Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Pocket Billiards
Aug 29, 2007
.

Hollismason posted:

I hope they make her a Fox News correspondent.

Her line to the Commander about the Martha escaping to Canada really stuck out to me, it was something along the lines of 'don't discredit her story, discredit her'. Between that and the freudian slip to Offred I have to think she was part of the right wing media.

It makes sense as a character that's a female public figure that was reactionist against feminism. In a book from the 80's it's a character that's reminiscent of Phyllis Schafly and Tammy Faye Baker, in the more modern adaption it's a younger blonde from Fox News.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Owlbear Camus
Jan 3, 2013

Maybe this guy that flies is just sort of passing through, you know?



Pocket Billiards posted:

freudian slip to Offred

I think I missed this.

Pocket Billiards
Aug 29, 2007
.
Episode 3 Serena says "what we do is terrible........... what we do is terribly hard".

BigglesSWE
Dec 2, 2014

How 'bout them hawks news huh!
I am curious over the religious nature of this regime. I don't recall seeing any traditional Christian imagery such as crucifixes, but they've cited scripture, both from the sermon on the mount but also Romans (during the court scene).

This can only lead me to assume that it is, at the core, a Christian theocracy, but the complete anonymity of it is fascinating to me. I guess it's a very concervative, orthodox reading of some passages from Old Testament that shaped it all. The golden bull in particular.

Collateral
Feb 17, 2010
They pick and choose those passages that confirm their worldview.

BigglesSWE
Dec 2, 2014

How 'bout them hawks news huh!

Collateral posted:

They pick and choose those passages that confirm their worldview.

I can believe that. Makes sense. But what place has Jesus in all this? Has he been demoted to a false prophet? Seems unlikely, since they've quoted him. But I can't recall him being mentioned by name once, and somehow I feel these lunatics wouldn't be comfortable to be in the same theological camp as them Jews, thus ensuring a need for more theological works than the Old Teatament.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
It looks more like your average red pill cult. I do appreciate the timing of the show.

It loving perplexes me how a Scientologist is the main character.

Collateral
Feb 17, 2010

Rocksicles posted:

It loving perplexes me how a Scientologist is the main character.

Irony, I guess. She has a rank similar to the Commander (Celebrity), so she can whatever she wants. Mainline Scientology girls get ritually hosed more than once a month (figuratively speaking).

Better for some, usually means worse for everybody else.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
I found the geezer who might start the Australian chapter... Corey Bernadi.

DasNeonLicht
Dec 25, 2005

"...and the light is on and burning brightly for the masses."
Fallen Rib

Rocksicles posted:

It loving perplexes me how a Scientologist is the main character.

I am catching up on The Handmaid's Tale podcasts, and there was actually a pretty thoughtful discussion of this on this episode of one of the better podcasts, The Red Center.

For those interested in podcasts about the show, I'd recommend The Red Center, which seems to be formatted as dry recap, then interesting analysis of adjacent subjects. If you want a more lighthearted podcast, I'd recommend Red All Over, which is more episode-long reactions with a few digressions, and very funny altogether.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

Rocksicles posted:

It loving perplexes me how a Scientologist is the main character.

Oh jesus, they got Elizabeth Moss too? At this point it's loving well documented that the CoS is wildly abusive and terrible, what the gently caress.

tweet my meat
Oct 2, 2013

yospos
So I gotta ask, does the story have some cathartic moments to keep it from being 100% depressing or is it a slog through the depths of humanity all the way through? I don't need to see Offred pick up a gun and start mowing down every man she sees(though I wouldn't be opposed to it either) but a few good moments would be enough to get me through the series.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

tweet my meat posted:

So I gotta ask, does the story have some cathartic moments to keep it from being 100% depressing or is it a slog through the depths of humanity all the way through? I don't need to see Offred pick up a gun and start mowing down every man she sees(though I wouldn't be opposed to it either) but a few good moments would be enough to get me through the series.

The novel ends on a hopeful, but ambiguous, note. Then there's an epilogue that is unambiguously "good" (the regime we see in the show only lasts like 10 years)

e: oh, but to answer your actual question, yeah there are a lot of things coming up that aren't just "pure misery"

tweet my meat
Oct 2, 2013

yospos
Just got to a pretty good scene this weeks episode, and yeah I think my fears were unfounded.

