The Handmaids tale

[DumbledoresArmy]

Anyone else planning on watching this at 9pm on channel 4?

Oh thank you!
Had forgotten that from the book.
🙁

No worries

I use subtitles too!

Sometimes useful!

Yes the contact with nick is just wrong. The bit where he watches her lift her dress to her knee is just wrong.
The amount of talking to ofglen even is wrong....
Ofglen doesn't leave until the end of the book...I am not sure why all the events are being mixed up out of order

Sorry if this has already been asked but why did she spit the cookie out?

Why did all the babies die? When she asked where all the babies were the nurser said 'two were in ICU but the rest have died.' I'm not sure I would've let the baby out of my sight! (I haven't read the book if that matters.)

I assume being treated like a pet and referred to as a whore by the wives sucks all the pleasure out of eating it & she wants it gone.

Can people be careful about spoilers? Someone a few pages back has written 'it has a happy ending' which is a massive massive spoiler.

Why did she spit out the cookie?!

The baby shortage is not as acute or overt in the book. They've definitely ramped that up for the TV adaptation.

I don't think the book has a happy ending per se. It's much more ambiguous, so I was surprised by the "happy ending" post upthread.

Yes, I was puzzled by the 'happy ending' post, but decided not to reply to avoid further spoilering. I think that was somewhat misleading.

Has it been said?

I thought because she won't take anything off them. Maybe.

The whole scrabble thing felt weirder and creepier than if he had wanted a blow job. So off kilter to how he'd used her so far.

Music at end confused me greatly too!

I found the music at the end very poignant. Thought it was ironic to hear 'don't you forget about me'.

As if they could ever forget. They have so much they want to forget and so much they want to remember. Very bitter sweet.

I'm guessing the happy ending comment was probably sarcastic!

Disagreeing with the comment is also a spoiler...!

Surely nobody can believe this story can have anything less than a complex, nuanced and challenging ending? (I can't remember the ending actually but I'm sure it's neither 'happy' nor 'not happy' because how could it be?)

I thought the musical interlude was great. That's how she's holding on to herself. She was thinking of names of songs and bands to dissociate while being raped at the start of the episode.

I think because they've got the atmosphere and essential feel so right, it's not bothering me that they're messing around with the detail and order of events. I actually really like the way they've fleshed out the world building and backstory. Usually it annoys me when there are a lot of changes to source material in an adaptation but I think most of the choice they've made with this have been good ones.

The baby shortage is spelled out in the book - I am rereading it. The woman trying to steal her baby happens later, in a grocery store iirc, rather than immediately after birth.

I agree RRRR, film & TV adaptations use book versions to flesh out story lines and characters. MA agreed the adapted TV version.

While it is uncomfortable, I feel the TV version is watchable and the nuts & bolts of MA's story of the reality of what women face globally, underwrites the TV version.

Elisabeth Moss is excellent as the protagonist with the supporting cast also excellent.

It also drives home how Motherhood is treated in many cultures. With very little regard. Not just women's issues and rights.

I do think it's a shame that people who have read the novel keep comparing it with the TV adaptation. Perhaps it would be more enjoyable just to enjoy (or not) the TV version as a separate entity?
Not everyone has read it, or even wants to, and the constant comparisons could spoil it for some people.
Obviously an hour of TV has to keep people's attention and make a gripping instalment with a beginning, middle and end. You can't faithfully condense a complex novel into a TV format without taking some liberties with the story order.

i was actually feeling slightly queasy before watching last night, the first episode was so chilling and i also have read the book several times, so know what is coming so to speak..don't worry no spoilers from me !

I think it is by far one of the best tv adaptations of a book i have ever seen, and am really enjoying the fleshing out of the background, but i don't necessarily agree that it is more sinister or atmospheric than the book. I used to have to put the book down and go for a walk in the garden every now and again as found it so overpoweringly sinister, but i do have a very active imagination :)

In the book, it is Janine/Ofwarren who is given the cookie, in a scene imagined by Offred.

The book also says that the first Ofglen hung herself when she saw the Eyes coming for her.

I think this is turning out to be one of the best dramas that have been on tv for a long while.
I know that in the book, Serena joy is portrayed as a much older woman, but I think that it works quite well having her the same age as offred, in that, in previous times they could have been contemporaries/worked alongside each other and now, with the way things have worked out, one is the wife and one is the handmaid.
I think that the way Serena is being acted, there is a sense of "that could have been me".
The commander needs to be older though.

That is really interesting NannyR...i think the commander is just right, he needs to be young and attractive and of the same generation as Offred, there is the subtle undertone that he is also not happy or in agreement with the regime and what he is doing, which i also got from the book ...he feels uncomfortable using Offred in the way he does but he like the women have no choice....I also interpret Serena Joy as being very aware her husband is not comfortable with the using of a handmaid and may well feel attracted to Offred in a more than just a physical way, she feels threatened by this and hence is keen to keep Offred in her place.

I have often wondered why the wifes and handmaids do not become more friendly ? if this occurred in real life would you not be able to empathise/sympathise find some female solidarity ? But i guess the premise of the book is that everyone is so fearful and as NannyR said 'that could have been me' or 'that could be me' thoughts maybe keeps them all in the position of looking after themselves only.