The Handmaid's Tale - Hulu

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Deesky, Apr 29, 2017.

  1. I watched the Season 2 again (about to start Season 3 tonight), but I didn't find that it spun its wheels in the least. In fact, I was amazed at how much story they were able to pack into each episode.

    I think if people wanted the show to remain June-centric they might be disappointed, though. What happened was the fleshed out other characters, namely Serena.

    Again, the only thing I didn't like about Season 2 is how Commander Waterford miraculously survived the suicide bomber. Too unrealistic.
     
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  2. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    Well... Season 3 at least starts off at a rapid pace. I'm reminded of the last season of Game of Thrones. The pacing is way too fast and each dramatic shot feels like a corny nü metal music video. I was laughing by the end of Episode 1. Things get a little better in Episode 2, but the writing is very much lacking and actual plot development isn't there. Starting to feel like Whitford, as much as I love him, may have been miscast here. His "tone" doesn't fit with everything that's come before.
     
  3. I've only seen Episode 1 of Season 3 and I was confused as hell. I'm a pretty quick study, but some of these things just didn't seem to jibe. In fact, almost nothing did. For instance:
    Nick all but points his pistol as Waterford in the last episode of last season. This season Waterford basically says nothing about that. He's just sitting in the room with Nick outside the door, gun in hand. I know Nick is a member of The Eye (that's what it's called, right?), but Waterford just has to eat Nick's crap?

    Then, okay the baby is gone and June is found outside, seeing her other daughter. But wait, how did the "police" know that June was there? If the Martha called the cops, man, what a quick response! Commander Joseph was hanging out outside. Who called the cops so quick? Did Joseph do it? That seems crazy. There could be a reason that he did...but never mind, because I guess he's somehow absolved from the whole thing, even though Ofglen nearly killed Aunt Lydia in his house, she escapes under his watch, steals the baby, and makes it to Canada...meanwhile nobody questions him? Nobody questions June, either! Waterford makes a half-hearted speech about them dying for this, yet in the next few scenes he's marching Nick around and talking gently to his wife. He doesn't even bat an eye when the house burns down.

    So, instead of questioning June about her baby being abducted by her pal Ofglen, June just gets punished for sneaking out of the house while all of this is going on to see her child?

    Joseph must have also pulled some stuff to get Lydia to the doctor, which is good and all, but yet another reason why he should be questioned.

    Now, all of these questions might be answered in the next two episodes, or beyond, but for the start of this season all I envisioned with chaos, people going nuts, blaming other parties, and by some miracle June gets saved to team up with Joseph. Instead it felt like a tea party. Serena went a little nuts, and I guess she covered up some stuff, but if the fire marshal comes out he'll see that the fire was set on the bed. Serena is more Handmaid than a wife of the upper class now, so how is she going to get off the hook?

    This was just too off from actions that would have happened in the previous seasons.
     
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  4. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Didn't read the review, but the sentiment about 'spinning its wheels' is spot on. I've seen the first three and I was mostly bored. There's just so many slow paced close-up shots of people with pained expressions and deep-and-meaningful looks, that I almost made a drinking game out of it.

    I mean, previous seasons also had a fair share of those types of shots, but they were earned through plot developments. Here (so far) random things just seem to happen with no propulsive narrative through-line. Things just meander along. The only real spark occurred in the third episode when June confronts Lawrence in his study.

    The third episode did conclude on a hopeful and eventful note, promising some interesting developments, but I hope they don't waste another three episodes before getting to the meat.
     
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  5. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    yes, all of this! it feels like the same show... on cocaine.
     
  6. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    hot show around here, i see!

    anyway, watched the 3rd episode last night and things do pivot a bit. whitford's character is way more fleshed out and gets interesting. still with the incessant close-ups of june being "angry" or something for unclear reasons, but it looks like the plot might start to get interesting again. something is still off about the pacing.
     
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  7. I finished Episodes 2 & 3 tonight.

    Ep.2 had some plot holes, yet not as many as Ep.1.

    Ep.3 was really very good.

    In sum: everybody got off the hook in Ep.1, yet in Ep.2 Aunt Lydia had a very convincing argument that June should be "on the wall," which would have probably happened if anyone thought to interrogate her. Lydia's presumptions were wrong, though she knew that June had something to do with what had happened.

    Afterwards, in Ep.3 the conversation was killer between June and Commander Lawrence. The whole thing was pretty killer.

    Commander Lawrence. Wow, they said it in the episode that he's a hard man to figure out, which is exactly what I'm trying to do. This is what June's trying to do, but I'm not certain she's coming any closer. He makes for one of the more interesting characters in this whole series.

    Now, if this show can hold the tone, pace and storylines of Ep.3 I feel it will be a good season, regardless of the wonky start. At the same time, I don't see this series going longer than 3 seasons. I guess it all depends on if the showrunners are able to work some magic into the rest of the season.
     
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  8. Leviethan

    Leviethan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Portland, OR
    We watched the first three episodes. I think it’s suffering from the same ailment that afflicted the last few seasons of Game of Thrones: it’s way off-book. I just don’t buy June being able to waltz around and talk back to everybody and throw shade at commanders with zero consequences. It doesn’t track with the world of Gilead in the book or what we saw in the first season. Still, we’ll see where they go with it. The last episode was filled with a lot of platitudes and no action.
     
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  9. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Yes and no. She doesn't just throw shade at any random commander (which would surely result in consequences), but when she does, it's to commanders that have shown a personal interest in her, and thus there is some kind of personal relationship there. Lawrence kind of fits into that category as he helped her escape, though his motivations right now are somewhat inscrutable. Also a comment was made that he does not like to be bored, so a feisty interaction was probably a good thing for June.
     