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo

precision posted:

Oh jesus, they got Elizabeth Moss too? At this point it's loving well documented that the CoS is wildly abusive and terrible, what the gently caress.

She was raised with a Captain's hat.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

Rocksicles posted:

She was raised with a Captain's hat.

Leah Remini's Scientology documentary almost made me physically ill, which is saying something since I've been aware of their awfulness since the mid-90s hurricane of crazy that prompted the CoS to successfully use Interpol to get the identity of everyone that had used anon.penet.fi

http://www.spaink.net/cos/rnewman/anon/penet.html

Rocksicles
Oct 19, 2012

by Nyc_Tattoo
Maybe this is a cry for help, maybe it's the ultimate method acting. Maybe she loves it. She's clearly a victim of fraud at the very least.

She's a baller actor though, she sells everything she does. What I admire about scientology actors is they have no fear. Other than the church.

BigglesSWE
Dec 2, 2014

How 'bout them hawks news huh!

precision posted:

The novel ends on a hopeful, but ambiguous, note. Then there's an epilogue that is unambiguously "good" (the regime we see in the show only lasts like 10 years)

e: oh, but to answer your actual question, yeah there are a lot of things coming up that aren't just "pure misery"

That's great. I couldn't bring myself to finish 1984 after I happened to find out the ending. I normally don't mind knowing how a movie/book ends, but 1984 was just too goddamn horrible. I know that's the point of it all, but it was too much for me.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
I went to a super progressive middle school in "the nice part of New Jersey" (seriously, it's gorgeous, up in the north where all the mountains are) and so in freaking 8th grade we were assigned 1984 to read. That poo poo will gently caress up a 13 year old kid man.

Lampsacus
Oct 21, 2008

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

Episode 4 felt really different than the other three, like it was made before the others or something

Steve Yun
Aug 7, 2003
I'm a parasitic landlord that needs to get a job instead of stealing worker's money. Make sure to remind me when I post.
Soiled Meat

Lampsacus posted:

(INDISTINCT RADIO CHATTER)

Bamabalacha
Sep 18, 2006

Outta my way, ya dumb rah-rah!

precision posted:

The novel ends on a hopeful, but ambiguous, note. Then there's an epilogue that is unambiguously "good" (the regime we see in the show only lasts like 10 years)

e: oh, but to answer your actual question, yeah there are a lot of things coming up that aren't just "pure misery"

I saw a semi-joking quote from Margaret Atwood in the newspaper the other day about how she finally has to work out what happens to Offred after the book ends after being asked about it incessantly for 30 years.

She rules :allears:

Kanine
Aug 5, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
holy poo poo the end of this episode

Kanine
Aug 5, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
also my headcanon is that the handmaids tale is in the same universe with children of men, albeit slightly earlier maybe

TomViolence
Feb 19, 2013

PLEASE ASK ABOUT MY 80,000 WORD WALLACE AND GROMIT SLASH FICTION. PLEASE.

Kanine posted:

also my headcanon is that the handmaids tale is in the same universe with children of men, albeit slightly earlier maybe

I was just thinking the same thing. Like, as the UK's turning into the locked down liberal terror management state we see in Children of Men the US goes full ISIS with American Characteristics. The two of them really do dovetail spookily well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ9J-dxEgY4

JUICY HAMBUGAR
Nov 10, 2010

Eating, America's pastime.
The latest episode is really good, and almost entirely newer material!

I'm a little disappointed that Serena Joy didn't really get an update to being a more modern conservative in the vein of Coulter, et al., but I guess that was just me trying to project my own desires into the show. I did end up feeling a ton of empathy for her in this episode, it humanized her very well, showing her chafing at the restraints she has built for herself, trying to reclaim her power (any sliver of power anyway), and the utter lack of respect for her as a person embodied in the end of the scene where she had waited outside the conspirator's think tank. It also made me consider the epilogue of the book, and the purges mentioned in them. I'd bet she's one of the first against the wall.

McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






JUICY HAMBUGAR posted:

I'm a little disappointed that Serena Joy didn't really get an update to being a more modern conservative in the vein of Coulter, et al., but I guess that was just me trying to project my own desires into the show.

