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    The Handmaid's Tale

    Starts tomorrow night on Channel Four, and looks promising, going by the trailers and it would take some going to butcher the Atwood novel. That said, has been some time since I read the original, which is probably to my advantage in terms of any liberties taken.

    #2
    The Handmaid's Tale

    Reviews and ratings have been stellar over here, if that's worth anything. It's currently at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.

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      #3
      The Handmaid's Tale

      Like DR it's a long time since I read the book, though the opening episode did seem pretty faithful to the novel as I recall it. My main concern is discovering a second series has been commissioned. Now the original book didn't exactly have closure by my memory of it but neither was it open-ended. And that was necessary to save the whole thing from being too depressing. I'll watch on because I really rated the book, with a nagging fear that it might end up too grinding.

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        #4
        A reminder that Atwood invented nothing for this story.

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          #5
          I've found this riveting so far; there have been some brutal moments where the humiliation and loss of control inherent in the premise are logically followed through. It isn't without moments of dark humour and Elizabeth Moss is good at conveying a sense of the absurdity of being stuck in a waking nightmare. The series has reminded me that the default genre for dystopian fictions on screen is often the thriller, and this is paced differently to a conventional one. I'm dubious as to how further seasons might work, without gratuitously repeating the nastiness or becoming a more straightforward resistance yarn. Neither would measure up to what has been a very strong stand alone piece.

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            #6
            Just finished this , very good.
            I never read the book, I might have a peek.

            The brutality and humiliation dished out was pretty hard to take; but beautifully acted and and shot.

            I can predict any second series going dangerously close to The Hunger Games melt down, of "the revenge, the fightback" or what ever, and will lose the simplicity of it all.

            The single coloured outfits , red, blue, or black - although kept reminding me of FIFA rules, were very effective in the various landscapes.
            Might just try and watch Top of the Lake, to get more Elisabeth Moss.

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              #7
              Catching up on this, up to Episode 6, and would echo VTTB's comments. Brutal but outstanding entertainment. Elizabeth Moss is excellent. I recommend Top of the Lake, very different but she's good in that too.

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                #8
                Warning - vague spoilers. Not, I think, enough to be serious partiucularly if you haven't read the book, but those yet to complete Series 1 might want to skip it anyway.



                Series 1 is basically the entire novel, baring the coda which is set decades afterwards. However Atwood seems to be very involved in the TV series, so there is hope that it will maintain it's structure rather than becoming some typical resistence yarn. I wouldn't have thought they would make Gilead begin to look vulnerable to falling as yet, as this would limit them to just a handful of series when the makers would presumably rather go on as long as it is making money. This shouldn't be a problem - Gilead has just had it's successful revolution and is still fighting the remnants of that war (which it will continue long after it has been fully won, perpetual revolution and all it). It has many stages of brutality and development to go through yet before the whole thing turns on itself and founders.

                My guess for what Series 2 will deal with - problems mainly for the Commanders and their wives; political purity, purges, the emergence of a Stalin-like figure to be worshipped as a little god. Probably after receveing revelations. It will show that in such a society everyone is vulnerable, not just those on the bottom rung (though they, of course, will be partiuclarly at risk). We were already seeing a foreshadowing of that happening towards the end of Series 1, with Fred being upbraided for insufficient piety at the trial of that other bloke. My Mum, who has been watching it avidly, found the behaviour and atmosphere if not the specifics distubringly like her childhood in Communist Czecholsovakia, particularly the secret police and the parrotted catchphrases like "Blessed be the fruit", "May the Lord open" and "Under his eye". Which isn't particularly surprising, given that Atwood was in West Berlin when she wrote much of the book. It borrows from all of American evangelicalism, Iranian theocracy and an archetypal police state like East Germany. So the various stages of development of communist societies can form the model for series to come.
                Last edited by Janik; 09-08-2017, 11:28.

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                  #9
                  Despite ostensibly being set in our current reality, Top Of The Lake is deeply strange, more so than The Handmaid's Tale, which ruthlessly follows the logic of its premise.

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                    #10
                    We're now up to Episode 8 and it's as good as before but I have to admit to one rather personal niggle. I know that Gilead is very good with its emissions and they clearly have minimal lighting. But I can hardly see a bloody thing with some of the indoor shots. Partly my eyesight.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by Sits View Post
                      Elizabeth Moss is excellent. I recommend Top of the Lake, very different but she's good in that too.
                      And especially Mad Men of course.

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                        #12
                        RTE has got a jump on the UK now with Series Two - without giving any spoilers, there are three main strands in the new storyline - the first concentrating on Offred, the second on Aunt Lydia and Gilead, and the third introducing life in the Colonies. An intriguing sidestory also fleshed out Ofglen's (Emily's) background.
                        Last edited by Diable Rouge; 27-04-2018, 18:08.

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                          #13
                          We're getting it on SBS too, who kicked off with a double episode midweek. We watched no. 1 last night. Reassuringly bleak.

