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

@FairfaxAikman oh yes, I'd forgotten that. Makes June's ongoing relationship with Nick seem somewhat odd then. She obviously thinks about Luke in flashbacks to their previous lives, but I don't recall her mentioning Luke in her inner monologues. Does she feel guilty for loving another man and carrying his child knowing her husband is still alive?

brokenshoes she is in survival mode and she sees Nick as her route to survival. She hasn't actually said she loves him and I have wondered if she is just using him or what that relationship would be if they made it to Canada and Luke.

Yes, after I posted, I thought that she might be using Nick. She did say he couldn't help her if he's on the wall.

I love this! it's like a little book club!

Does she feel guilty for loving another man and carrying his child knowing her husband is still alive

I wonder how long Luke will stay single for before finding someone else?

Was just watching this and I needed to share here...real life!

Hope the link works...

www.facebook.com/aljazeera/videos/10156864420458690/

Blessed be the fruit!

Just checking in- love this thread, echoing the pp who said it’s like a book club!

I can’t wait until Sunday! I was so pleased that I didn’t know what was coming in episode 6, so very grateful we can chat about THT here and not have spoilers.

May the Lord Open!

I thought something was likely to develop between Luke and the refugee woman in his flat who has just started talking.

I wonder how sustainable June and Luke's relationship would be if she manages to escape? I don't think either of them could go back to anywhere near where they were. I think June knows that which is why all she seems to talk about is being reunited with Hannah. I don't think she's even mentioned being reunited with Luke.

I wouldn't say she's using nick. I think she knows he can help her but she's also looking for a companion/ally in a lonely world. He's also the closest she can get to a normal relationship in gilead. Whether their relationship could survive post Gilead I don't know.

June once post Gilead would surely suffer from mental health issues and PTSD

I think the level of abuse she’s sustained would always be in Luke’s mind and might come between them

Additionally if she escapes with the baby that’s another mans child

Without the baby and / or without Hannah how could they live with themselves knowing that in saving themselves they’ve given up their children

I think that’s too big a weight for anyone to bear

I have an 11 month old and I really struggle to watch. I wouldn't be able to if I was pregnant I think!

Has everyone seen the news of the newspaper office shootings in Maryland this evening? Is this the next step towards Gilead?

Really enjoying this thread.

I thought that too Puss. Life really is mirroring art at the moment.

I could only start watching this year when I was in a much much happier place - I was having a pretty harrowing LTB divorce and felt a bit like a MArtha/handmaid despite loving the book. Definitely couldn't manage it if pregnant, I watched the first series through my fingers in the evenings - and then had to compulsively re-watch a few times....

Ugh, twice today I've had news articles about The Handmaid's Tale appear on my Google homepage. I've quickly side swiped to delete and there was nothing too spoilery, but might only be a matter of time before I see something I don't want to.

I'm a bit of a techno numpty, plus don't have broadband. Does anyone know how I can watch series one again!? Is it on dvd?

Yes, Dhal, you can get in on DVD.

I am slightly concerned that this whole series could go on too long, or might “jump the shark “ although the fact that Margaret Atwood is a producer means she can say no more.

I read somewhere a member of the production said it could run 10 years.

I really don’t think it has or should have that shelf life

5 years would be about right for me, provided that the latter two /three series could be more about defeating Gilead and less about the torture of women even if that means the death of major characters

I have been watching the Handmaid's Tale while also re-reading a book I read as a teen, The Chrysalids by John Wyndham.

Lots of resonating themes, dystopian worlds in which an aggressive and oppressive extremist Christianity is a threat to the sympathetic characters.

In the Chrysalids there is a post-nuclear world in which any slight mutation is considered to be a mark of the devil and anyone with six toes, longer than usual arms, or whatever is sterilised and forced to live in the "fringes" a polluted and dangerous area like that depicted in the Handmaid's Tale.

I wondered whether anyone else had read the Chrysalids? It is a bit dated, the word "queer" pops up a lot to indicate strange things, but still an interesting story.

I love the Chrysalids. I was thinking it had similar themes. Like the baby left out to die because it had been born with a deformity. And the hypocrisy of the leaders who accept enormous horses as natural because they are useful.

I read that about a possible 10 series. I don't think I could stand it to go on. It's absolutely brilliant and I love it but it's such a hard watch. I'm hoping we'll see June escape in this series to at least give a bit of closure and then the fall of Gilead in the next series. I guess I'm looking for a quick resolution to the whole thing but then that's probably not realistic!

SusanWalker

The issue of infertility is an issue in both narratives as well as the idea of divine retribution falling on a civilisation.

In the Chrysalids the little girl with 6 toes, Sophie, is forcibly sterilised and banished to the fringes. Later on she is beside herself because she cannot bear children.

Also just the idea that a bunch of self-ritghous misogynists in a patriarchal society have the power to decree who is granted full status as a person and who is not.

Plus the idea of a civilisation far away where things are very different and people are not abused.

Ive not read The Chrysalids but I have read Triffids and I was really surprised by how current it felt

I also then realised how much other authors have ripped him off later