The Handmaid's Tale - Hulu Original (**Spoilers**)

MargeS

Enough with the 'message' of the show. We know, we know...women, suppression, etc.
Enough with the atmospheric cinematography.
Enough with June looking with determination/frustration/annoyance/defiance into the camera.

Get on with the story already and make it believable. They've turned Celina again so they can squeeze another season out of it.

#MeLookingWithFrustrationAtWriters

ziedth

I honestly think the only that could save it now is a GOT level of story shift and they just randomly but June against a wall and shoot her.

Like the daughters Martha gets executed presumably for putting the child in danger but June isn't looked at? Was she not implicated? If not why was she killed.

I'll stick with it but it well and truly fallen off a cliff at this rate. I only really would like to see where Nick's story goes.

The Canada bowing to pressure arch to return the babe no matter what way you slice it is ridiculous. They have no problem jumping on them to offer immunity but they won't for a baby of all things. A small rewrite of in the time that Hune left the baby go that Canada closed its borders would make more sense and they were kind of being held in limbo.

Purple Mountain

Why couldn't Gilead get word to Luke that his wife will be tortured and murdered unless he hands over the baby?

gozunda

In the last episode (shown on RTE) the OH was convinced that the commander in Washinton DC attempted to make move on Commander Waterford whilst playing pool and smoozing him with an offer of a better position?

Personally I didn't see it?

Recliner

gozunda wrote: »

In the last episode (shown on RTE) the OH was convinced that the commander in Washinton DC attempted to make move on Commander Waterford whilst playing pool and smoozing him with an offer of a better position?

Personally I didn't see it?

I thought the same as your OH. A couple of times.

iguana

gozunda wrote: »

In the last episode (shown on RTE) the OH was convinced that the commander in Washinton DC attempted to make move on Commander Waterford whilst playing pool and smoozing him with an offer of a better position?

Personally I didn't see it?

The writers confirmed that he did. And then weirdly went on to talk about how fascinating it is because Meloni is such a masculine man. Because they live in a 1950s sitcom where only weedy effeminate men can be attracted to other men?

MargeS

gozunda wrote: »

In the last episode (shown on RTE) the OH was convinced that the commander in Washinton DC attempted to make move on Commander Waterford whilst playing pool and smoozing him with an offer of a better position?

Personally I didn't see it?

Oh! it was there all right. He was too familiar with him.
I didn't fully realise it until he put his hand on Waterfords shoulder.

Sleepy

We saw other hints in his wife's "salacious" comments about the waiters in this episode that the closer one gets to the centre of power in Gilead, the more hypocrisy we can expect to see.

Sleepy

Purple Mountain wrote: »

If it was Love Hate, June would have been bumped off in season 1.

And I'd argue the show would be all the better for it: her being killed as soon as she'd given birth to Nicole would have been a epic TV moment.

I love Elizabeth Moss but June has been ruined as a character.

The Late Late Show

While I like season 3 so far, the main fault as I previously stated is there isn't enough flashbacks to the lives of the characters compared with the first 2 seasons. Knowing the background story is important to understand these characters. Flashbacks with June, Moira and Luke helped us see the impact of Gilead on them and flashbacks of Serena showed how she helped establish Gilead's ideology.

Aunt Lydia, Joseph Lawrence and Nick are all characters crying out to have their backstory told. The Handmaid's Tale is at its best when we have these flashback scenes that fill in the full story. Also this Frederick B. Judd from the book could be brought in. Judd devised the particicution format and would be an interesting commander character. Despite moving off-book, there are still many elements of the book not included so far. One major issue is the whole racist side of Gilead is ignored so far in the TV series.

An interesting approach is to have a few episodes each themed with a backstory of a certain character. Let's take Nick for example: he is with June and June wants him to help her in some way. He is in two minds but ultimately refuses June's request and June gives out to him. Then, he is on the way to the war in Chicago and we see various flashbacks starting with the clip from series one meeting Andrew Pryce and then he attending Sons of Jacob meetings and then he being the guy who actually shoots the last US president prior to Gilead. You could then have June finding out about Nick's past and about war crimes he was involved in. Nick could be shown as torn between a good and bad side of him and as we see him in the war, we will have to see which side he is ultimately on.

