A series version of the Margaret Atwood novel that examines how free countries tend to turn into deep, smelly shitholes when they’re taken over by totalitarian theocracies, Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is engrossing, thrilling, heartbreaking and one of the best things you’re going to see this year.
It’s set in a “Children of Men”-ish future in which almost all women have lost the ability to become pregnant, and the few who still can are kidnapped, imprisoned and ritualistically raped by top government functionaries in Gilead, a new Christian Fundamentalist nation that now inhabits most of the real estate that used to belong to United States. Any resulting infants are ripped from the rapees’ arms and given to the rapists’ wives to raise.
“Gilead” is said to mean “eternal happiness” in ancient Hebrew, but it’s a living nightmare for the woman who becomes Offred (Elisabeth Moss of “Mad Men” fame), who was valued more for her brains than her vagina in the Old Days, when she was gainfully employed as a book editor. She gets her new name from Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes), her assigned rapist, and is trained between rapes to parrot Christian dogma to avoid brutal punishments.
There are great twists. The performances – by Moss, Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski (“Chuck”) as Waterford’s Jolie-esqe baby-craving wife, and Ann Dowd (guilty remnant Patti in “The Leftovers”) as the brutal sadist charged with indoctrinating the rapee-designates -- are superb.
My favorite character in the first three episodes turns out to be Ofglen (Alexis Bleidel, youngest of the Gilmore Girls), whose screentime was fleeting in the 1990 movie adaptation. At first Offred shares our hate of Ofglen, mistaking her for someone fundamentally fundamentalist -- but in one rather thrilling and remarkable first-episode scene we learn Ofglen improbably misses her old freedoms even more than Offred.
The book was published in the mid-1980s, when the Moral Majority and Christian conservatives generally were taking lots of credit for twice getting Ronald Reagan elected president. Our current POTUS, who not too long ago appeared (clothed) in several VHS softcore titles , posed for the cover of Playboy, and remains married to a woman who appeared highly naked in print (girl-on-girl, whips and more), would seem an unlikely founder of Gilead. Should something happen to President Trump, however, it’s easier to see Mike Pence warming up to the idea of a puritan theocracy, no?
... as good a job as Miller and his collaborators have done of bringing Atwood’s future vision to nauseating life, the most rage-inducing parts of the series tend to be the ones set in the past. It’s a world far more recognizable, and plausible, and as our heroine and her friends tell jokes about what’s happening but otherwise go about their lives, it’s impossible not to draw parallels with the very shaky state of our own reality, where there’s been a rise in fascist candidates and fascist rhetoric, of sentiments — racist, sexist, or otherwise hateful — that wouldn’t have been acceptable if said in public even a few years ago that now fly about freely, and how easy it is to just laugh, or cringe, and, like Luke, assume that this can’t possibly last, because common sense and decency eventually must prevail. …
... It’s what the show does with its heavy and consequential themes that makes it such vital viewing. …
A generation after the book was published and became a movie, "The Handmaid's Tale" has been turned into a jolting TV series, representing a huge step up in class for Hulu. Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel has already been politicized, but stands on its own as a best-yet project that enables the streaming service rub elbows with the pay-TV elite. …
... Every detail of The Handmaid's Tale, from the distinctive costuming of the maids — massive hoods that shield their faces, making engagement with the world limited — to the supporting performances, hits exactly the right note. … At its best, it has a tension practically unmatched on television. The more you learn about Offred, the more she looks like TV's great new heroine.
... spectacular … You might guess that the producers had added certain on-the-nose details to be topical: refugees fleeing for Canada; Gilead’s leaders leveraging fear of Islamic terrorists; feminist street protests before the regime’s crackdown. That’s all in the novel. …
... Atwood takes details both from American slavery and the Holocaust to describe her female-unfriendly future, and the viewer will have no trouble hearing current-day resonances in lines like "We're pulling together a march for Thursday morning" and "This can't last," as the twisted Christian Republic of Gilead supplants the United States of America. …
... This series, which is worth every penny of a Hulu subscription, would be must-see TV in any context, including one with a woman as president. Our fractured culture needs it. … “The Handmaid’s Tale” sets off an alarm in the viewer, showing how the smallest freedoms are the first to disappear, followed by a radical reordering of one’s world. …
The San Francisco Chronicle says:
... Creator Bruce Miller has both preserved the fundamental focus of Atwood’s novel and opened the lens even further so that its message resonates even more specifically for a 21st century audience. It’s not just that we can relate to xenophobia, racism and homophobia in our less-than-brave new world, but that we also see the common cause of those social maladies: fear and insecurity. Far too often, those who are not comfortable in their own skins can are driven to hate and punish the “other” in society. We should know that the cancer of hate will always be part of our world, but the message made resoundingly clear in “The Handmaid’s Tale” is how much we stand to lose by acquiescing to its existence.…
... “The Handmaid’s Tale” has a lot to say in 10 episodes. Clear your schedule for one of the best series of 2017.…
... There's a solemn fascination in the details of soulless ritual depicted in the Handmaid's Tale ... A deadlier game of rebellion seems to be brewing, promising thrilling twists to come in this already terrific Tale. …
... a worthy, heartbreaking adaptation of the text, anchored by strong performances and profound visual grammar. … In this elegant landscape, when the brutality of the regime clenches its fist, the violence is breathtaking. It has the veneer of order and right, which makes it so much harder to stomach. …
... probably the spring's best new show and certainly its most important. …
12:01 a.m. Wednesday. Hulu.
