The Handmaid's Tale Season Two: Off book and off to the colonies

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Handmaid's Tale Season Two: Off book and off to the colonies

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Kanine posted:

tbh the scenes with serena getting yelled off stage and shot lmao really drip with the whole condescending liberal "the nazis have free speech so u have 2 respect them and let them have a platform" bullshit that gets minorities killed.

While I believe the flashback is framed through their twisted perspective, I also don't think some woke liberal college girl would shout Nazi oval office at her because of the misogynist connotation of that word.

Edit: Also, is this a retcon?:
Serena claimed birthrates fell 61% just in the last year (of whenever that speech was). I thought the premise of their world was that birthrates were falling since like the 60s and it was a slow crisis that evolved over decades. Was this just the premise of the book and not the show? When were birth rates officially falling in the TV timeline?

A big problem I had with the first few episodes of season one were how oblivious June seemed in her pre-Gilead flashbacks, when she apparently was born into a world of low birthrates.

JazzFlight fucked around with this message at 22:59 on May 24, 2018

# ¿ May 24, 2018 22:55

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:18

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Raspberry Jam It In Me posted:

That's interesting and I think it's what the writers were going for. Personally, I also got a slightly different vibe while watching: The pleasant interactions with "Offred" gave Serena a sense of normalcy and humanity. I think that she is deeply insecure about the society she helped build and "Offred" playing along with the Gilead theater was soothing to her. Serena wants affermation that she is not a horrible person and that this entire Gilead thing was a good choice. Then, June suddenly breaks character, calls her Serena and brings up her kidnapped child and all these illusions about this not being hell on Earth and Serena a monster are gone. June breaks the narrative that Serena is trying to create for herself by holding up a mirror to her face and that makes her angry.

Precisely. I don't think the people in control in Gilead really want to be reminded of what their world really is. Heck, it's the same as calling a white person racist or privileged in our own modern society. They're like the worst words you could possibly use (by having that person come to grips with what they don't want to admit about their own reality).

# ¿ May 25, 2018 21:19

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

PaybackJack posted:

I was sad they reeled it back in, I thought they were totally going to just have her resent June. I suppose given everything else in the episode they needed a hope spot.

That was much more effective that this week's comically evil torture porn moment, in having the Waterford's hate gently caress their handmaid to teach her a lesson. I don't think it would be a stretch to call it rape but Gileadean society probably would believe the old wives tale that you can use sex to induce labor. Though I think the implication here is that Serena and the Commander knew it was "wrong" in this instance, that there's actually a difference between this 'Ceremony' and any of the other ones is pretty flimsy.

I don't really know how many legs the show has if June escapes to Canada or gets reassigned. I'm already feeling like it's going to be a giant cop-out to have June survive and continue on given the way in which they're sort of wrapping up her various arcs while building up Emily.

I worry we're going to get even further into Game of Thrones territory with the antagonists becoming more of more comically evil to the point that nobody believes their character or cares about them.

Part of me wants June to contact and be saved by the Mayday resistance people and become an underground freedom fighter, but that might veer too close to an action-packed "Man in the High Castle" style that doesn't match up with the first two seasons of this show. Like, it would definitely become a less powerful show, but I'd love every minute if she's blowing up/sniping commanders and freeing handmaids.

# ¿ Jun 22, 2018 17:01

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Doorknob Slobber posted:

the crazy hypocrisy of fred raping june but nick loving his child-wife through a sheet with a hole in it

Uhhh, you can do anything as long as it's through a hole in the sheet. See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRNlxBuB9jM

# ¿ Jun 25, 2018 17:17

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

BattyKiara posted:

Emily's new commander, nice or just weird? The fact that he lets his Martha swear and talk back seems like a good sign.

I think they're doing the ol' bad-guy fake-out. He hasn't done anything majorly bad yet and they left it a mystery as of this episode, so I'm thinking he might be a self-hating collaborator. I think he might be a smart dude who convinced his wife to pretend to join their cult (+develop the colonies and apparently Gilead's economy) to survive and it's eating them up inside. Maybe he even has a connection to the resistance which we haven't heard from in a long while.

