Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Handmaids tale

82 replies

OttilieStonelady · 11/08/2021 10:49

I've only just started watching (not a huge TV fan). Does anyone else find it heart wrenching? Impossible to watch? I don't get emotional about TV shows. I actually feel sick watching it. I can't even explain it. I feel like I need to stop watching as I always feel really down after. Anyone else feel like this with handmaids tale (or any other TV show)?? I can't stop watching but also want to turn it off!!!

OP posts:
SleepingStandingUp · 11/08/2021 16:33

We "enjoy" it bit def one episode a week at most and we record it so watch ot when we want to in the week
I found the end of this week's particularly awful when Serena and Dick came out on the way to court.

LifeInAHamsterWheel · 11/08/2021 16:36

The book is better. Much better. I totally disagree! I am a big reader and almost always feel the book is better than anything dramatised for screen. But this is one of few exceptions for me. I liked the book but it didn't affect me the way the screen adaptation did. I think the book lacks context, you've no idea what year or era it's set in and I struggled to feel any connection with June. However, on screen its clear that it's now and how this could happen to any of us in the 'normal' western world. I also think casting the characters of Fred and Serena-Joy as the same age as June was a really good move. The dynamic is totally different. In the book, they are old and have nothing in common with June. It's not a very long book either, so the screenplay can go into far more detail which really adds to the story in my opinion.

But there is no doubt it's a hard watch. I was always glad of the week between episodes and I don't think I would have binge-watched even if I could, I needed the week to process it all!

Wheresmrpenguin · 11/08/2021 16:42

Yeah it's tough. The scene where they're all in the office and you see it all change rapidly, like it's a completely normal day. Plus having your child ripped away. I started watching it when I was at the end of my pregnancy and my DD is 17 months now and the thought of having her taken away and my family ripped apart tomorrow if scary. There's so many things I've seen in the last year too which makes me think it could happen. Having rights taken away, the vaccine messing with women's periods and what if infertility becomes an issue in a few years. Its too close to home!

hamstersarse · 11/08/2021 16:42

It’s hits right in the heart of women’s fears and anxieties around their children and bodily autonomy

It’s harsh. But not stuff none of us haven’t ever felt or know deep down. I think we all fear for our bodily autonomy pretty much all the time subconsciously, we know it could be gone in a heartbeat because of our biology.

Ive never met a man who even ‘gets’ THT never mind he harrowed by it

SchrodingersImmigrant · 11/08/2021 18:13

@ponyexpress22

I found "Aunt Lydia" an unbelievable character. To change so much from a normal warm human being into the monster she became just because a man rejected her.
I actually believe it. Bitterness and unhappiness can do Incredible daamage. Combined with ehat eas happening and Gilead, I can absolutely imagine someone turning like that.
SchrodingersImmigrant · 11/08/2021 18:15

@hamstersarse

It’s hits right in the heart of women’s fears and anxieties around their children and bodily autonomy

It’s harsh. But not stuff none of us haven’t ever felt or know deep down. I think we all fear for our bodily autonomy pretty much all the time subconsciously, we know it could be gone in a heartbeat because of our biology.

Ive never met a man who even ‘gets’ THT never mind he harrowed by it

Tbh I don't "get" it fully either. I certainly don't worry about my bodily autonomy all the time.
ponyexpress22 · 11/08/2021 18:17

[quote CheekyChewinski]@ponyexpress22 yes I must admit I struggle with her character. Did you see the episode last Sunday?[/quote]
Like the awful cruelty to the girl scrubbing the floor.....in contrast to the way she hugged Janine as if she loved her?

Mookie81 · 11/08/2021 18:38

@ponyexpress22

I found "Aunt Lydia" an unbelievable character. To change so much from a normal warm human being into the monster she became just because a man rejected her.
She wasn't really a warm human being. She switched on that poor single mum so quick it was like that was within her the whole time.
OaxacaChihuahua · 11/08/2021 18:39

I was the same, couldn’t continue watching after a couple of episodes. It was brilliantly done but I couldn’t bear it.

Pippin2028 · 11/08/2021 18:49

I haven't read the book but watched the show until Season 3. I sometimes had to take a break during the episodes because it was so harrowing.
Unfortunately in some countries I do think this is some sort of reality for women and even when I hear what's going in in some states of the USA, I think this sounds like the handmaid's tale.

