. June should never play hide-and-seek, she’s terrible at it.
Luke finally gets to do something. Aunt Lydia finally sees and acknowledges what’s going on (and
Ann Dowd is always such a great actress). June has now killed both of Serena’s husbands.
I am just disappointed that all of this was crammed into the penultimate episode of the series. So much of this would have been even better if it had been spread throughout the season. There’s too much left for the final episode.
I was yelling at the TV the whole time about her just being the only one at the COMMANDERS airport hangar, and then she just brazenly walks down the runway. A little too far on the suspending disbelief scale.
I’m on episode 7. Just dropping in to say that, for an authoritarian state, Gilead has some awfully porous land borders, and not a whole lot in the way of electronic surveillance. But that really is the least of the show’s problems at this point.
Okay, so, episode 9. There is no way in hell (or Gilead) that the system that holds trials consisting of a prosecutor attesting that the charges are true while the female defendant stands bound and gagged, and then proceeds directly to execution, lets Aunt Lydia and June speak at their (very public) execution. No way.
This isn’t Gilead anymore, it’s a Disney cartoon. They might as well have given Commander Wharton a mustache to twirl as it all went down.
My final verdict:
Not as bad as GOT Season 8.
Which is to say that it’s not so awful as to make earlier seasons unwatchable. It just sort of flounders, but it doesn’t undue the good that has already been done.
I think the series’ biggest flaw, particularly as it progressed, was the lack of realistic consequences not only for the plot armor heavy June, but increasingly for other members of the main cast as well. If they wanted June to be the lead throughout the series, they needed to write a way (from about… season 3 on?4 at the latest?)for her to continue to shape events and be shaped by them, but without constantly having to be in extreme danger.
Also, a more plausible end to Gilead (or rather its occupation in Boston), or else much lowered expectations for what would be accomplished by the series finale. All in all, the world building felt increasingly anemic from… whenever the shipped Nick off to Chicago to be some bad-ass counter-insurrectionist (if not sooner) as if they didn’t already have that well in hand.
Yeah, it lost … something … after about Season 2. The initial world-building was quite breath-taking, but maybe as a production cost-saving there was lots of explanatory talking in muted audio in natural light settings and the cinematic set-pieces got fewer and fewer. Was quite a thankless task to watch through to the end of the recent seasons.
While the Gilead patriarchy forbade so much in their new world, they seemed to continue to allow jumping the shark.
GOT season 8 is setting the bar really low. This finale sucked, but it was still better than These Are the Voyages. There were way too many happy endings. Also if New England remains free that’s really going to change the dynamic in The Testaments.
Just finished the season tonight. Dang, that was the slowest season of television I’ve ever sat through. The finale was especially bad. The whole episode was nothing but dream sequences, heart-to-heart conversations that went on way too long, and June walking in slow motion.
Hell, most of the season was just pointless slo-mo shots or an extended close-up of June’s face. The worst were the extended close-ups of June’s face in slo-mo.
Would not recommend.
The ending wasn’t great, but it was better than I thought it would be (agree with ASL that the GOT ending remains the worst). They just wasted too much time over the last couple of seasons and absolutely trudged through this season.
Poor baby Holly/Nichole - she’s passed between adults like an unwanted sack of potatoes. I predict serious attachment issues in her future.
Luke rides triumphantly off with the rebels, conveniently unbothered by thoughts of either his real or adoptive daughters. I’ve never been a fan of the character or the way the actor played him, but just what a waste. He should have been sent off into the sunset long before now.
I don’t see how they can line this up with the sequel, Testaments, unless they just gut the plot and it’s in name only. I don’t think I’ll even try to watch it unless the writers and directors are replaced, assuming they can even get the project off the ground.