Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale" (Season 3)

[Panemlights]

Adapted from the classic novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale is the story of life in the dystopia of Gilead, a totalitarian society in what was formerly the United States. Facing environmental disasters and a plunging birthrate, Gilead is ruled by a twisted fundamentalism in its militarized ‘return to traditional values'. As one of the few remaining fertile women, Offred (Elisabeth Moss) is a Handmaid in the Commander’s household, one of the caste of women forced into sexual servitude as a last desperate attempt to repopulate the world. In this terrifying society, Offred must navigate between Commanders, their cruel Wives, domestic Marthas, and her fellow Handmaids – where anyone could be a spy for Gilead – all with one goal: to survive and find the daughter that was taken from her.

[MrTwoArms]

The first 3 episodes were absolutely amazing...and terrifying. Do yourself a favor and watch this show. It's going to be hard waiting a week for new episodes from here on out.

[eightslicesofpie]

Read the book for the first time last month in anticipation of this. Excited to hunker down and marathon these three episodes over the weekend. I need more Alexis Bledel in my life!

[jacobsever]

Hulu is like...the ONE streaming service I don't have.

Netflix...check.
HBO Go...check.
Amazon Prime...check.
Shudder...check.
Mubi...check.
Xfinity on Demand...check.

Hulu? Nope.

[cynatnite]

And here I was about to cancel the service. Will watch it tonight.

[Naiera]

I'm scared of watching this.

Rory and Yvonne Strahovski make the show a bit less scary, of course.

[Ray O. Blu]

Originally Posted by jacobsever

Hulu is like...the ONE streaming service I don't have.

Netflix...check.
HBO Go...check.
Amazon Prime...check.
Shudder...check.
Mubi...check.
Xfinity on Demand...check.

Hulu? Nope.

No Vudu?!

They're the best!

[Naiera]

Vudu is VOD so it's not a subscription service.

[Impossible]

This is phenomenally good.

[jacobsever]

Yvonne Strahovski is in this?!

I've needed more of her after Chuck & Dexter ended. I guess I'll be getting Hulu after all.

[Naiera]

I haven't watched yet but I think she's playing one of the "cruel wives", in that she has a real name and not one that's "off" her master's.

She's in Astronaut Wives Club, if you can stream that somewhere. Many beautiful wives in that one

[TheLaughingMann]

Originally Posted by Naiera

I haven't watched yet but I think she's playing one of the "cruel wives", in that she has a real name and not one that's "off" her master's.

She's in Astronaut Wives Club, if you can stream that somewhere. Many beautiful wives in that one

If you recall the attempt from a couple of decades ago involving Natasha Richardson, Robert Duvall, and Faye Dunaway, I think Yvonne is playing Faye's role as the wife to the 'commander' (Robert).

[Veronica Mars]

I found each episode (of the 3 that have been released so far) better than the one before it. Not easy to watch but incredibly compelling, timely, well made and so well acted.

Elisabeth Moss deserves all the awards and Alexis Bledel has never been better.

[Impossible]

Another brilliant episode this week. This could be my new fave show

[Veronica Mars]

Darn, I was hoping we'd get 3 more episodes today.

[brandedtech]

Do Hulu release their shows on physical media ? I fell in love with this and want to add it to my collection.

[Naiera]

The James Franco time travelling one did.

[MrTwoArms]

Emily is a badass!

[movielib]

I finally started watching it this week. I wanted to hold out until all the episodes were released but my wife said let's start it since the regular TV season ended and there's much less to watch. We've watched five episodes now so we still have a little cushion but it'll be gone soon. The two week wait for the rest of the season after Wednesday will be difficult.

Anyway, this is great TV. I read the book when it first came out and I was very disappointed. My biggest gripe was that Offred was made, well, rather stupid (and worse, uninteresting). I remember reading a review of the book in Reason magazine (after I read the book) and I have now hunted it down on the internet. I remembered the critic calling Offred "a pretty dim bulb" (I remembered it as "a bit of a dim bulb" but I'll forgive my less than perfect 30+ year old recollection). I agreed completely with that and the rest of the review. Atwood had a great idea and blew it. Here's that review:

http://reason.com/archives/1986/10/0...t-fundamentali

The review stresses that we need a fuller view of this society and just about everything in the book. The Natasha Richardson film gave it a try and also somewhat brightened up Offred the dim bulb, making her more interesting. I think the film is pretty good. But it lacked the time to develop the depth the story deserved and The Handmaid's Tale still needed to be told as it should be told.

The Hulu program (so far) appears to be doing just that. For whatever Atwood is contributing, perhaps she is redeeming herself. We are getting great drama, great acting and a better understanding of this hideous dystopia with every episode. Although the treatment is being given more time than one would think is needed for one novel, especially since the show has been renewed for a second season, I am not sensing any padding whatsoever. I want more with every episode.

This is fast becoming one of my top shows of all time and I do not think anyone should miss it.

[zorbonaut]

Just started to get into this (I just finished ep.3).

So compelling thus far.