The Handmaid's Tale (TV Show)

That imagery though...

THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Season Three
Format: Hulu
Genre: Utopian and dystopian fiction, speculative fiction, science fiction, drama

Rating: 9 out of 10.

SPOILERS.
This is my favorite show to date. Why did I not rate it a 10 out of 10? You'll see at the end. Here's the basic synopsis though.

June Osborn, though we are suppose to call her Offred and currently in the third season Ofjoseph, is in a future where fertility rates have fallen and the blame itself has fallen upon a culmination of issues. From STDs, to environmental pollution, the world, or at least America, was sinking into ruins. Enter the Jesus fanatics. Now while religion isn't bad, the rising totalitarian theocracy known as Gilead is really just the worst. The new militarized, hierarchical regime of straight crazy shit pretty much trashes women and subjugates them as sex slaves, baby-making slaves, household slaves and martial slaves. Sometimes all in one. That's a four for the price of one nobody wants. Now if you're reading this review about the latest season, I'm gonna skip seasons one and two. Just know that women are subhumans, we are pretty much living in Amish area and for the love of God can someone get Elizabeth Moss (who plays June Osborn aka Offred aka Ofjoseph) some chap stick? Her lips constantly look like they are cracked or gonna bleed. Throw the woman a Burt's Bees or something.

Ofglen. Aka Emily. Aka Damn she went
through some shit.

June gave her newborn, or relative still young baby named Nichole but actually named Holly (it's a long story and complicated. She's usually referred to as Nichole), to her buddy and fellow Handmaid, Emily. She fled into Canada, almost didn't make it and almost drowned the baby, however she took refuge. Bada-bing, bada-boom, immunity and refugees in Canada. June though, not so lucky, still in Gilead, she visits her eldest daughter Hannah. It totally blows up in her face and she's reminded that if she keeps trying to seek out Hannah, she's going to end up dead. These Eyes, don't play around. Fred blames Emily for stealing the baby, but Serena Joy has to make it all about her and ever so dramatically, blames herself and tries to burn the house and herself down. June and Rita intervene and June gets reassigned to Commander Lawrence, who wouldn't you know, helped Emily and Nichole escape. June, being typical June and can't sit still and not cause problems, joins the underground resistance of Marthas. Who would've known the cooks and housemaids were dope. One of them makes bombs and blew up a local center. All of them help a Martha who got shot escape and wouldn't you know it, Commander Lawrence's whole household is cool af, including his emotionally unstable wife Eleanor. The Martha still dies but it's good to know that they have the ears of their boss and his wife.

The season starts heating up as a shipment of captured females from the frontline (aka now Chicago, the border of America and Gilead). Five of the women can be saved as Marthas, while the remainder will be in the Colonies. Commander Lawrence leaves this decision up to June. At the end of the day, it's save a few or save nobody. June decides to flip this on the head. She doesn't just get good Marthas. She gets her resistance group. An engineer, an IT tech, a journalist, a lawyer and a thief. 

In this point of the episode, it's now all about Serena Joy. Really, she's boring. She's moping around her mother's and her mom points out that she doesn't have a say in this society without Fred. She needs to put up and shut up. She's also on her selfishness again by trying to drown herself in the ocean. 

June, left, calculating and possibly homicidal. Just kidding. Super homicidal.
Serena Joy, on the right, a sniveling child. Used to be dope.

Serena Joy used to be like the coolest cat around. Now she is uber, and I mean uber annoying. All the children in the community are getting baptized except baby Nichole whose living in Canada. Ofmatthew, June's walking partner, has suffered through 3 children already being torn away from her. Kind of weird on why she's such a pious shit however, I digress. 

Serena and June and Fred make a sort of peace offering for Serena to visit baby Nichole in Canada. Serena is the only one permitted to meet Luke, who has baby Nichole in tow, at the Toronto Pearson International Airport. Serena reassures Luke that June gave her up so she could live a better life in Canada. Serena gives Luke a locket for Nichole and a cassette tape with a message from June, who says that Nichole wasn't born of rape, but with love between her and Nick. Serena is given a radio when she returns even though she was accepted for defection. Things spiral out of control when June is forced onto a public broadcast about the Waterfords who plead with the Canadians saying that Nichole was "kidnapped."

This was probably the most scary and shocking scene I've seen in a show.

