O Conto da Aia

I've just finished (binge) watching season 4. From the start, the story of a dystopian future in "North America", plagued by religious zealots with sadistic personality disorder is gut wrenchingly hard to watch, yet the viewer can't help but continue. The heroes (mostly females) refuse to be broken in spirit, forming alliances to fight the evil system, never abandoning hope for victory.

My reason for withholding the 10th star for a perfect rating is a clear contradiction no one seems to be addressing at all: The "necessity" for this whole "child bearing machine" is a declining birth rate, yet people are executed for the most ridiculous infractions. If children are scarce and precious things, why are adults so expendable? It seems that for each new child born, 10 adults are "hanged on the wall" like wet clothing on a line to dry. How (in God's Name) does THAT help stave off the fear of a shrinking population?

The Handmaid's Tale is a chilling & gripping series set in a dystopian world where the USA is transformed into a class-based society, with emphasis on fertile women who are treated as property for reproduction. The shows does a great job at depicting brutality, repression, authoritarianism, but also how these acts are justified in various forms. The acting really captures the cultish behaviors that can be found on both left & right extremes of today's ideological spectrum. Season 1-3 are definitely top-tier for those who enjoy dystopian/post-apocalyptic genres with high production.

Season 4 however is a snoozefest. The show has lost steam, there's not much storyline development left and it just drags with no objective or goal. Even the good acting & cinematography can't salvage what was once a solid 8-9.

-SEASON-1 A masterpiece! Put feminism aside for a moment, this is a brilliantly told story whether you are watching it for empowerment or just as a leisure activity. Each and every character, supporting or lead, hero or villain, is well-written and gets his or her own chance to develop. Season One is slow in parts, but each carefully framed shot is purposeful and powerful. There is no holding back in The Handmaid's Tale, and as the story progresses, there are twists and turns that you have never before seen on T. V.

-SEASON-2 Season Two of The Handmaid's Tale is the perfect continuation of Season One, yet it comes back even stronger with new, shocking conflicts. Moss, Fiennes, and Strahovski all have incredible chemistry together on screen, and this season, the tension is stronger than ever. The Handmaid's Tale manages to get better and better with every episode as the writers and actors push their talents to a whole new level.

-SEASON-3 I almost gave up on this show after season 2. I am so glad that I didn't. There are so many parallels in our world to draw from. The Underground Railroad of the 1860s, the persecution of Jews in the 1940s and the persecution of women in the modern Middle East all serve as inspirations and are ripe with tales of rebels, agitators and heroes. In a day and age when most of our heroes wear capes or have billion dollar steel armor it's refreshing to see the plain old human spirit alive and kicking ass.

Great 10/10.

They have an interesting story but it happens in super-slow motion. They have about 2 seasons worth of storyline but they are trying to stretch it into 6-7 seasons by spending half of each episode zooming into people's eyes, showing people's empty faces and characters moving at slow motion. Each episode has about 4-5 minutes of story development and 40 minutes of zooming into people's faces and eyes.

This show was meant to be watched at 2x or 3x speed. If you are watching it at regular speed, you are actually watching it in slow motion.

Each episode: zoom into someone's face, zoom into someone's eyes, zoom on the ceiling, zoom on the walls, zoom back into someone's eyes, zoom into another character's face....20 minutes gone, another 20 left to go. Zoom some more until we fill 40 minutes. Then 5 minutes of actual story development.

After 3 and half seasons of the same thing happening over and over, of characters acting irrationally against their own best interests, of June's very sophisticated facial expressions, of one cliff-hanger per episode to keep your curiosity up through the feet-dragging and fake depth... it's probably time to acknowledge that this lemon has already been squeezed dry and move on.