TV Party: “The Handmaid’s Tale” Season 2 Premiere

There are many aspects of “The Handmaid’s Tale” that one can point to and see parallels to real groups whose ideologies align with those of the fictional society of Gilead. However, if one were to distill terms like patriarchy, military dictatorship, or theocratic republic into a common element, that common element is the desire for power. In the United States, those who use religion for political and social power have, at times, crafted a narrow view of Protestantism to launch anti-democratic and anti-liberal movements to overturn that which they view as evil or corrupt. Sometimes, however, it’s not out of religious belief that motivates such hostility toward liberalism and democracy. Rather, it’s a sense of anxiety over the loss of power, status, and privilege.

Now, not all conservative movements trend toward authoritarianism, but in “The Handmaid’s Tale,” The Republic of Gilead certainly does — and does so with a brutal kind of vengefulness borne out of resentment and fear. The fact that most of the power elite in Gilead are out-and-out hypocrites when it comes to their belief system lays bare the reality that what the leaders of this society want is power –and not some utopia built on God’s law. Religion is just a means to an end.

For those who don’t know the story of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” the plot is fairly simple to explain:  in an unspecified time in the near future, the ability of humans to reproduce becomes more and more limited. Fearing extinction, a group of radicals seizes power from the U.S. government and creates a theocratic republic built the elevation of men and enslavement of fertile women. These women (known as Handmaids) are sent to live with elite couples in Gilead, where each month the head of the household tries to impregnate a Handmaid in a ceremony attended by the man’s wife. The story is told mostly from the point of view of Offred, a Handmaid who was captured and sent to live with The Commander and his wife. Throughout Offred’s existence in Gilead, we get glimpses of her life before the fall of the United States. In those flashbacks, we learn that her name was June Osborne. June was married (in an interracial marriage), had a child, and a career — and it’s clear she represents almost everything theocrats hate about liberalism and democracy. While trying to outrun the Gilead police force and flee to Canada with her daughter and husband, she got separated and captured by the police. After her capture, she’s forced into a training/re-education camp where she is conditioned to be a Handmaid. Most of the first season is about Offred/June’s struggle to survive in Gilead while looking for opportunities to find her daughter and escape to Canada. The second season starts with a newly pregnant June’s escape from Gilead, but it also focuses on some of the other Handmaids — and their lives before the conservative-theocratic revolution.

This is certainly dark, dark material to be crafting a series out of, but “The Handmaid’s Tale” has proven in episode after episode that the story (though depressing) is compelling enough to make viewers want to stay with it. Of course, we’re rooting for June to escape, to find a way to lead a rebellion against the tyranny of Gilead, and overthrow the oppressive regime. But, because the creators of this series want to continue the story for multiple seasons, it’s clear that they are going to slow walk this to its conclusion. Maybe not “The Walking Dead” kind of slow walk, but they are in no rush to wrap this up — or so it seems from the first two episodes that kicked off season two.

Elisabeth Moss is in top form as June/Offred. Her character has to traverse a careful line between submission and finding small moments where she can be defiant (in a subtle way). Moss clearly has the chops to handle that, but she also has to be a central character who understands the magnitude of loss that’s occurred — both personally and the society at large. Other outstanding performances include Alexis Bledel as Emily /Ofglen. Her character is what was called in the novel an “Unwoman” — that is to say a class of women that includes lesbians. Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia is probably one of the most formidable villains the series has created. She is far more menacing than the patriarchy writ large is in the show. Her presence is that of a true believer who takes her role in training fertile women to be Handmaids as a vocation. That is to say, she views her job as a higher calling that authorizes her to commit horrendous acts of cruelty (both psychological and physical) in the name of The Good. If there were ever an acting category for Best Villain, Dowd would win it hands down.

For those on the fence about watching a show about a Christian theocracy that enslaves and tortures women, you may be asking yourself: “Why should I watch this?” Well, sometimes to fully understand what whole populations go through when a revolution convulses the foundations of a society, it’s important for us in liberal democracies to see how what we take for granted can so easily be erased by a large contingent of armed radical groups using violence to achieve their ends — which is power pure and simple.

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