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  10. Larry Mc

    Larry Mc Forum Dude

    Who is that guy in your avatar? I just can't figure him out. :)
     
  11. Tom Baker. English actor who played Dr Who in early 1970's.
     
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  12. Deesky

    Deesky Forum Resident Thread Starter

    One and the same, from the constellation of Kasterborous. :D
     
  13. Nobody watched Ep.4?

    I thought it was cool. Not as good as Ep.3, but better than Ep.1 & 2.

    A real plus for this episode is that whatever June's plan to end this thing is happening in a natural way, as her interaction with Serena doesn't seem forced. In fact, it seems like Serena can see what June is up to (to an extent - hearkening back to their activities in Season 2), but is only sympathetic to a point. It makes me wonder what would happen to June's plan if Serena gets her way with Fred, yet doesn't share enough with June to get the job done. I mean, June layed it out pretty bare for Serena. Is Serena all the way in?

    Otherwise, it was great to see Aunt Lydia with egg on her face. We might have a new regime...or, I bet something is coming that's not easily seen at the moment.

    I'm still highly interested, though I wonder how June can continue snooping right in front of master's noses; moreover, she's getting pretty lippy with folks. Those closeups on her face need to go.
     
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  14. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    Still on board here. And I don't think the show is 'spinning it's wheels' at all. The pace has kept me as interested as ever. Excited to see what happens with Chicago. Anytime we get to see more of Gilead or Canada or flashbacks is the best. Because sometimes it seems like Gilead is just a mansion and a street and a mansion and a summer house and so on. I don't want to see this show fall into the trap Walking Dead fell into, where that entire world was just the woods. My god, how boring that show could be.
     
  15. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    oh yeah, i did.

    how many close-ups of june's face do we need? is that really an acceptable substitute for good writing now? she is basically shielded in her plot armor now so they're having her act in ways and do things she'd never be able to have done before.
     
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  16. the pope ondine

    the pope ondine Forum Resident

    Location:
    Virginia
    yeah they've gone to that well one too many times, im still in but sometimes.....the 'burn mother'fer burn' burning scene, it feels like im watching a different show (and struggling to maintain interest in the Canada storyline)
     
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  17. Surely the showrunners must be aware that the use of June's close-up-face is getting...well, annoying.

    I mean, if that's one of my few nitpick then they are still doing something right (in a lot of cases, many things right); nevertheless, too many of these things pull me out of it. They really do.

    If this was a drinking game I'd be screwed up within the hour. :)

    I'm committed until the end, though. The show is simply too compelling. I can bellyache a little now, but I know that when the show is over I'll miss it (unless they try to pull 20 seasons out of it like TWD). If this isn't the last season, I'm certain only one more will do.
     
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  18. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    It was back to the old torture porn again. It's like writing a sequel to a Shakespeare play where random characters from the plays sit around a dining room discussing their motivations.

    Canada is a beaurcpatic nightmare. The women were better off in Gilead.
     
  19. John B Good

    John B Good Forum Hall Of Fame

    Location:
    NS, Canada
    There was a Canadian newscaster decades ago who used his best concerned look to utter "this too is reality" after some news item.

    As for Canada "we the north" now, your interpretation of Canada as shown in Handmaid's Tale seems appropriate if we added New Ageist to bureaucratic. :)
     
  20. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    Even the choice of songs didn't cut it this week.
     
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  21. Sadly the third season resembles a mouse in a running wheel—spinning quickly but leading nowhere.
     
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  22. Only if you want a June-centric show.

    Personally, I'm still very much enjoying the show (with the exception of June's closeups). I think the idea of Serena coming close to moving to the revolution's side, but never doing it, is fully intriguing.

    I mean, just look at the clever red herring from Ep.5. She didn't take June's package to Luke, then we see in her purse that phone, with the note reading, "If You Need Me," leaving the audience to believe that was what was in June's package. But no, off screen she went back and gave the Canadian dude the package for Luke with the cassette, and evidently the phone in her purse was from the Canadian guy to her. She kept the phone for some reason.

    The next thing you know Serena is making a film to try and get the baby back. Does she want to make this film, or is she being pushed into it?

    I'm sure we'll find out.

    Then there's June's role in the resistance, plus Commander Lawrence (a wild card), plus the impending doom that I feel for Lydia, in addition to June's walking partner, who I feel plays a part in this.

    So, really, it all feels like a natural progression of what came before, with the exception of this year's first episode - one that I still feel made little sense.

    What do you see that's not happening that you'd like to see happen?
     
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  23. Cokelike-

    Cokelike- Forum Resident

    Location:
    Columbus, Oh
    ^ Agree! There's plenty of things going on, all interesting, all moving the plot forward. Still hooked.
     
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  24. GentleSenator

    GentleSenator what if

    Location:
    Aloha, OR
    i'm sorry, but the latest episode was ridiculous. it felt like characters were pieces on a chess board being moved around not for strategy's sake but rather just because they could be. aside from the airport meeting, which displayed amazing tension and acting, the rest of the episode was laughable.

    i think this train's run outta steam, but i'll keep watching so i can play a drinking game: bourbon shot every time there's a close-up of june. two shots for every time she's grimacing in the direction of folks she totally shouldn't be allowed to based on everything we've been told about gilead so far. i might not make it into work next thursday.
     
  25. Mylene

    Mylene Senior Member

    If you have a sip every time June does something that any other Handmaid would be nailed to the wall for but gets away scott free you'd be paralytic by now.
     
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