Much has already been written about Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale, so if you are tuned into entertainment news, you have probably already read about how it's so timely, terrifying and urgent at our present time (with the threat of restrictions on freedoms, women's healthcare and civil rights). And they're right. It's an important piece of television. One that is visceral, realistic, and honestly, the stuff of nightmares. Allow me to be vague in this review in hopes that if you haven't already watched it, nothing will be given away and the story will unfold for you as it did for me.
I'm not sure I can accurately describe the emotions involved in my viewing of this series. Disorienting. Intense. Engaging. Mortifying. I read Margaret Atwood's novel about two years ago. I was unable to picture the world depicted in the novel as powerfully as it is exhibited in the show. The development of this Hulu Original under Ms. Atwood's guidance is everything. Not only has showrunner, Bruce Miller been able to successfully adapt a novel published in 1985 to a present-day and alt-future of a new nation called Republic of Gilead, a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship, but he and his team have been tasked with season two, and a possible real conclusion for the tale's protagonist, Offred, played by the magnificent Elisabeth Moss. A week after it's debut, it was renewed for a second season which will bring us into uncharted territory as most of the novel is covered in season one. Without discussing the endings further, it would be significant to see the fall of a place like Gilead.
There are several other differences between the novel and the show, but they are positive changes that only enhance the story and the experience. The cast is much more diverse, Offred is much more headstrong, and more background is provided about the fertility crisis. I felt particularly different about the Serena Joy character, performed by Yvonne Strahovski. As a woman who had a hand in the development of Gilead, she lost her power in the rules she wrote, and becomes almost an empathetic character in just a few shining moments. Most of the time, she is the frightening reality of what life is like for handmaids in this fictional society.
As Gilead is brought to life in striking visuals, you ask yourself how did we get here? The veil is lifted slowly and with precision. Atwood set the novel in New England where there is a strong Puritanical history. She told the New York Times in a 1986 interview, "You often hear in North America, 'It can't happen here,' but it happened quite early on. The Puritans banished people who didn't agree with them, so we would be rather smug to assume that the seeds are not there. That's why I set the book in Cambridge." Especially eerie for me, being from Massachusetts and well-versed in historical witch hunts and scarlet letters born out of religious intolerance.
Bottom line: watch it. It is a show (and novel) that will make you think. Watch it with people you love and talk about it. It is important.