Her type absolutely still exists, they just don't have the 80s-level multimedia zeitgeist anymore. Flip through some local TV on late Saturday night through Sunday morning, or go to one of those Joel Osteen interfaith megachurches for the youth variety.

DasNeonLicht
Dec 25, 2005

"...and the light is on and burning brightly for the masses."
Fallen Rib
Anyone else think of Ivanka when Serena Joy turned out to be more of a "domestic feminist" book author than televangelist?

BigglesSWE
Dec 2, 2014

How 'bout them hawks news huh!
I loving love the Mexican woman tearing down the bullshit of Gilead. "Oh you lowered the release of toxic emissions? The fact women aren't allowed to read are absolutely pivotal I'm sure".

Also love the glimpses into the world, the fact that the USD is in a free-fall.

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
loving hell, that was the best (and hardest to watch) episode yet. Just... gently caress. And that ending speech, Moss has got to be a lock for some awards here.

Loomer
Dec 19, 2007

A Very Special Hell
"This is a brutal place." about sums it up, really.

BigglesSWE
Dec 2, 2014

How 'bout them hawks news huh!
The ending really got me thinking: what other solutions do states around the world make up to fix the birth rates?

While trading fertile women as resources was illustrated as immoral (which it is because holy poo poo) I would almost have to assume that the rest of the world wouldn't have to treat them just as horribly as Gilead does. Artifical insemination is a thing, for instance (probably decreed as going against the nature of God or something), meaning that a monthly rape (in the more common meaning of the term) wouldn't be required.

It would almost certainly be a horrible living (any situation in which non-criminals are held against their will are pretty much that) but I can hardly see a living in Mexico be worse than the current situation for June.

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007

Witchfinder General

Just read articles on Japan because the future does not look good for them at all.

Pinwiz11
Jan 26, 2009

I'm becom-, I'm becom-,
I'm becoming
Tana in, Tana in my mind.



I let out the loudest "OH gently caress" when the subject of the Trade Deal was revealed.

drat, this show... :gonk:

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames

BigglesSWE posted:

The ending really got me thinking: what other solutions do states around the world make up to fix the birth rates?

If fertility was as low as it is in the show, ie literal possible death of the human race, I think a very popular solution would end up being "give any woman who has a child a ton of money and status". Even without looming death, humans generally want to have kids, so you would end up with a culture where any couple who has a child becomes a celebrity and probably they all get their own reality show or get book deals etc.

edit: I'm not saying this is a good solution or a good thing, just what it seems like our current society would do, or at least, our pre-Trump society

Hollismason
Jun 30, 2007

Witchfinder General

Tonights episode is really loving good. I am surprised though that they made them super loving directly responsible for their society .

Popular Human
Jul 17, 2005

and if it's a lie, terrorists made me say it
Upset we didn't get closure on the most important question of the episode: did Janine get her tray of desserts?

FourLeaf
Dec 2, 2011
The flashbacks were great but the present day plot kind of went off the rails in this ep. I appreciate that they need to expand on the book to make it into a series but this latest plot development makes no sense.

1) Gilead is so desperate for babies they need to use Handmaids in the first place

2) But their extreme religious fundamentalism forces them to conceive using a method where even if the Handmaid is fertile she's less likely to get pregnant (bizarre rape ritual once a month instead of IVF/artificial insemination, if the man is infertile she will be punished), meaning they should be even more desperate for babies than people in other, less misogynist countries

3) Despite being so desperate, they are willing to trade Handmaids away to other countries??

If anything Gilead should be even worse off than Mexico and should be trying to import Handmaids from there, not the other way around.

I'd love to view this show in a more allegorical way, but they are the ones insisting on explicitly outlining the details and contradicting themselves instead of leaving it to the imagination like the book.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

precision
May 7, 2006

by VideoGames
It was strongly implied that Mexico was far worse off radiation and environment wise, and therefore really desperate (not one baby in SIX YEARS). Meanwhile Gilead are having enough babies to casually trot out the 20 they've had just in the past year alone. Compound that with the fact that we can assume every place in the world with morality and working internet will have nothing to do with Gilead and I think it's obvious we're supposed to assume Mexico is turbofucked and Gilead is merely hosed once a month.

  • Locked thread