If you thought rights were bad now, woot doogie. It ain't got nothing on this next section. The Waterfords, June and Aunt Lydia go to Washington, D.C. to stay with High Commander Winslow. They meet with middlemen and delegation experts, the Swiss. They take part in mass prayers, in front of a cross converted Washington Monument and a demolished Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. Washington has taken the rules to extremes. Which is interesting because it was the seat of power of democracy. No more. Handmaids are forced to wear cloaks over their necks and mouths. They cover their mouths because it hides ring piercings used to permanently keep their mouths closed. Lydia, even Aunt freaking Lydia's crazy ass, agrees with June that Handmaid's should not be silenced. This is also the woman who beats people and caused a Handmaid's eye to be permanently disfigured. EVEN SHE. June tries to make deals with getting Nick to talk, but they don't want him after he reveals his true self during the war crimes he committed in the takeover of Gilead. June, shockingly not shockingly, fights with Serena Joy about her being whiny and selfish about Nichole and it warps up the episode. 

June, back in her hometown area, arranges to meet with Hannah during school. June convinced Eleanor, Commander Lawrence's wife, to galavant across town with her to visit Hannah at school. They aren't permitted entry however, Eleanor gets in by herself. She has a melt down and is forced to leave the school. We late find out that the Martha for Hannah was hanged for endangering a child. We find out that pompou shit Ofmatthew is the one who told on her. I never did like her. June threatens her and attacks her while being restrained. This just rolls into episode 8, where Ofmatthew is then a social pariah. June is then in the circle of testifying and being so June, just takes it like a petulant child who won't change their ways. June, being pretty much a dick and hating Ofmatthew, tattles on her saying she doesn't want her baby. She pretty much melts down in this. Weak-minded much? She later snaps in Fish and Loaves when she sees June and tries to shoot Lydia, who for once doesnt deserve it. She gets wounded critically by another Guardian. 

We also see more of Aunt Lydia during this time. Who is on the Crazy Train. She went from the before times, where she was a caring Christian teacher. Her name was Miss Clements. She is pretty much a caretaker for a child, whose mother is considered neglectful at best. Really, it's single working mom syndrome. The mother was dating several men, didn't attend church, kid wore dirty clothes and went to school with potato chips for lunch. Lydia, being slightly psychotic, reported the mom to CPS and the kid was placed in foster home.

Flash to the present and we see Ofmatthew laying in a bed, brain dead. She is pretty much on life support to only support the baby. June is forced to watch over her the entire time, cause it's pretty much her fault. Which almost makes her go batshit insane. Nah. It does make her go bat shit insane. June apologizes later to Ofmatthew in her final moments and vows to rescue all the children of Gilead. 

USE ALL THE CGI!!!

Remember crazy af Winslow? Oh my god. That dude plans to bring about silencing of handmaids to other areas, like June's. Pretty much, everyone at this point is getting wise to June's shit. They plan to watch her and Commander Lawrence and Eleanor perform the Ceremony. Yuck. June keeps the household from going belly-up and convinces Lawrence and Co. to escape with the kids so they aren't tried as war criminals and can go live in Canada no problem. At the end of the day, June ends up a Jezebel's to convince Billy, a pilot, to help the cause. Luckily, June runs into Winslow. Not luckily, she kills him. The Waterfords also get their come-uppance and while on their way to visit Nichole, get arrested by the Canadian Army for war crimes. Seems like everyone is getting their just desserts. The plane to get the children out is scheduled and the Waterfords are in prison plus...no one suspects that Winslow is dead. Everything is going swimmingly, until Winslow's wife come visit the house. Eleanor almost spills the beans, which June scolds her and is super pissed. Like psycho pissed. Eleanor runs away crying and goes to her room where she overdoses on medication. June finds her and instead of helping she "mercy" kills her and lets her die. Eleanor is found dead the next day.

Oh she's sweet but a psycho. Too soon?

One child, the day of the days, is delivered in the daylight, you know...when plans are ruined by this idiot being seen. And that's what happens. The Martha tries to change her mind, but leaves without her when June threatens her with a gun. She is caught on her way back and Gilead starts a patrol. More and more children arrive, way more than the original agreed upon 52. The trucks, no good. Road blocks. So they take torn up sheets and go through the woods to mark the way to the airport.  June and the Handmaids and Marthas get the kids to the airport, not without Guardians being everywhere. They bombard them with stones to get the Marthas and children on the plane. June is shot but found with handmaids who try and help her and here is where we phase out, looking at June's bloody af face. Hoping she doesn't die from her wound.

Oh boy. Thoughts on this? The seasons, as always, are a slow build up and burn because we haven't even been shown most of the world. While Game of Thrones took forever to unwind, it was because the lands were so vast that it is difficult. This show, only lets you peep behind the curtain momentarily. It opens up to what lead to this society and how people were before. It challenges the human concept and why we act the way we do and how our environment and circumstances change us. Also, this show...whoever the director of photography is...is a genius. There's not much visually going on in this show. It's minimalistic like its universe. Because of that, every shot is masterfully done and creates a sort of ambiance and dynamic to the show. Literally, every shot is beautiful. I love this "filter" they have to set the tone of the show. It makes it visually beautiful in a world where nothing is anymore.