'The Handmaid’s Tale' is a huge moment for Hulu that will hit you hard
Warning: This review contains some spoilers about the first three episodes of The Handmaid's Tale.
In the margins of my copy of The Handmaid's Tale, high school me scribbled "this is so messed up."
Fast forward to more than a decade later, and the story -- penned in 1985 -- only hit me harder. As I watched the first three episodes of Hulu's adaptation of the Margaret Atwood novel, the first word I wrote down in my notes was "fuck."
This is the show that will put Hulu on the map. It has a strong cast (led by Mad Men alum Elisabeth Moss), powerful writing (which is very loyal to the book) and a timely storyline. But the parallels to current events make the show, at times, almost too eerie to watch.
Like Atwood's book, the 10-episode series, which debuts on Hulu on April 26, takes place in a religious dystopia called Gilead, formed following environmental disasters and plunging birthrates in the U.S.
The totalitarian society, once the U.S., is rooted in twisted religious fundamentalism. It's a place where women are stripped of their rights, and some -- the handmaids -- are subjugated and used only for reproduction, a.k.a. sexual servitude.
Both the book and show follow Offred (Moss), one of the few remaining fertile women who is placed in the Commander’s household. It's horrifying watching Offred reduced to servant life in Gilead -- but what's more jarring are her flashbacks to what she and others refer to as "before."
"Before" looks pretty familiar. Offred was married to man named Luke, best friends with Moira (Samira Wiley) -- a handmaid who was condemned for being lesbian -- and living life as a book publisher in Massachusetts.
In flashbacks, the show sprinkles hints of "normal" riddled with warning signs of the world's demise. In one instance, Offred (then called June) is informed that she and all other women at her workplace are being let go. All women's bank accounts are also frozen that same day.
"Ladies I have to let you all go, you can't work here anymore, it's the law now," says her boss Roger. "I don't have a choice. They gave me ten minutes."
The concept is extreme -- most dystopias are. But executive producer/writer Bruce Miller did such a good job weaving in Atwood's imagined world with our own contemporary society that it feels like it could be real.
“We were working on this project before the primaries even begun, and through the election, it just got stranger and stranger."
“We were working on this project before the primaries even begun, and through the election, it just got stranger and stranger," Miller said at a recent event.
One of Miller's most distinct choices for the show was to have Moss do voiceovers for Offred, a device not used in the 1990 film adaption starring Natasha Richardson and Faye Dunaway.
Voiceovers, when done poorly, can seem tacky and unnecessary. In this show, they are anything but. They're instead a way for Moss to hold viewers' hands and walk them through the twisted world of Gilead.
The tactic allows viewers to get past what Offred's allowed to show on her face and really understand what she's thinking and feeling.
With or without voiceovers, Moss is perfect in the role as a powerful woman fighting to survive and ultimately reunite with her daughter from "before."
The rest of the cast -- which includes Wiley, Alexis Bledel, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella and Madeline Brewer -- is equally strong.
Even Bledel -- who it's hard not to typecast as annoying Rory Gilmore -- shines as Ofglen, a fellow handmaid and Offred's shopping partner.
While Offred at first rejects Ofglen as pious, it is later revealed that Ofglen is actually a member of a resistance group. She was a professor "before" and gay -- which in Gilead is referred to as being a "gender traitor."
Usually Bledel is not the strongest actress -- and the characters she plays tend to be meek. In this show, however, her portrayal of Ofglen brought me to tears.
Timeliness also plays in Hulu's favor. This is the year that Homeland and The Americans became more popular than ever, as the topics they tackle hit close to home during the Trump Administration.
It's impossible to watch The Handmaid's Tale in 2017 and not think about the divided world we live in, and the rapid pace at which it seems to be changing.
"When they slaughtered congress, we didn’t wake up. When they blamed terrorists and suspended the Constitution, we didn’t wake up either," Offred says in a voiceover. "They said it would be temporary, nothing changes instantaneously. In a gradually heating bath tub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it."
In the pilot, Aunt Lydia -- the woman in charge of training the handmaids -- says to the group of women: "Ordinary is just what you are used to. This will be come ordinary."
Her words echo the fear of those who worry that the media is "normalizing" Trump's "Make America Great Again" vision, which has so far has targeted women, immigrants and the environment, to name a few.
If anything, The Handmaid's Tale is a reminder that, as Offred tells the Commander, "better never means better for everyone." It's a terrifying -- and all too timely -- wake-up call.
Topics Hulu
Saba was a Los Angeles-based reporter who covers all things digital entertainment, including YouTube, streaming services and digital influencers. Prior to that, she spent two years at the Los Angeles Times covering entertainment for the Calendar and Company Town sections. Saba grew up in Santa Monica and graduated from Boston University with a B.S. in journalism and B.A. in political science. When not reporting, she is usually binge watching shows online or looking for new coffee shops to frequent.
