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Bouillon Rube
Aug 6, 2009


I know June has thick plot armor and all, but holy poo poo jumping into a tank car of unknown contents is straight up suicidal. Like what if it was full of ethanol or some poo poo and they just sank like rocks

Bouillon Rube fucked around with this message at 05:54 on May 6, 2021

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McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






I read that the sequel book The Testaments was written with this show in mind and the producers are going to incorporate it into the series. That gets a big WTF from me because so far only the slightest bit of moral ambiguity we've gotten from Aunt Lydia is her occasionally protecting the handmaids from the harshest punishments, but it's always cloaked in the sanctimonious dogma of Gilead without a bare hint of her feeling otherwise. She hasn't once come off as less than a clear-eyed true believer, it's gonna take a helluva retcon to get anywhere close to Lydia being one of the main resistance moles who eventually becomes instrumental in bringing down Gilead.

Yaldabaoth
Oct 9, 2012

by Azathoth

I said come in! posted:

What about the first episode of Season 2 though? That seemed like it was Aunt Lydia's decision wasn't it? They have no issues at least letting the aunts torture and/or request a handmaid get a limb amputated. The aunts seem to have a lot of power/sway despite being women, likely because they have the most contact and control over the handmaids. They even let the aunts have weapons.

Way back on page one but the TV show has made the aunts the main villains because the entertainment industry is run by chuds who don't want to make a TV show about enslaved women rising up against oppressors who are white males.

Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013

Yaldabaoth posted:

Way back on page one but the TV show has made the aunts the main villains because the entertainment industry is run by chuds who don't want to make a TV show about enslaved women rising up against oppressors who are white males.

Also they're older women.

I mean, TV pop culture talked a good game about how Ryan Murphy blew open roles for older women on TV and blah blah, but they were nearly all variations on witch and harridan archetypes. This show's take lines up with that. Younger women can be empowered, older women are twisted by their baby fixation and their barren wombs.

I'll concede this is a broad take, but I don't think it's, broadly speaking, wrong.

Yaldabaoth
Oct 9, 2012

by Azathoth
It's not even empowering young women because like it or not, the real world is dominated by white males and making media where female heroes fight female villains does nothing to encourage women to stand up to toxic men. It's like trying to "empower" black people by making a TV show where everyone is black and the issue of racism is never addressed because there's no white people around at all.

But like I said, the entertainment industry is run by chuds who don't really care about social issues and just want to make a quick buck by selling Barbie dolls and watermelon to women and black people.

Bouillon Rube
Aug 6, 2009


Open Source Idiom posted:

Also they're older women.

I mean, TV pop culture talked a good game about how Ryan Murphy blew open roles for older women on TV and blah blah, but they were nearly all variations on witch and harridan archetypes. This show's take lines up with that. Younger women can be empowered, older women are twisted by their baby fixation and their barren wombs.

I'll concede this is a broad take, but I don't think it's, broadly speaking, wrong.

It kind of makes sense in the context of the show’s setting though? There wouldn’t really be a place for nice old ladies in Gilead; they would have all been sent to the mines or whatever within the first year.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

McSpanky posted:

I read that the sequel book The Testaments was written with this show in mind and the producers are going to incorporate it into the series. That gets a big WTF from me because so far only the slightest bit of moral ambiguity we've gotten from Aunt Lydia is her occasionally protecting the handmaids from the harshest punishments, but it's always cloaked in the sanctimonious dogma of Gilead without a bare hint of her feeling otherwise. She hasn't once come off as less than a clear-eyed true believer, it's gonna take a helluva retcon to get anywhere close to Lydia being one of the main resistance moles who eventually becomes instrumental in bringing down Gilead.

I haven't read Testaments but every season of this show they tease a face turn for Lydia (even this season has the "it was your fault/you failed them" scenes in the prison where it looks like June is really getting to her) but it's never happened.

Either they follow through with it in the last season or it never happens imo. I really think they've taken Lydia too far now to redeem her though, and if they're going to tell the story of a rogue Aunt it'll have to be a new character.

mcmagic
Jul 1, 2004

If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!

flashy_mcflash posted:

I haven't read Testaments but every season of this show they tease a face turn for Lydia (even this season has the "it was your fault/you failed them" scenes in the prison where it looks like June is really getting to her) but it's never happened.

Either they follow through with it in the last season or it never happens imo. I really think they've taken Lydia too far now to redeem her though, and if they're going to tell the story of a rogue Aunt it'll have to be a new character.

it's completely not believable that June would have the chance to kill Lydia and not kill her.

