This show is incredibly disturbing. Taking place in a dystopian society in the near-future, birthrates are low and morale is lower. Lower class women are forced to be concubines for the wealthy so there will be children to repopulate the Earth. Now, though that is dreadful and beyond cruel, women aren't allowed to read, write or work outside the house.
The main character is Offred (Elisabeth Moss), stripped of her own identity, taking the name of her master, in this case, Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes, still alive after Shakespeare in Love), who has a high command in the government but that doesn't stop him from breaking the law by allowing Offred to play Scrabble with him as a way to bond. His name is nasty. Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski), who used to have a career and actually wrote some of the laws now in place. Women's focus should be on the home and children.
There are also flashbacks to Offred's life before she became a handmaid. She was married to Luke (O-T Fagebenle) and was happy with him and their young daughter. Lest we forget, when they got together, he was a married man but he divorced his wife to be with June, Offred's real name. Like that happens in real life. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I broke up a marriage.
Perhaps the most disturbing part is when one of the Handmaid's Janine, now known as Ofwarren (Madeline Brewer) gives birth. First of all, you would think in a society where the chance of having a healthy child is a mere twenty percent, she would give birth in a hospital but instead she gives birth surrounded by the aunts (including Ann Dowd's Aunt Lydia), her fellow handmaids and toward the end, the wives. Her appointed mistress, Naomi Putnam (Ever Carradine) goes through all the fake motions of labor with her. It's just well, disturbing. There isn't really any other word for it. And Janine nurses the baby, but isn't allowed any other interaction with her miraculously healthy baby Angela. Once the baby is weaned, she is stationed somewhere else, but runs away and kidnaps her own child and nearly jumps off a bridge with the baby though June talks her off. The baby is safe and then everyone acts all surprised when Janine jumps and nearly dies. Her punishment changes the course of how the world is.
There is plenty to talk about in this show, that's for sure. In this new society, it is a crime to be homosexual and Alexis Bledel's Emily (or Ofglen) is sorely punished for it but is allowed to live because she has two good ovaries. She, quite literally, goes out with a bang, killing a soldier before dying herself.
June has a pregnancy scare early on but it turns out that she isn't pregnant so she is banished to her room for half the month and then Mrs. Waterford says that she should have sex with Nick (Max Minghella), the Waterfords driver so she won't get in trouble. And they basically fall in love, actually having sex with passion.
The finale episode has ups and downs for June. She is smacked by Mrs. Waterford as she discovered that her husband was completely cheating on her with June. She forces June to pee on a pregnancy test, which are illegal. And she's pregnant with Nick believing that he is the father. She witnesses Mrs. Waterford visit her daughter, while she is stuck in the car. She also opens for secret package which is letters of other women taken against their wills and raped and stripped and separated from their children. Janine is also to be punished but all the handmaids refuse to stone her, standing together. As June says in a voice over, if they didn't want us to be an army, they shouldn't have given us uniforms. She will be severely punished but has accepted her fate. The season ends with her being taken away, but Nick told her to just go with them. Who knows what her fate will be.
Her friend, Moira (Samira Wiley) has a whole different fate, finally escaping hell and being welcomed with open arms and a welcome kit in Canada. She is reunited with Luke there. I just hope that June will also get a happy ending.
This show is well-done, with great acting and excellent cinematography and art direction and haunting music that make you feel like you are in that repressive society. I also though that all the voice overs were totally unnecessary and kept you from being confused.
The only problem I had was the subplot of using the handmaids as a trade bargain with Mexico (where women can still have real careers). It is a main plot in one episode and then never mentioned again. I also don't understand how June is only thirty-one with an eight-year-old but was already out of college for some time before meeting and marrying Luke. Those are my only two problems with the show. I can't wait to see what happens to June, you must keep fighting or else they will win and they can't win. Grade: A-
No comments:
Post a Comment