The Handmaids tale

[DumbledoresArmy]

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

Yes steppemum I had chills watching that scene. The most frightening part being that her husband didn't get why it was an issue

And if you didn't have a husband, you'd be on your own.

So much to discuss. And so much of this is happening in places now - and some of the views are common amongst people in power.

Yes, no husband, or an abusive husband (hardly rare!) meant you were completely fucked.

Elizabeth Moss is incredible and I'm stunned at how talented alexis Bledel is. Rory Gilmore is a distant memory and I hope her career takes off.

Can I ask people who have read the book, prior to watching, would you have described The Handmaid's Tale as a thriller?
I am very interested in how the adaptation has dialled up the thriller aspects, with the style of cinematography, the stress on the theme of resistance, the storytelling being designed to maximise the tension. It has given the story a very different feel from the book imo. It works superbly, but I don't remember thinking of the book in that way.

I actually think the series is better than the book. The way they've developed it and added new and real elements such as FGM is incredibly powerful. I didn't know about death by crane before. It's all just so horrifying and real and timely. I was shaking watching last night and had nightmares qhe I eventually got to sleep.

Another horrific episode, but unable to look away...

On a lighter note...who ever is the music arranger (sorry not sure of the actual name of the role) but anyway whoever they are deserve a emmy or oscar or something.

The juxtaposition makes it all more chilling.

It was brilliant. And harrowing. It's superb TV. Total respect for everyone involved in making this.

In one interview, they said that they have added nothing, that is not happening/or has not happened to women somewhere/at some point.

Besides everything, I also love the way it looks: sometimes like a Vemeer(?) painting, other times, like when Offglen woke up, all sooo white.

Yes, and the music choices are fab too.

The demo that turned into a massacre - so frightening, so plausible.

Does anyone on this thread recognise the quotation "We’ll take my hubby’s sperm and throw it in there and fertilize it." ?

No,I wouldn't describe the book as a thriller.

I wouldn't describe the book as a thriller either, but I would the RV adaptation. Apparently there's a ballet too!

I agree, it was a harrowing watch. I was speechless after last night's episode.

Thanks, Dame and Bike. Interesting that it's not just me.

Empress - yes, I recognise that quote. Makes my blood run cold how casually that young person has been encouraged to think of women's bodies as being out there for use by other people.

Empress - it's just clicked for me who said that.

Where did the quote come from?

I'm finding this so harrowing to watch - precisely because it can and does happen. I'm reading The Burning Woman at the moment and it talks about the fear that all women have deep down - at a visceral level we know the potential dangers of non-compliance to the model of 'woman/femininity' in our society. This adaption is so frightening for me because it awakens that fear of 'what if I no longer fit with what society expects?', 'how would I cope mentally with the knowledge that I have no real freedom?'

I have been watching this at US pace, and it just gets better and better.
It's so raw and painful at times.

I described it to some friends over dinner yesterday as 'horrifying' and my DP seemed a bit confused, and said 'no it's not?!' I was so surprised to find that he hadn't been finding it as disturbing as me. I think he assumed I meant in a blood/guts/gore way, but obviously I was talking about the concepts behind it.

The suffocating feeling of fear running throughout, and the way that the women are so utterly powerless. Not allowed to even express grief at having their family forcibly removed from them.

I cry every time there is a flashback featuring her daughter or husband. It's beyond imagining.

Just an amazingly well written and acted show. I'm reading the book now too.

The quote is from an interview with Jazz Jennings a YouTube transgender blogger. It is Cosmo I think, related to her using her sister's womb.

Interesting that opalescent's DH doesn't find it horrifying. Neither does mine. I imagine women relate to the story very differently to men.

My husband watched the 1st episode and fell asleep !

I think you have to be a woman to really get it, tbh

My dh has slept through all episodes so far

Tried to get him to stay awake but when I told him about what happened, he looked faintly green and has now refused to watch it full stop.

Making me more determind to get him to see it

Yes, Jazz Jennings. It just seemed to fit all too well, the view of fertile women as sperm receptacles.

When Serena Joy talked about the "weaker girls" and how glad she was to have Offred, did anyone else get the feeling that June was expected to reciprocate and sympathise with her?

Mines watching it with me and asking lots of questions. There's a lot in it he hadn't ever thought about before whereas it's things I think about constantly. For example he was really confused about what had happened to Ofglen when she woke up whereas I immediatley gasped at the bandage. He's highly educated and intelligent and is a genuine feminist ally, especially in his workplace, but he just hasn't seen the world through the same lens as me and this show is really opening his eyes in a way that news and current affairs relating to these kind of topics hasn't previously.

Yes, I assume that DP doesn't get it because he isn't a woman. It made me feel a bit sad actually, because he's generally a fairly enlightened bloke. And strange to watch something together and view it so differently,

I am finding it so emotional to watch. But then I do feel I have become gradually more aware of feminist issues over recent years, particularly as I work with young people in a sexual health setting 😩.

My DH is a Margaret Attwood reader and glued to it. He buys the books and passes them on to me. With the other books, I have found it difficult to work out what/where/why is going on so ask him.

We have not had a chance to talk about what it is all about - might be interesting?