The Handmaid's Tale Vol 3

[CruCru]

Hi all

As the last thread has all but totally filled up, I've started this new one.

Bit shallow - but do you think the Wives are allowed cosmetics? I got the impression that make up is banned but they do all look very polished.

One of the flashbacks to the cafe where June's credit card is declined really haunts me. I keep thinking this may happen in real
life - it's so plausible isn't it?

Yes and that's what worried me when people start talking about getting rid of cash. It would be so easy for cyber criminals or terrorists to shut down the banking systems.

Finally caught up - I've been away for two weeks, so I watched both the last episodes today.

The interview with Ann Dowd that someone posted upthread is really interesting. When I read the book I thought of Aunt Lydia as a ruthless sadist, but I haven't been responding that way to her in the series - I've thought that in her own way, according to her own lights, she's genuinely fond of Janine. It seems Ann Dowd sees it that way, and that's how she's playing her. I also wondered whether Aunt Lydia herself will be punished/dismissed for what happened, ie for not having sufficient control over Janine, or having taught her properly.

Fred makes my skin crawl. He appears to be playing with all the people in his life, not just June - and of course, ihe's genuinely responsible for the directions Gilead has taken, not caught up in a system and doing bad things in order to survive it. Nick's intriguing me in the series - in the book we're never sure where his loyalties lie (it's unresolved at the end) and although some of the plot lines have been changed, the ambiguity around him is the same. I think I have a glimmer of an idea of what's going to happen in the final episode, between knowing the book really well and seeing Moira at the wheel at the end of this week's episode. But it's a bit spoilerish (possibly, if I'm right) so I'll keep it to myself.

I think the acting is superb, and it's been the most gripping thing on TV for a long time.

I'm consoling myself with the fact that even if it the ending of this series is unsatisfactory, there's a whole other series to go now!

Has anyone else just seen the Handmaids Tale mentioned briefly on The Last Leg on C4? Proof that some people just don't get it and actually made me feel a bit sick that anyone could watch it and have this attitude. (Saying that, I doubt he'd actually watched any of it).

"In the future, women's fertility has fallen dramatically so the remaining fertile women are kept as servants. If it was the other way round, with men being milked every 3 days, most men would be fine with that".

FFS is that what they said? And actually no I don't think most men do get it as its not their lived experience.

What was the audiences reaction? Sickening sickening commentary from the last leg but can't say I am surprised. Hosted by three men but 'oooh look we're not sexist, we have female guests'.

And surely the correct term would have been slaves? Servant suggesting there is some kind of choice in the matter. Twats.

I came straight here after shouting very loudly at the telly during the last leg! They were blathering on about women's fertility dropping, and not getting it was the men too...this after the whole intro about men's fertility dropping being a "reverse hmt". So cross - glad it was not just me

Idiots

They don't get it.
I do think a lot of it is early media exposure. We know stories teach empathy. But in a very gendered society where every possible division is exaggerated and celebrated , and all heroes are boys how can lads learn to empathise with girls? Girls empathise with boys all the time. They follow the fortunes of the boy protagonist with the clever helpful femsle sidekick.

Didn't see the Last Leg but do find it very 'laddish',so not surprised at these comments. Came on to post this article in the Guardian calling THT a horror story:

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jul/28/horror-in-its-purest-sense-is-the-handmaids-tale-the-most-terrifying-tv-ever

"full of a tension so sustained that you need a quiet sit-down afterwards to recover"
It's not wrong. Actually I think that's a really good article.

Agree. I'm always very disquieted after watching it. And it is a good article on the programme.

Just wondering how series one will end. Can't give an opinion as I've read the book, but I think Offred will see someone.

Am stuck in France and desperate to watch tomorrow's episode... does anyone know how I can watch it online? Apparently 4OD doesn't work here. Holiday RUINED

Cokeandpopcorn, tethers 👍

Fingers crossed for you, tethers 😉

This is a fab article too...covering exactly what rights women are losing (or have lost) all over the world, and why we have to stay on top of this crap. There's a subtle-as-a-brick reference to the fact that Trump and the VP hold some scarily Gilead-ish views on certain social etiquette where women are concerned. And as leader of the free world (NEVER has that title sounded more sinister than since he took office) he has a huge influence...sadly, not something that is likely to be used to further respect for women and girls globally.

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jun/12/the-handmaids-tale-hate-crimes-gender-treachery

Thanks both- Cokeandpopcorn seems to have shut down

Try putlocker9.com should work

My sympathies, tether. I missed not one but two episodes while I was away. Almost the first thing I did when I got back to the UK was catch up on 4OD! Just look on it as having something to look forward to when you get home.

I re-watched Sunday's episode yesterday - I find they're best watched twice. On my first watch, when aunt Lydia pleads with June to 'save that child' I assumed she meant the baby. When I watched again, I wondered whether she meant Janine. And I completely missed that Warren was taken in for 'questioning' - I think I was still reeling from Janine's leap off the bridge and not paying attention. I wonder what if anything the punishment will be, not for illicit sex with a handmaid since the implication is that all the commanders do that, but for being found out.

Out of interest, those of you who haven't read the book, has the series made you want to read it, and do you think you will? Or anyone read it while watching? I think they work well together and although some things are in a different order, they're mostly complementary rather than contradictory, and also an interesting window into changes about how we think about women and violence against women since the 1980s. I'd love to know the thoughts of people who've watched the series first then read the book.

I read the book while I watching and as much as the book was good I felt the tv series provides much more information and background on what happens outside Offred's experience

Can I ask: who/what are Econowives? I take it they're different from women like Serena Joy?

It's such an insulting name, 'econowives' - as if they're the Tesco/Lidl wives, whereas people like Joy are the Waitrose Wives...
Just another way for Gilead to define not just who you are and your job, but your rank in that job. You're a wife, but your only an econowife.
Aren't they the ones who don't have as many servants and have to 'share' a handmaid? That poor handmaid :( at the beck and call of not one crazily fucked up household, but two. Raped by not one man, but two. Detested by not just one wife, but two... Dreadful.

I think econowives don't get Handmaid's at all as they aren't infertile? They act as the wife The Handmaid's and the Martha. Just normal wives who weren't seen as committing sin, like June was a second wife and had an affair etc

I think econowives are women married to lower status men. Lower status men don't get either marthas or handmaids, so econowives have to do all the cooking, cleaning and procreation (if they're fertile) themselves. In the book there's a tense relationship between the econowives and the handmaids, and in fact between all the different classes of women - 'wives' (ie wives of high-status men) look down on econowives, who in turn look down on handmaids and marthas. Divide and rule.

OK, thanks both.

Not all low-status men get even an econowife though, right? In an earlier episode I think someone says about Nick, who is low-status, 'he wasn't even assigned a woman'.