The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1

Here's another show I've got slotted very, very highly on my ever-changing 2017 rankings but that also faded a bit for me in the homestretch. This is what I said three years ago about the book this show adapts: (http://back-blogged.blogspot.com/2014/06/the-handmaids-tale.html)

I loved the book, and I loved this show. Mostly. Usually. The show is even darker than the book, depicting graphically at least a few terrible things that the book doens't even suggest. This is rare, really, for book-adapted TV and movies! As bloody and boob-filled as Game of Thrones is, it doesn't come close to the scope of the R-rated nature of the books! The visual is so much more visceral, and you can often trigger the same reactions with one tenth as much violence and horror depicted on screen as you can by describing things on the page in explicit detail. Hey, that's the power of the medium!

There are other differences, too. The show also spends plenty of time focusing on the unraveling of the old society into this frightening new world order, adding histories and details that just aren't present in the book. I'm very okay with this trend, this idea of "the book was better than the movie" not necessarily holding up when the movie is instead a prestige television show. Flesh it out, dig further in, extend and expand the story, it's a whole new ballgame! (See: The Leftovers.)

My biggest problem with the book was actually my biggest problem with the show, too - a lack of a memorable ending. An ellipses, not an exclamation point. In fact, the show feels all sorts of primed for a second season. I haven't heard anything, but I'd be astonished if the intention all along wasn't for a multi-season run. These ten episodes took us more or less right up to the end of the book (again, like The Leftovers did with its first season) but where the book sort of just ended on some dark and depressing notes, the season ended on a little bit of a "no, we're fighting back" mentality. So I absolutely expect it to continue on for at least a second season. Which is good! It's such a good show, and more than that, it feels like such a disappointingly important show, a relevant show. Sad!

I want an expanded worldview in the second season. Seeing any of the handmaids fight back is great, but let's see more of Yvonne Strahowski's character. Let's learn more about Ann Dowd's character. These people are both monsters, anti-feminists, abusers - but they're also victims in this new world order, right? They're also women. Let's explore that a little. There's potential here for something truly great!