Janine

To all the people talking about how dark it is, I think part of it is because Elizabeth Moss was pregnant when this was being filmed, so they muted the lighting and muted the colors of her clothing, to hide her pregnancy.

I love the episode full of suspense and you just didn't know what was gonna happen next. Except for Nick I knew he was going to kill that Guardian so no one would find out that he was the one that shot him.

Love this series! I only started watching it in 2024 and it's one of the best I've ever seen. Elizabeth Moss is a great actress! And I love Nick and her together. I'm rooting for them.

Does anyone else find June to be a horrid human being at this juncture? I don't know when it happened but my wife and I used to love her and this show and we realized during this episode that we're just hate watching now and didn't even realize when that changed. Last season is our best guess? Also why is Luke so heavily featured in every season of this show? Are there people out there that don't find him detestable?

Oh there is a minimum length for this and apparently I'm not there yet. Ok well my wife wants me to add that the Serena and June toxic friendship thing you have going on is awful - June clearly needs at least 6 seasons of inpatient therapy (but we don't need to watch it!! She's stolen too many hours of our lives already). My wife is a psychologist incidentally so she sees a lot of toxic relationships on a daily basis and finds it very upsetting to watch this one.

Season 6, Episode 6 of The Handmaid's Tale moves at the same sluggish pace that's been happening this entire season. The episode leans heavily on mood and tension but delivers little in terms of actual plot movement. And let's talk about that lighting. What happened? Was the darkness a choice or an error? Either way, I spent half the episode adjusting my TV settings and still couldn't see anything. I began wondering if the LED lights went out on my television again.

Six episodes in and it feels like the show is stalling. There's potential. But right now, still nothing exciting. I'm just hoping there's something they're leading up to. Something big.

And a little more brightness. Please.

This episode is classic Handmaid's Tale. It's one of the best, if not THE best, of this season so far. Edge of your seat drama and multiple important events and many twists. This is a very important episode with a lot of plot advancement. The writing was amazing and, as always, the acting was top notch. Talk about a cliffhanger! It's one of those that leaves you wanting more and impatient that you have to wait a whole week to learn what happens next. It covers all the bases. Every scene is captivating and important. If you haven't watched it yet, you're in for a treat. Like I said, this episode is CLASSIC Handmaid's Tale, harkening back to the best episodes in earlier seasons. For some reason the lighting was too dark in this episode, which was mildly annoying. But overall, it wasn't too much of an issue because, in this particular episode, the awesome plot and dialogue between characters was more important than the visuals. The plot, dialogue, and characters really spoke for themselves and carried the episode. You didn't need a lot of visuals to know exactly what was happening at any given moment. I'm LOVING this plot line. Definitely a 10/10 and can't wait until next week!

Abysmal Writing That Insults the Viewer's Intelligence

I genuinely don't know what to say about The Handmaid's Tale Season 6, Episode 5, other than it felt like a cynical exercise in stretching out a once-powerful narrative into an unrecognizable mess. My one star is solely for the fact that the actors still show up, but the writing? Oh, the writing. It's not just poor; it's an insult to the legacy of the show and, frankly, to anyone with an ounce of critical thinking.

This episode was a meandering, lifeless slog that accomplished absolutely nothing. We're six seasons deep, and it feels like the writers have actively forgotten what made this show compelling in the first place. The plot, if you can even call it that, crawls at a snail's pace, offering no new insights, no meaningful character development, and certainly no progression towards any kind of resolution. It's a perpetual holding pattern where characters reiterate the same anxieties and traumas they've been processing since Season 1, but with all the emotional depth of a puddle.

The dialogue is particularly egregious. Every line feels either clunky and expositional, or so laden with overwrought metaphors that it loses all semblance of natural human conversation. Characters speak in vague platitudes, circling around points without ever actually addressing them. It's as if the writers are afraid to let anyone say anything direct or impactful, preferring instead to wallow in a perpetual state of thematic ambiguity that now just reads as narrative paralysis.

Furthermore, the character choices felt baffling and inconsistent. Moments that should have resonated emotionally fell flat because motivations were unclear, or actions felt entirely out of sync with established personalities. It's the kind of writing that doesn't trust its audience to remember character arcs, forcing cheap emotional beats rather than earning them through genuine, well-crafted storytelling.

This episode is a prime example of a show that has lost its way, succumbing to the worst habits of prolonged television series: repeating itself, treading water, and delivering a narrative so thin it's practically transparent. The writing is the chief culprit here, transforming a once gripping dystopian drama into a tedious, self-parodying echo of its former self. Save yourself the time.