Rewatching 'The Handmaid's Tale' and its just not entertaining like it was first time round

[NahNoWay]

It was never a light watch, but now it feels like a warning rather than a TV show.

Like a documentary from 2040.

It's unsettling in a way I didn't even contemplate the first time round.

And I've cried almost every episode, which isn't like me at all.

I struggled to watch it the first time , very chilling

I agree. First time around it felt like a dystopian fantasy. Now it feels like a warning.

Unfortunately I feel the states are seeing is a how to guide...!

Totally agree. First was 'thankfully that will never happen in our lifetime' to watch it start unfolding in front of us. It's like They watched it and thought it was a How To guide on subjugation.

Not sure if I could stomach watching it from the beginning again now. Before it was very much a fantasy and now seems like a not so far off reality

Exactly this.

I remember watching it years ago and sort of scoffing at the thought of such a thing being able to happen.

But like it says in the series it's been building up for years, little by little.

Horrifying

It's definitely beginning to seem like a prophecy.

Funny, it always felt like I was watching the oncoming storm. Perhaps it’s because I live in the US.

some of Atwood’s books stray more towards the fantastic, with elements of of bioengineering that are so far off they seem more like science fiction, but she grounds her social elements well.

I think she said that everything had happened to women somewhere in the world already.

It always was a warning!

I think she did.

I'm sure I saw an interview in which she said everything she wrote in the book was situations, laws and the trearment of women that have actually happened.

She said something like; she used real life laws/situations, so that no-one could accuse her of having an "overreaction imagination"

Yes, I knew that everything was based on something that had already happened but you think we've come too far to go back to that shit.

Like we've progressed too far with human rights to allow such things. But we really haven't.

Exactly this. I had to stop in s2 I think as I was pregnant and it was way too close to home and dark, I sobbed through a couple then decided I was being ridiculous and switched to something lighter. No way I’d go back now.

I’m watching Private Practise at the moment, it’s fascinating how they deal with abortion and other issues relating to pregnancy, women and babies. It’s unpleasantly pro surrogacy but very pro the right to abortion in a way that’s impossible to imagine happening on an American tv show.

I still need to finish watching the final series but every time I think of pulling it off the planner I switch to something lighter (no spoilers please)

I'm currently watching this for the first time. Gah, it's fucking harrowing. I'm invested now, so will continue, but honestly, I'm finding it hard not to think something like this could actually happen. No TV show has affected me the way this has. Only just started series 2.

I am rewatching/finishing Series 3 currently and had forgotten what an amazing show this is but yes indeed harrowing. I think that was the first time I had seen the "birth mobile" and all that that entails! June's face says so much with no words. I nearly cried when June put on the mouth mask for the first time. Also enjoying seeing the backgrounds to people eg Aunt Lydia. I have to agree with whoever said that now in 2022 this is so much more menacing than when I watched the first two series.