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                            #14
                            C4 showed the first episode on Sunday over here. Ruthlessly effective combination of high visual style and brutality, with Elisabeth Moss again the pick of an excellent cast. The new directions in nastiness could tip over into just being an arty version of Saw VI at some point, but the balancing act still works for now.

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                              #15
                              Yeah, I don't really trust them not to TV-ify the narrative now that they're not constrained by the book, but on the other hand, the fact that it's a subscription service doing the commissioning gives me some hope.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                                C4 showed the first episode on Sunday over here. Ruthlessly effective combination of high visual style and brutality, with Elisabeth Moss again the pick of an excellent cast. The new directions in nastiness could tip over into just being an arty version of Saw VI at some point, but the balancing act still works for now.
                                Or as Stuart Heritage says in The Guardian today, "The first episode of the second series – which variously included muzzling, nooses, freezing, chaining, burning and graphic, closeup self-mutilation – was essentially one liquidised pig’s carcass away from becoming Saw III: The Series"
                                Last edited by Mr Cogito; 23-05-2018, 17:22. Reason: Added the link to the article

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                                  #17
                                  Not a fan of the last episode (Women's Work, for those running ahead of the UK). Part of it is just curmudgeonliness about it not being the book, but it's also not the world they set up in the first season. There's just no way the powers that be in that world would tolerate with such relative equanimity these constant, flagrant breaches of law and faith and norms. Sure there was punishment at the end, but there's no way the Aunt Lydia of the book or the first season would have allowed any of the ICU stuff, let alone endorsed it. In previous episodes this season the increasing "leniency" has been somewhat justified by the situation the powers find themselves in, but it's just not remotely plausible any more. Handmaids have gone from not even trusting their shopping partners to just openly talking about rebellion in shops. It's gone from being a terrifying totalitarian state in which you can be hung for saying your real name, to basically a 19th century patriarchy with 21st century tech. It's not a convincing portrait of an authoritarian regime collapsing under its own contradictions, even though that seems to be what they're aiming at.
                                  Last edited by Ginger Yellow; 09-07-2018, 18:29.

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                                    #18
                                    *spoiler? maybe*

                                    Unless of course the regime is losing its grip under increasing sanctions pressure.

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                                      #19
                                      Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View Post
                                      Not a fan of the last episode (Women's Work, for those running ahead of the UK). Part of it is just curmudgeonliness about it not being the book, but it's also not the world they set up in the first season. There's just no way the powers that be in that world would tolerate with such relative equanimity these constant, flagrant breaches of law and faith and norms. Sure there was punishment at the end, but there's no way the Aunt Lydia of the book or the first season would have allowed any of the ICU stuff, let alone endorsed it. In previous episodes this season the increasing "leniency" has been somewhat justified by the situation the powers find themselves in, but it's just not remotely plausible any more. Handmaids have gone from not even trusting their shopping partners to just openly talking about rebellion in shops. It's gone from being a terrifying totalitarian state in which you can be hung for saying your real name, to basically a 19th century patriarchy with 21st century tech. It's not a convincing portrait of an authoritarian regime collapsing under its own contradictions, even though that seems to be what they're aiming at.
                                      And the conclusion to Series 2 duly proves completely ridiculous and totally illogical to the premise of the Atwood novel - June makes a decision that totally undermines her purpose as a character, and where the expected outcome would have opened up entirely new plot perspectives and broadened the range of players involved in Series 3, the "twist" effectively declares that Atwood has renounced any input, and that the scriptwriters have run out of original ideas.

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                                        #20
                                        Yeah, I'm not too happy with that final decision either. On the other hand, the Small Faces afficionado commander provides a promising new character and household to further explore.

                                        I thought for a moment they were going to attach a sickening image to Itchycoo Park, but that's not at all how it went down. Much more interesting this way.

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                                          #21
                                          So no allowance for maternal instinct?

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                                            #22
                                            Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                            So no allowance for maternal instinct?
                                            She can hardly go back to the Waterfords now, though, which was important for access to her first child.

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                                              #23
                                              Not sure who has or hasn't seen it so

                                              *SPOILER*

                                              I sense also the regime is beginning to crumble under a combination of a flawed foundation, plus international sanctions and censure. The ability of Bradley Whitford's character to maintain his status while abusing the model so severely lends weight to that I reckon.

                                              Perhaps Offred senses this shift, and wants to try and help destabilise things. I know that's investing one character with a lot of influence, but this is fiction.

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                                                #24
                                                Originally posted by Sits View Post
                                                So no allowance for maternal instinct?
                                                Well, I don't have any kids yet, so what do I know? But

                                                [spoiler]in order to go after her first child from within Gilead, she had to give her second child to somebody else. The alternative would have been to bring her second child with her to Canada to build a family of initially three, and go after reunion with her first child while fighting against the Gileadean system from the outside. Right now, she has access to precisely zero of her loved ones.[/spoiler]

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