SusieBlue

The Late Late Show wrote: »

An interesting approach is to have a few episodes each themed with a backstory of a certain character.

I think Orange is the New Black did the above really really well. It made the characters more relatable and added more dimension to the various storylines.

When its done well it can be a brilliant.

daheadonu

The Late Late Show wrote:

While I like season 3 so far, the main fault as I previously stated is there isn't enough flashbacks to the lives of the characters compared with the first 2 seasons. Knowing the background story is important to understand these characters. Flashbacks with June, Moira and Luke helped us see the impact of Gilead on them and flashbacks of Serena showed how she helped establish Gilead's ideology.

This.It would certainly help me understand Aunt Lydia she's probably the most confusing character to me, compassionate to the handmaids one moment and pokey pokey with the cattle prod the next.I just don't get her at all

The Late Late Show

daheadonu wrote: »

This.It would certainly help me understand Aunt Lydia she's probably the most confusing character to me, compassionate to the handmaids one moment and pokey pokey with the cattle prod the next.I just don't get her at all

Aunt Lydia is a great, complex and confusing character. My parents said she reminds them of Christian Brothers and Nuns when they were in school: brutal but protective. She can be kind and brutal all at once and she can also lose control. It is common that some nuns and Christian Brothers were deeply unhappy people often coerced by religious families to become what they became and they took their frustrations out on the children they taught one minute but could show extraordinary acts of kindness the next. Aunt Lydia is something very like this.

daheadonu

The Late Late Show wrote:

Aunt Lydia is a great, complex and confusing character. My parents said she reminds them of Christian Brothers and Nuns when they were in school: brutal but protective. She can be kind and brutal all at once and she can also lose control. It is common that some nuns and Christian Brothers were deeply unhappy people often coerced by religious families to become what they became and they took their frustrations out on the children they taught one minute but could show extraordinary acts of kindness the next. Aunt Lydia is something very like this.

I can definitely see this I would still like to see her past fleshed out on screen though.It would certainly lend credence
to her being how you describe.

Sardonicat

The Late Late Show wrote: »

Aunt Lydia is a great, complex and confusing character. My parents said she reminds them of Christian Brothers and Nuns when they were in school: brutal but protective. She can be kind and brutal all at once and she can also lose control. It is common that some nuns and Christian Brothers were deeply unhappy people often coerced by religious families to become what they became and they took their frustrations out on the children they taught one minute but could show extraordinary acts of kindness the next. Aunt Lydia is something very like this.

I either read or saw an interview with Ann Dowd and she said herself she decided to base her portrayal of Aunt Lydia on the nuns who taught her. The way she speaks to the Handmaids is exactly how the nuns addressed us at school. It was an ingenious move by Ann Dowd because it makes Aunt Lydia believable and relatable. She is the easiest character for me to recognise and believe in (possibly 'cos I was taught by nuns).

Purple Mountain

I'm giving up on it.
The handmaid in Winslows house was a step too creepy for me.
Also, I think Meloni is a bad fit for his role.
I can't see past him as the knight in shining armour in Law and Order fighting for rape victims.

Sleepy

Aunt Lydia's behaviour towards the Handmaids isn't that confusing imho, it's like that of an older sibling in some ways: in her eyes no one else is allowed to hurt them except for her.

iguana

Sardonicat wrote: »

I either read or saw an interview with Ann Dowd and she said herself she decided to base her portrayal of Aunt Lydia on the nuns who taught her. The way she speaks to the Handmaids is exactly how the nuns addressed us at school. It was an ingenious move by Ann Dowd because it makes Aunt Lydia believable and relatable. She is the easiest character for me to recognise and believe in (possibly 'cos I was taught by nuns).

