The Handmaid’s Tale Season 2

[CruCru]

I’ve just heard that this will start in the US at the end of this month but Channel 4 haven’t said when they’ll start showing it yet.

Amazing episode but truly horrendous & really does feel that it's only a few steps away from our current reality.

I actually find the flashback scenes more disturbing as everything is so normal, until it's not!

Remember that this second season is not directly pulled from what Atwood wrote - it’s newly scripted with ideas that follow on from what she wrote in the book.

This first ep definitely feels as though the season is going to be far more brutal than the original book - which is so excellently written because it is all about the underlying fear of the handmaids existence without necessarily having to be graphic.

I think Aunt Lydia is going to turn out to have a terrible story of being treated brutally herself. We still get small glimpses of her humanity at the moment - like the crying she did in private when she opened the door to ring the bell “celebrating” Offreds pregnancy.
This is why she is such an intriguing character - we don’t yet really know what is making her tick.

Aunt Lydia crying to herself has made me unsure whether she’s a true believer or not!

I think she’s crying with joy / relief. She’ll have her own targets - if none of the Handmaids get pregnant, the Commanders are going to want to know why not.

She could have been crying because she is a true believer - overwhelmed with emotion.

I don't know what to make of her.

Completely agree Cru - I think she seemed very relieved so assumed she had targets to meet about babies.

I actually find the flashback scenes more disturbing as everything is so normal, until it's not!

I find it disturbing because it’s sort of normal, but there are lots of ways in which the net is tightening.

That's what I mean something, all the signs are there but people are powerless to do that much but in a million years, you'd never imagine how horrendous it could turn out.

Oooh I've found my people! Had short debrief with DH but he's now snoring next to me and I need an outlet... what a first episode!

This Woman's Work by Kate Bush is one of the most haunting and moving pieces of music ... I was in bits when that played. I sort of knew that JUne wasn't going to be killed off but part of me doubted this nonetheless.

And I too had that conversation with DH when the doctor was grilling June.
It's so close to the bone the 'where were you?' 'And do you work full time?' DH is fairly switched on but just didn't 'get' how close to reality such exchanges can be.

I didn't make the connection between the vans and the position they're in and the intended imagery but that's clever.

Utterly compelling viewing in my opinion!

I found that episode very hard to watch.
Amazing acting though.

I think Aunt Lydia is an extremist and it wouldn’t surprise me if she comes from one of those religious cult backgrounds and they got her in to keep a check on the handmaidens. She needed to punish them for the disobedience so they will never doubt her again.

@PleaseAndThanks Aldous Huxley, Brave New World.

I loved the episode but what was going on with the ear at the end, did I miss something?

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I think it's possible to cry with sorrow, while fully believing the evil you are doing is utterly the right thing to do. Especially if you are a fundamentalist who believes that a harsh punishment in this world is better than eternal damnation.

She was cutting out her ear tag Magpie

I wonder if Aunt Lydia was instrumental in setting up the handmaid system somehow. Obviously she’s not high up in the regime but she does seem personally invested in its success. The way she reacted to June’s pregnancy (when she was ringing the bell) made me wonder if this pregnancy was some kind of vindication for her.

Many of these women (Aunt Lydia’s) existed in the holocausts as SS guards which were were extremists and massive believers in the “good” they were doing and the part they played. I think that’s the scariest thing this these type of women are often created and truly monsters because at times you can see a slight bit of humanity before the mask slips again and they become brutal.

Sage I find A Woman’s Work haunting too. I find it so difficult not to sob when I hear it and the chills!

This show often makes me think of the Magdalene laundries in Ireland. Unspeakable acts of cruelty by women to women, in the name of religion, in many of them and not so long ago at all.

Totally agree Margo
Ps love the name.

Good review in The Guardian today

www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/may/20/the-handmaids-tale-series-2-review-as-intense-as-tv-gets

Some of the senior guide leaders in my youth would have relished the aunt Lydia role I fear.

I've found the right thread

Last night's opening was brutal. I've waited to find out what happened to June since I was a teenager and I don't think this will disappoint.

I agree about the flashbacks showing normal life slightly altered, like needing permission from husband for contraception, were chilling. I think it could be very easy for us to all sleepwalk into a world where the rights of women are chipped away.

In a way, I think I will find season 2 harder to watch. I’m really familiar with the book so knew (more or less) what would happen in season 1.

I know exactly what you mean, Cru. As horrific as S1 was, having read the book already, I knew what to expect but S2 is unchartered territory.

If episode 1 is anything to go by, it’s going to be hard going. Utterly brilliant TV though.