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March 28, 2024, 05:19:06 PM

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The Handmaid's Tale S3

Started by kalowski, June 30, 2019, 09:06:01 PM

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kalowski

Perhaps it's me, but this series has left me utterly underwhelmed. Shows how they need to be close to Atwood's narrative. Another fucking close up of Offred (or Ofjoseph?) staring angrily at the camera and I think I'm out.
I'm now more interested in the skirmish taking place in Chicago than the Handmaids, and that can't be right.

Kryton

I dunno... It started a bit weak but episode 6 was brilliant (I think it's not been released yet in the UK, but it's online). The whole thing with Washington being worse and how the Handmaid's are silenced is fucking terrifying.

I won't say more until it's released, but I'm enjoying it.

Ant Farm Keyboard

It's not you. It's been a bore since the beginning of season 2, with a couple of interesting episodes. The story is very disjointed. They also tried to expand the universe by showing the colonies and more of Canada (which was a snore fest). And now, the whole narrative is just whatever will make up for some "stunning" visual imagery, regardless of coherence or even common sense.

Quote from: Kryton on June 30, 2019, 11:17:05 PM
I dunno... It started a bit weak but episode 6 was brilliant (I think it's not been released yet in the UK, but it's online). The whole thing with Washington being worse and how the Handmaid's are silenced is fucking terrifying.

I won't say more until it's released, but I'm enjoying it.

For me, that's the issue. It's become torture porn for progressives.

Ferris

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on June 30, 2019, 11:19:08 PM
It's become torture porn for progressives.

Yeah this was my issue with it. It's filmed in my neighbourhood so we watched the first two seasons for novelty (the lobby of our apartment building was a detention centre), but it seems to have lost its direction and is aiming instead for nastiness. Fair enough, but it's not for me.

kalowski

Quote from: Kryton on June 30, 2019, 11:17:05 PM
I dunno... It started a bit weak but episode 6 was brilliant (I think it's not been released yet in the UK, but it's online). The whole thing with Washington being worse and how the Handmaid's are silenced is fucking terrifying.

I won't say more until it's released, but I'm enjoying it.
I read elsewhere that Ep 6 is amazing, so I guess I'll plough on for that, but last night's was weak again. Contrived situations to put June with Fred or Serena, again. Stare at camera, again.

Ant Farm Keyboard

Episode 8 pushed idiocy to new limits. The last five minutes in particular were clumsy, like a fantasy scene that makes no sense, until you realize it's not supposed to be a dream.

Puce Moment

I am still loving this series but this is a massive drop in quality. June has too much power/sway and I don't feel scared for her anymore. She wanted to stay and get her other kid - kind of a fucking stupid idea that massively ruins the stakes.

I also thought they would spend more time with the couple in Canada, but they are relegating stuff to stupid over the top scenes with Aunt Lydia.

grassbath

Not seen any of the new series but I thought this went down the pipes almost straight away in series 2 - the dialogue suddenly became more cliched, the characterisation and plotting much lazier and less controlled. Shame as S1 was excellent, truly horrifying, nailbiting stuff.

Kryton

Quote from: Puce Moment on July 12, 2019, 05:40:09 PM
I am still loving this series but this is a massive drop in quality. June has too much power/sway and I don't feel scared for her anymore. She wanted to stay and get her other kid - kind of a fucking stupid idea that massively ruins the stakes.

I also thought they would spend more time with the couple in Canada, but they are relegating stuff to stupid over the top scenes with Aunt Lydia.

It's still enjoyable but the sense of tension has dropped now that June has got more ballsy.

Also I really enjoyed the scene with her being forced to decide which five women are saved from being sent to the colony a few episodes ago, her deciding on an engineer, an IT expert, a chemist, a thief etc...

But that seems to have gone nowhere? I was hoping she was building up some kind of resistance faction?

Ant Farm Keyboard

I haven't read the novel, but doesn't it contradict its point, i.e. June was part of the many anonymous women who brought their own fight against the system set in Gilead, but whose contribution was later identified and preserved due to the discovery of her tale and assorted documents she had managed to smuggle out of Gilead?

More and more, they're turning June into the key figure of the resistance, instrumental to every event that shakes the republic. It looks like a John Le Carré story becoming James Bond material.

Puce Moment

Quote from: Ant Farm Keyboard on July 12, 2019, 10:03:57 PMIt looks like a John Le Carré story becoming James Bond material.

Beautifully put. Yes, June is really just another anonymous housemaid. The banality of that makes the novel horrifying. However, by the end of season 3 her role in Gilead would be such that she would be seen as a pivotal figure in its history, development and dissolution.

kalowski

Quote from: kalowski on July 01, 2019, 06:38:30 AM
I read elsewhere that Ep 6 is amazing, so I guess I'll plough on for that, but last night's was weak again. Contrived situations to put June with Fred or Serena, again. Stare at camera, again.
Episode 6 was not amazing. It was crap.

kalowski

Quote from: kalowski on July 14, 2019, 11:00:05 PM
Episode 6 was not amazing. It was crap.
But nothing compared to Episode 8, in which Lydia turns! June was using her eyes like Bela Lugosi in her close ups at the end, just before the triple axle the HM did after being shot.
Possibly the worst episode of anything on TV all week (including Homes Under the Hammer)

good times

The finale was the dumbest piece of shit I've watched in a long time

Puce Moment

Stopped watching this when the woman nearly shot Aunt Lydia in the supermarket (episode 8?) and thought it was the season finale. A woman at my wife's work starts talking about all sorts of storylines like June getting stabby and we realise we missed the final 5 or so episodes.

This show worked brilliantly when we had a spotlight on just one Handmaid - June. Just like Winston Smith, she is a tiny cog in a big machine - a small story that shines a light on the whole of society. Now we have June as this all-powerful warrior. A strong woman like women are supposed to be these days. She is changing the system from a disadvantaged position but has all this power. In the meantime, the place where the plane is landing is staffed mainly by people that used to know June even though they did not know that.

It's become horribly daft and in the process I feel a bit upset, sad and disappointed.

Bently Sheds

Aunt Lydia becomes a Nazi Christian because she didn't get a good seeing-to off her colleague. Fucking Nazi Christian bastards, just let them have their oats and Gilead would fall in a matter of minutes.

Ofstead's glaring at the camera soundtracked by ambient piano music in order to fill 5 minutes where they've run out of plot was getting extremely wearing, too.

Is Elisabeth Moss an executive producer of this? Is it in her contract that she has to do these 'look at me - acting! With my eyes!' scenes in every episode?

Puce Moment

I assumed they had just decided to borrow more stuff from House of Cards like so much else in this season.