Exodor
Oct 1, 2004

Bouillon Rube posted:

I know June has thick plot armor and all, but holy poo poo jumping into a tank car of unknown contents is straight up suicidal. Like what if it was full of ethanol or some poo poo and they just sank like rocks


That entire scene was painfully stupid. They ran right past a flatbed that holding a covered truck but instead of hiding there they jump into an unknown, sealed liquid tank car. Which had lights/viewholes inside for some reason? For me that's the lowpoint of the entire series.


How many more stupid meandering seasons are we going to get before the end? Who knows

quote:

Hulu’s Emmy-winning drama just released its fourth season and has already been renewed for a fifth. Beyond that, the show’s future looks bright and ripe for storytelling to showrunner Bruce Miller.

“I certainly don’t [have a number of seasons in mind],” Miller told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of season four (which released its first three episodes hours early on Tuesday). “I always thought I did and that, I think, is a pandemic change. I thought I had a beginning, a middle and an end — and I still feel like I very much have an end — it’s just that I’m finding more interesting paths along the way and more interesting things to do as we move towards more fascinating parts of the story.”

:sigh:

Wafflecopper
Nov 27, 2004

I am a mouth, and I must scream

You can just stop watching you know

Escobarbarian
Jun 18, 2004


Grimey Drawer
It’s a legit criticism

Normy
Jul 1, 2004

Do I Krushchev?


Yeah it's nice to have a good ending at the right time.

Wafflecopper
Nov 27, 2004

I am a mouth, and I must scream

Escobarbarian posted:

It’s a legit criticism

Yeah it is, I'm not disagreeing with that at all. I haven't bothered with this season myself. I just got the impression that OP felt they had to stay to the bitter end.

some kind of bug
Jul 10, 2011

calling it right now that in the next episode June will find another reason to not take her free ticket to Canada just like every single other time before. She’ll probably say she has to find Janine this time, would love to be wrong on this but I’m sure I’m not

Normy
Jul 1, 2004

Do I Krushchev?


some kind of bug posted:

calling it right now that in the next episode June will find another reason to not take her free ticket to Canada just like every single other time before. She’ll probably say she has to find Janine this time, would love to be wrong on this but I’m sure I’m not

The original reason still applies

Pththya-lyi
Nov 8, 2009

THUNDERDOME LOSER 2020
Oh, if I could live in the timeline where this show was an anthology series where each season focused on a different character! Imagine if we could have had The Unwoman's Tale, The Eye's Tale, The Jezebel's Tale, The Aunt's Tale, The Wife's Tale. That would've fixed a lot of the representation problems, and the writers wouldn't have had to tie themselves in knots trying to put June in peril and then get her out of it unscathed.

PostNouveau
Sep 3, 2011

VY till I die
Grimey Drawer
Well I enjoyed the first two episodes and now the show is about June getting tortured again in the third episode, and I'm not going to watch that, and this show can go gently caress itself for refusing to ever change.

some kind of bug
Jul 10, 2011

Normy posted:

The original reason still applies

her daughter? flimsy reason to begin with and as shown a few episodes ago shes probably safer with June far away at least short term

PostNouveau posted:

Well I enjoyed the first two episodes and now the show is about June getting tortured again in the third episode, and I'm not going to watch that, and this show can go gently caress itself for refusing to ever change.

Yeah this pissed me off too (duration spoiler) but it doesn’t last long this time

But I don’t blame you, this show is just barely good enough to keep me watching. Also it wasn’t supposed to be but the outrunning the train scene from a few episodes ago was really funny

some kind of bug fucked around with this message at 02:15 on May 13, 2021

McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






some kind of bug posted:

But I don’t blame you, this show is just barely good enough to keep me watching. Also it wasn’t supposed to be but the outrunning the train scene from a few episodes ago was really funny

It was a comedy of errors, for sure.

mcmagic
Jul 1, 2004

If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!
Get the gently caress out of here, this show.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

Come on wtf with this new episode

Retrowave Joe
Jul 20, 2001

Show’s giving off major The Walking Dead vibes now...

Normy
Jul 1, 2004

Do I Krushchev?


It's kind of surprising that the Chicago people don't know who June is. Her adventures do seem like they are international news.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

Normy posted:

It's kind of surprising that the Chicago people don't know who June is. Her adventures do seem like they are international news.

It's not really clear if they have access to media but yeah agreed, if she's a legend among the Handmaids she should be there too.

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



At this point an alien mothership could've landed in the ruins of Chicago and I would accept it if it meant that June is finally getting the gently caress out of Gilead.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Well that was certainly something!

Whilst it was nice to have the universe slightly expanded with the Chicago stuff, for a show that spins its wheels a lot, that was horribly under explored.

