Morning

Wow, so that was the opening the producers came up with to keep us engaged? The storyline has devolved from a psychological drama showing what could happen if a country's moral compass becomes perverted to a revenge crusade that predominantly features close up shots of a seething Elisabeth Moss. Is anyone else tired of these June zoom-ins?? I literally had to fast forward through these drawn out head-shots of her angry or teary eyed face in order to try to find some semblance of a story line. We get it, she is pissed off, but enough of the June outrage and close-ups already.

I haven't given up on the series just yet but am close. The only thing that keeps me tuned in is the hope of a payoff in seeing aunt Lydia meet her demise and hanging from the wall.

What a disappointment! I thoroughly enjoyed the first series of The Handmaid's Tail but found subsequent series to be less addictive. This, however, takes the biscuit. It is a masterpiece of overacting, "clever" camera work, whispering emoting and general daftness. As my mother used to say: "They're giving you more than they've got" - and believe me, they don't have a lot. Had set my recorder to record all ten episodes but have now cancelled. Them as it is so bad. All those responsible should have given up when they were winning as this is embarrassingly bad.

Definitely a case of not knowing when less is more.

How Long Can A Good Thing Last?

Clearly June is riding on a high, well deserved after the torture she, and us as viewers, have been through over the run of the series. Watching her wreck a breakfast and follow it up, slurping'ly, with a milkshake is about as satisfying a moment this series has ever had, borderline fan service. I literally made bacon, waffles a la mode (nilla ice-cream) after watching this episode. Yet, June moves through much of the episode still bloody, incapable of washing it from her hands and body. Multiple times she tries to cleans herself, yet still leaves traces of blood throughout.

The tension is high, the episode starts at an extreme pace and continues the tone through the first half. We finally get a breather midway, much needed after all of that intensity. Luke's reassurance and comfort is welcomed, thoroughly. Then, a bit predictably, June tries to blow up her life, it's a bit masochistic. While June is coming off her high, Serena deals with the aftermath and the remains of her life. Some great scenes between Mark (Jaeger) and Serena (Strahovski). Clearly the season is setting up for Commander Fred's Dead to be a martyr and Serena to be the face of some sort of Gilead movement, I'm looking forward to Serena being the big-bad as Strahovski is a brilliant actress.

Elisabeth Moss provides excellent direction, this is clearly her baby now, and she takes ownership well. All the production values are as good as they've always been, no downturn at all. The writing is also excellent, many great scenes, especially Jaeger and Fagbenle who get the juiciest dialog. In a series that has so many fierce actresses, it's satisfying to see the males characters get some shine.

One of the best season premieres of the entire series, absolutely satisfying.

They really should've just let the series end at the end of season four. Moss has proven to be a poor director. As many others have said here, she spends a good portion of this episode - even more than in others - on extreme close-ups, where she practices as many different facial expressions as she can. All the other actors get their turns at the close shots also so we get to count their pores. The plot has now become a chaotic, emotional roller coaster that really goes nowhere and doesn't make any sense. I lost interest after the first 10 minutes and have no desire to finish the season. Too bad. Her character, and the story, started out so interesting and went downhill after the first few seasons.

I stopped watching The Handmaids Tale in the middle of season 4 when the writing got so bad I couldn't watch it any longer.

Well, I got bored and thought I'd give season 5 a try and episode 1 was worse than season 4, so I'm giving up on this series. It's not worth the money nor my time.

All of episode 1 seems to consist of Elizabeth Moss (June) channeling her inner Clint Eastwood. Walking around scowling and reciting lines. At least the Clint Eastwood movies were more engaging and interesting.

The plot and dialog were so mind-numbing that it was hard to follow what was going on. Though a person could walk away from the show, for a beer or snack, come back 10 minutes later and missed nothing.