Lydia is a similar personality to a teacher I had in primary school. She was an awful teacher, absolutely nuts and made me (and almost everyone else) very unhappy. She is the number one reason I will never send my son to that school even though it's local to me. (I have other reasons but she's the source of a lot of my feelings about school.) I know a lot of parents at the school now and she is a constant source of problems with parents trying to remove their kids from her class and having issues all year with her if they can't.

And yet, if she meets me or even my mother, she talks so fondly about me. About how much she liked me. About what great friends we were. Everything she says is so positive and rose tinted. She really believes that she was a positive part of my life. And she doesn't appear to be someone who is faking polite conversation but overdoing it a bit. She is zealously ott about our great relationship.

And that's Aunt Lydia. She believes she is doing right by 'her girls.' That even when she does awful things to them it's for the good of their souls and that they ultimately love and appreciate her for all that she is doing for them. Ann Dowd has her character down pat. Though of course there is still a lot of awful writing that she is rising the character above.

Agent Coulson

So that was Aunt Lydia's origin story this week.


I really should stop watching but it has me intrigued with the bigger story.

Slydice

Hard to tell where they're going with this.

Darker I'd guess.

The Late Late Show

I'm gonna come right out and say it but I enjoy season 3 of The Handmaid's Tale and look forward to this gem each week. A relief and something to look forward to in a sea of Mrs Brown's Boys repeats, soaps and too much sport. Sure, there may be some stories that could be done better and sure, there could be more flashbacks akin to the first 2 series but I enjoy the series. I feel there are some people online who write negative reviews because of perhaps some political aim. The show scares the hell out of the John Bolton/Mike Pompeo types and I'm sure their Saudi backers. These of course have loads of money to pay reviewers to write negative views. In an ironic twist where the other side of the political divide got behind praising it in their reviews, perhaps we are seeing the same in reverse. I do not see anything radically wrong with Handmaid's season 3 and cannot find anything remotely as watchable and enjoyable on TV at the moment apart from the King Charles documentary which details the rise of the Puritans and is great complementary viewing alongside Handmaid's.

SusieBlue

Its not that I'm not enjoying it, it just feels like its directionless and is going nowhere now.
We're nearly done season 3 and if anything June has taken several steps backwards - Nicole is in danger of being repatriated, Hannah has been moved to an unknown location and she's pissed Aunt Lydia off so much it looks like she's in danger of being sent to the colonies herself.

There has been no story progression, its like they're dragging the all misery out for nothing. The good guys need a big win. I'll keep watching but its getting more frustrating as each week goes by and the situation becomes even more hopeless.

is_that_so

Some exec in Hulu imagines there will be 10 seasons of it!:P

extra gravy

So now June seems to have developed a sadistic streak? Fair enough, OffMatthew cost her the chance to see her daughter but did she really deserve to lose her mind and die for it considering what she's been through herself.

Stark

Well she had that Martha killed for the sake of a few brownie points from Aunt Lydia so she deserved it for that.

The Late Late Show

is_that_so wrote: »

Some exec in Hulu imagines there will be 10 seasons of it!:P

5 seasons of The Handmaid's Tale + 5 seasons of Gilead (or whatever the followup show will be called). This seems to be the normal practice these days.

wakka12

extra gravy wrote: »

So now June seems to have developed a sadistic streak? Fair enough, OffMatthew cost her the chance to see her daughter but did she really deserve to lose her mind and die for it considering what she's been through herself.

She cost the life of the martha and several other people, she of course deserved. Shes a psycho

Credit Checker Moose

All the close ups! Please stop it.

extra gravy

wakka12 wrote: »

She cost the life of the martha and several other people, she of course deserved. Shes a psycho

She's a psycho thanks to Gilead though and what it's done to her. Just thought June taking such pleasure in her demise was a bit much.

corkie

Warning! Reshuffle of schedule to air 'Brendan Grace [RIP]' Father Ted episode!



RTE have it listed as starting 10mins later than soarview guide.

If your missing some of the episode, after the fact on recordings, check the player.

Edit: - Depending on your box settings and extra time on recordings only the credits probably cutoff.