My evidence for this theory is purely:

-They have a ton of salvaged art and books (including Maus, I think?) that would have been destroyed by the new government.
-He lets his Martha swear at him.
-His wife is concerned about Emily's real name.
-He lets Emily drink a beer with him and is concerned about what the regime did to her.

This could easily go the other way with him being some sick pervert, but that's not as interesting. We already know commanders are usually disgusting horrible people, so why would that be a good plot for Emily?

JazzFlight fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Jul 10, 2018

# ¿ Jul 10, 2018 16:48

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Timeless Appeal posted:

Legitimately, I think the hate for the finale is baffling.

The series has constantly dealt with June feeling guilty about the prospect of leaving without her daughter. Her seeing a chance to save Hannah without risking the life of her other child makes a lot of sense and has been telegraphed for a while. It's what makes sense for the character.

Yeah, just to toss my opinion in the thread, I'm okay with the ending as well. If June escapes, the show is essentially over, so she has to stay within Gilead.
Sure, this season definitely had ups and downs and it could have worked better with 8-10 episodes instead of 13, but I thought the finale was great.

I think the writers know they can't just have June tossed back in the Waterford household again to suffer more rapes/beatings/etc., so having her look up with that dark expression as "Burning Down the House" played is their commitment to us.

I highly doubt the show is going to become some kind of action/thriller, but I expect we'll be seeing a lot more new characters in the resistance, wherever that is.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 16:28

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

jerry seinfel posted:

june will be back with the waterfords under the auspices of helping 'the resistance' and serena is gonna have her finger back

Lol, I did think that it's going to be annoying for the SFX team to constantly edit out Serena's finger. Do you think she'll have some kind of covering/glove over it like a certain character on Game of Thrones' hand so they don't have to do any CGI work?

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 16:38

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Just as an aside, did anyone notice the funny naming scheme for June's baby?
June named her Holly (after her mother), which is a plant. Meanwhile, it's Serena who's obsessed with raising plant life as a substitute for a biological child.
Additionally, Serena named her Nichole, which references Nick, her father.

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 17:15

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Aqueous Martinis posted:

Despite plot problems, I'll be back next season because the acting is so great, and I did really enjoy certain episodes like the one in Canada. Just hoping for more of that, less staring at each other in the dark.

Yeah, the thing is that there are just so many interesting good ideas and scenes that I have to keep watching. The Serena reading the Bible in front of the commanders scene was so drat good IMO. Also, the Hannah reunion scene is especially painful when there are articles just this week saying that her dialogue is exactly what immigrant children have been saying to their parents after they get reunited after months apart. While Eden's story threw us off regarding her possible snitching on Nick/handmaids, I liked the execution scene and what that meant for her character. Also loved the reveal by her father that he turned her in, what a gut-punch.

JazzFlight fucked around with this message at 17:57 on Jul 12, 2018

# ¿ Jul 12, 2018 17:53

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Alterian posted:

An article about how there was going to be another rape scene: https://www.themarysue.com/rape-scene-the-handmaids-tale/
I'm glad Fiennes fought to have it taken out.

I hope the writers take note of how the Game of Thrones writers got a bunch of angry complaints about their overuse of rape scenes for no reason and then subsequently cut back on them in the following season. Please?

The show doesn't have to be all flowers and sunshine but at least spare us from this edgelord rape/mutilation of women trope that just smacks of lazy writing. We've already been shown how horrible Gilead is in the first season, we understand the stakes here.

# ¿ Jul 26, 2018 19:13

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# ¿ Apr 25, 2024 06:18

JazzFlight: Apr 29, 2006; Oooooooooooh!

Ouhei posted:

Finally finished this season up after being on vacation. The ending was so loving stupid. Where the gently caress does June think she's going to go? She can't go back to the Waterfords and it's not like you can just be homeless in Gilead. I'm guessing she gets somehow snuck into being a Martha or some poo poo in her daughters district next season.

I'm also still trying to figure out when/how that general got that Tesla Model X if it's 2018 and the revolution happened like 5 years ago or whatever.

Turns out Elon Musk would be hella on board with Gilead.

# ¿ Aug 3, 2018 19:57

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > TV IV > The Handmaid's Tale Season Two: Off book and off to the colonies