DamnUserName21 · 11/08/2021 20:04

Great TV series.
I binge watch it and, like you all, either end up in tears or feeling really emotional afterwards.
Latest season shows hope (and a lot of June's deep in thought face!)

tensmum1964 · 11/08/2021 20:58

I recently started watching series one. I normally watch all sorts of dark disturbing stuff but the way this left me feeling after a couple of episodes was just too much. I have stopped watching it and hoping to be able to start again as it is brilliant but so far I haven't felt able to. I am actually annoyed with myself at not being able to watch further episodes.

BookFiend4Life · 11/08/2021 21:38

I can't watch it either. I live in the states and it just hits too close to home with some of the stuff that happens here.

Cheeseplantboots · 11/08/2021 21:42

I haven’t read the books but love the series. I binge watched the first seasons in a couple of days but am watching this season week to week.

PlanDeRaccordement · 11/08/2021 21:53

The book is great. But I could not watch the TV show because it got ridiculous and became misogynistic porn in my opinion. There were contradictions galore and plot holes and it all seemed to be about what else can we show being done that’s horrible to women. Too gratuitously violent...and more violent than the book.

tarnishehalo · 11/08/2021 21:53

I'm enjoying it, apart from the change in Moira, what's that all about, she used to be real feisty. And the screen is so dark you can't see what's going on half the time!

owlbethere · 11/08/2021 21:54

Not that show, but call the midwife always makes me feel like I want to cry and makes me sort of depressed.

ponyexpress22 · 11/08/2021 22:04

Yes the darkness was annoying.

Sh05 · 11/08/2021 22:04

Does anyone else feel as if the earlier series fit alont more content into each episode?
I recently rewatched some of the earlier episodes in series 1 and felt like this latest series has much less in each episode. I sometimes feel a little cheated when the episode ends like is that it?

SchrodingersImmigrant · 11/08/2021 22:11

@Sh05

Does anyone else feel as if the earlier series fit alont more content into each episode? I recently rewatched some of the earlier episodes in series 1 and felt like this latest series has much less in each episode. I sometimes feel a little cheated when the episode ends like is that it?
I quite agree. It feels like it's being strech for the sake of making more a bit, which is a shame
underneaththeash · 11/08/2021 22:16

I really enjoyed the books and enjoy the series. It was written at a similar time to when Iranian women lost their liberty and is very poignant now that Afganistani women are once again losing the little liberty they had too.
It’s sad but thought provoking.

BlueBellsArePretty · 11/08/2021 22:27

Agree Underneaththeash it is analogous to what Afghani women will now be facing in the areas where the Taliban have gained footholds. Sadly on another thread many simply dismiss the Taliban's treatment of women as part of their 'culture' ☹️

Immaculatemisconception · 11/08/2021 22:31

I’ve watched the whole four seasons twice. I think it’s amazing. It really highlights the subjugation of women, like nothing I’ve ever watched. It’s so true to real life, it’s scary.

Dontwatchfootball · 11/08/2021 22:39

It is a really hard stories and the themes in it are very pertinent to the status of women today. I loved it but had to stop watching because I felt like you. Love Margaret Atwood, the woman is a genius but yep, it is hard to watch.

LemonTT · 11/08/2021 22:55

@underneaththeash

I really enjoyed the books and enjoy the series. It was written at a similar time to when Iranian women lost their liberty and is very poignant now that Afganistani women are once again losing the little liberty they had too. It’s sad but thought provoking.
I really dislike it when people reference the theologies of the Middle East as the basis for the book. It’s a book about power and it is deliberately set in the US. The ideology is irrelevant. Attwood has said many times it could have been any extreme ideology, communism or fascism. But a racist theology fitted with the culture of the US.

The reference to things that happen and have happened everywhere in the world. Not a lot of time had passed from when the UK took children from unfit mothers and sent them to places like Australia to keep that nation white. Abortion rights where not long in place and many women in 60’s and 70’s were barred from working in the civil service. I could go on. It’s more about our recent history.

And factually women’s rights before and after the revolution are more complex than that. Iran under the Shah wasn’t a democracy.