The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 (UK Pace) - thread 3

[CruCru]

Hi all

Here is the next thread for those who are watching The Handmaid's Tale Season 2 on Channel 4. Please don't put any spoilers on this - the other thread (for those in other countries who are watching ahead of the UK) is:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/telly_addicts/3239228-Handmaids-Tale-Season-2-SPOILERS-VIEWING-AHEAD-OF-UK-SREENING

I’d forgotten whether she had gone home by then.
?

Two thoughts

1. I always think of Gilead as being like a thought exercise. You know those ones where they start ‘you’re on a desert island, you’re in a room’ etc and when you start saying ‘but how did I get on the island?’ it ruins the premise a bit because it isn’t about the extra detail but about the central premise and your thoughts, reactions, strategies. THT is the same, and when you start analysing the edges of the world it becomes less credible, which detracts from the central thought experiment and exploration.

2. When Serena was beaten in front of June, there is the extra element that she probably would not have been beaten were she the one pregnant. Yet another reason why she would turn against June and her talismanic pregnancy.

Yup, she'd gone home to be beaten by Fred.

I think Serena left after the Doctor told her there was nothing more that could medically be done, so she was gone before the baby recovered.

I'm wondering whether the beating, and then the subsequent discovery that 'she' (well, she and June) was right will further spur Serena into renouncing the world she created.

Also, are we going to have the Putnam's praising Fred for sending help, because obviously anything Serena does will be publicly recognised as Fred's work.

I was thinking about the apparent 'liberalisation' some have mentioned - the guards letting June push them away for instance, and the handmaids chattering in the shop compared to the hushed silence of the first series. At first it seemed odd to me, and then I remembered that we're seeing things through June's eyes. At the start of the first series she felt utterly alone and couldn't trust anyone - she didn't know about Mayday and had no idea how other handmaids were feeling. She's come a long way since then. So it's possible that through her eyes we were seeing guards as all-powerful and women as silent when in reality there might have been more going on than she was aware of/able to take in. I worry that now, through a more confident June, we're seeing a regime nearer to a state of collapse than it really is, and women more confident than they really are.

Given that nothing in this series happens by accident, I also wonder whether we're going to see again the econowife who saw June with the map on the train.

Brilliant episode and a wonderful happy (if inevitably short-lived) ending for a change.

Loved the Serena and June scenes.

I thought the. Market scene was rubbish. Totally unbelievable when Martha who helped saved dying baby shunted away with strong men. They are walking us toward a June Serena. Get baby out aren't they, showing her turning against hubby...

Hygge... I found alot of it unrealistic but agree it maybe symbolic of the actual mum not giving up

Was it just me or did anyone think that .. when we could see Janine's discarded handmaiden clothes, she was at the window with the baby ready to jump? She must know she might never see her again.

I did find the Janine baby an unrealistic saccharine scene - sorry

For a moment yes.

And I was also wondering, given the whole attitude to "shredders", whether they were all subconsciously less worried about keeping an eye on Janine when they thought Angela was dying anyway?

I am losing interest now, they are veering away from the books sense of menace. Everything in the book had occurred somewhere in the world prior to MA writing it. It felt very tightly scripted and potentially real... Now off leash the script is getting increasingly fluffy and the plot a bit silly in places... So disappointing, wish they had stopped at the book's ending

No I just thought it was natural skin to skin contact, no risk of jumping. From start where baby was incubated and held at distance.

I know it's a piece of fiction and you have to roll with it but i found the whole Janine thing so unrealistic that it took me out of it. It just didn't make sense that any of those people would agree to her seeing Angela, especially after everything that had happened.

There's still enough good stuff for me to keep watching, I thought the end was good, june is forced to keep that disgusting piece of shit on side to survive.

Have to agree - the scene with Janine and the baby was just ludicrous and mawkish.

I am losing interest in it now which is a shame as I loved the first, authentic series.

I found the Janine scene lovely. I think it was to show the huge contrast to how the babies are raised vs how the should be raised.

Throughout the time in gilead babies are treated as glass ornaments. They're pure and precious and nobody can touch them, there aren't any toys, parks, playgroups or anything to help development or to socialise. Even in the hospital they had gowns, gloves and masks. We don't see them unless they're being married off, and there was the 1 scene when're Putnam had the pram our for 5 minutes. Yes there was the big show off of all the gilead children in series 1 but that was to impress other government officials.

Then the end scene was how it should be done. Laughter, holding, cradling, singing. Touching with skin to skin, interacting with sound and body language and gestures, all of which a baby is born to pay attention too. Janine was in shorts and a vest which is used as underwear but to us (to me anyway) looked just like a normal pyjamas set. It was a sort of flash back scene IYSWIM, of how we all wake up in the morning after a stressful and sleepless night, sit in bed in our pj's and have a quick sing song and play with our children. This would have never happened with Putnam and his wife as we gather from them being sound asleep and very uninterested in their sick child.

The sudden change in baby Charlotte I think was to really really show just how damaging the gilead environment is for children, not just in a sexist, homophobic and religious way but for each development stage too. Their social, emotional and even physical development is continually being damaged and prevented because it's much easier to mould them and brain wash them when they aren't really fully functioning people. And I think this scene will be very important and quite eye opening for aunt Lydia's character.

Good post monkey.

And I think this scene will be very important and quite eye opening for aunt Lydia's character.

I thought the moment when Janine took her mask off, then after a horrified pause Aunt Lydia deliberately removed hers too, was interesting. It felt like a definite show of support for Janine.

I like your post monkey but your wrong, in the episode where Serena and June meet naomi putnam with the baby in the pram they are in a park were we clearly saw children playing on playground type equipment.
Running around etc with Marthas watching them. Rather reminiscent of any London park with the precious offspring being watched over by foreign nannies

monkey I completely agree with your post. The scene to me was to show how wrong the Gilead ideology was with babies and children.

There are some toys and playgrounds but it's not the same and it's all quite stifled.

I hated the scene with Fred beating Serena, torture porn, however, I thought it showed the beginnings of the crumblings of their marriage.

Fred is a weak man, he was jealous that Serena and June had formed a bond, so he used the only power he had, violence, and in such a way to humiliate Serena so as to regain the upper hand.

I love the scene with Janine and the baby, it might seem far fetched but they couldn't find anything medically wrong with the baby. I don't think it's beyond belief to imagine the baby not thriving due to Naomi's neglect, lack of love and care.

However important love and skin to skin contact is, it doesn't explain how the doctor announced the baby was beyond help.Too much of a miracle, I'm afraid.

(Or a rubbish doctor)

Hmm yes the thing with the baby did seem a little bit farfetched, but still made for an interesting storyline. Surely Serena will now turn against the regime?