Who the gently caress were the resistance?
What was their objective?
Why are they poor and under resourced when they have the entire USA/world backing them?
Who were that other group?
Was there just normal civilians or was that them?
Wasn't the frontline in Chicago between Gilead and the rest of the US? Why does a ceasefire need to happen for her to cross to Canada, just walk there now that your in non Gilead controlled territory.

Looten Plunder
Jul 11, 2006
Grimey Drawer
Also, was weirdo blonde commander doing some moustache twirling double cross with that whole ceasefire scene or am I just misreading the narrative intent there?

socialsecurity
Aug 30, 2003





I felt like they needed to show why/how Gilead hasn't taken Chicago beyond a dozen lovely dudes in a warehouse when they constantly talk up their military.

Vanderdeath
Oct 1, 2005

I will confess,
I love this cultured hell that tests my youth.



Looten Plunder posted:

Well that was certainly something!

Whilst it was nice to have the universe slightly expanded with the Chicago stuff, for a show that spins its wheels a lot, that was horribly under explored.

Who the gently caress were the resistance?
What was their objective?
Why are they poor and under resourced when they have the entire USA/world backing them?
Who were that other group?
Was there just normal civilians or was that them?
Wasn't the frontline in Chicago between Gilead and the rest of the US? Why does a ceasefire need to happen for her to cross to Canada, just walk there now that your in non Gilead controlled territory.

They showed a map of Gilead and America in Season 3, I wanna say, and Chicago is specifically an isolated pocket surrounded by Gilead landwise. It's effectively under siege and is the last major front in the contiguous United States between America and Gilead. The Republic of Texas is mentioned in the Testaments and they have a strict non-aggression pact with the Gileadean government.

GIlead nuked the gently caress out of every major population center west of the Rockies during the Sons of Jacob coup and have a grip on the Midwest, so there's no 'America' left in the lower 48 at this point. It felt more plausible in the novel where Gilead had been in control for decades compared to in the show where it's only been ~eight years or so. The geopolitics of setting don't quite jibe in the show because of this imo

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

Shouldn't June be smarter at this point than to want to kill some random grunt on patrol when they were hiding in the store? Or was the through line of this episode not much more than "June is very thirsty to get a gun by whatever means necessary"?

Retrowave Joe
Jul 20, 2001

She’d also have to be smarter than to walk down the middle of the street in a war zone in broad daylight, too, but that didn’t happen.

SirPablo
May 1, 2004

Pillbug
At this point I'm rooting for June to die.

a new study bible!
Feb 2, 2009



BIG DICK NICK
A Philadelphia Legend
Fly Eagles Fly


This show is so bad.

flashy_mcflash
Feb 7, 2011

Retrowave Joe posted:

She’d also have to be smarter than to walk down the middle of the street in a war zone in broad daylight, too, but that didn’t happen.

I love how dumbass Janine was better at stealth than she was.

Vorgen
Mar 5, 2006

Party Membership is a Democracy, The Weave is Not.

A fledgling vampire? How about a dragon, or some half-kobold druids? Perhaps a spontaneous sex change? Anything that can happen, will happen the results will be beyond entertaining.

There's only one show I've ever stopped watching before the end, which was the walking dead after they killed my boy Glenn. But I'm getting tempted to add this one.

mcmagic
Jul 1, 2004

If you see this avatar while scrolling the succ zone, you have been visited by the mcmagic of shitty lib takes! Good luck and prosperity will come to you, but only if you reply "shut the fuck up mcmagic" to this post!

a new study bible! posted:

This show is so bad.

The funny thing is that I thought season was kinda on the upswing before the last half of the last episode with her just walking down the middle of the street in a war zone and the highly dumb end of the episode...... I can't believe they couldn't come up with a better way to make that happen.

Sardonik
Jul 1, 2005

if you like my dumb posts, you'll love my dumb youtube channel

a new study bible! posted:

This show is so bad.

Big shoutout to the song at the end of E5 that made me literally say 'gently caress you'.

E: Presented by Lexus

McSpanky
Jan 16, 2005






SirPablo posted:

At this point I'm rooting for June to die.

She's was such a domineering rear end to Janine this whole ep, I wondered if they're intentionally playing her as a short-sighted control freak or just that everyone who defies here suffers the wrath of her (self-)righteousness.

resting mitch face
Apr 9, 2005

5) I hear you.
Re: TWD references

I don’t think we’re in CGI Tiger territory yet... but we may very well be on our way.

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SirPablo
May 1, 2004

Pillbug
Why does Gilead even give a flying gently caress about June at this point? Why do they keep trying to "save" her? Just let her go, carpet bomb her, whatever. This stupid cat and mouse game is tiring and just results in everyone else dying and for what purpose?

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