[usr 3]
Set in a dystopian future, a woman is forced to live as a concubine under a fundamentalist theocratic dictatorship.
It’s quite ironic that an outspoken Scientologist is the lead of a drama series that predominantly deals with issues of feminism, minorities, and sexual identity. Elisabeth Moss grew up in the church, known for its radical – and some would say utterly backward/loony – views of those issues (the church, or cult, has been accused multiple times of harassment and abuse). Now, I don’t normally take into account the personal lives of actors when reviewing their work, but when an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” is led by a known supporter of a church that stands against everything Atwood’s book is about, it becomes a little difficult not to be cynical. It’s as if a book about acceptance were published by the theocratic Republic of Gilead.
That said, Moss’ performance is just fine if a bit one-note. But so is the show. As it willfully strides further and further away from its source material in its second season, “The Handmaid’s Tale” digs deeper and deeper into its main aforementioned themes, a drab if beautifully-shot examination of a society gone ballistic. One torture-horror sequence is followed by another, yet the point remains the same: a male-dominated society will lead to a Holocaust-like eradication of any semblance of tolerance. If you can stomach a lengthy collection of “woman suffering” sequences, with nary a spot of wit to be found amongst the gloom, then delve right in. What was subtle in season 1 is spelled out in bold in season 2.
Season 2 starts off with June/Offred (Moss) making her escape from the colonies. If any of you ever played “Fallout,” you’ll have an idea of what this irradiated wasteland looks like – but again, with a strong Holocaust motif which I personally found grating and off-putting, to say the least. The horrendous plight of the Jewish people during WWII cannot really be compared to the #MeToo movement in terms of its severity, though this show firmly believes that it does – or so its imagery tells us. The first three episodes of season 2 are a particular slog, making you feel like you’re dragging yourself through the same muddy ordeals as its tragic heroines. Things pick up a little in episode 4, but it remains a brutally savage exercise in shoving messages down our throats. One would think that a series that roots so passionately for women’s rights would give its women the right to enact some change, instead of being constantly tortured, raped, and maimed.
That’s not to say that the series isn’t filled with memorably tense, heart-searing moments and robust performances all around. It’s awfully slow at times (I watched parts of it at 1.5x the speed on Blu-ray), and subtle moments are far and few. A cautionary tale that blares its cautions in case you’re hard of hearing, “The Handmaid’s Tale” doesn’t really do anything terribly wrong. It’s just that, after a while of having themes shoved down our gullet, we begin to question the honesty of the intentions, similarly to those of its lead actress.
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