To say Andrea Connolly is unhappy with the latest season of “The Handmaid’s Tale” would be an understatement. Image: MGM
*THIS PIECE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE FIRST THREE EPISODES OF SEASON FOUR OF THE HANDMAID’S TALE*
It’s time. I can no longer keep enduring this. I am officially breaking up with “The Handmaid’s Tale”. It’s never been a light show but in the first two seasons it had some sort of hope going for it, and the central heroine, June Osborne. I struggled with season three but I made it through, and the payoff felt well worth it. But given how season four has started … I just can’t f..king do it anymore.
This is definitely not the first article like this. I’ve been seeing them pop up with increasing visibility since season two aired. At the time, I thought, “Surely, they’re wrong to give it up so soon? I mean, she’s going to get out and get her daughter back! Gilead will be taken down!” The naivety. Of course June’s not getting out. Of course Gilead can’t be taken down, what show would remain if the plot were to – shock horror – resolve?
“The Handmaid’s Tale” has become an endless cycle of misery and suffering of all its main characters – some deserved, mostly not. It has become an utter chore to watch. When I heard it was coming back, initially I was excited. It had been a long wait with nearly two years between seasons and whilst I can’t say I missed it during that time, I was looking forward to seeing how June’s plan with the “angel flight” resolved at the beginning of the new season.
Then I watched it. My excitement turned to disbelief to disillusion to disgust. I know that sounds incredibly dramatic, but God, that one episode really did just squeeze any lingering excitement and love I had for that show out of me. I soldiered through the remaining two that were released simultaneously and came to the conclusion that I simply could no longer give a single flying f..k about this show. Which if you know me, is saying something.
I’ve always been something of a completist when it comes to TV shows, even when a show really annoys me. I kept watching “Grey’s Anatomy” despite my deep hatred of season four, I reluctantly kept watching “Game of Thrones” even after I saw them starting to diverge from the books in season five. I even kept watching “The O.C.” after the goddamn mess that was season three. Very rarely have I abandoned a show that has reached the very depths of mediocrity.
And yet, here I am. The misery porn has become far too much. I don’t know if it’s the lingering spectre of COVID-19 and its associated lockdowns on me personally, or if it’s the fact that nothing that happens in the show makes a lick of f..king sense anymore. Either way, it’s time. I’m breaking up with “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
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It still looks good, the aesthetics never fail to evoke the specific atmosphere Gilead required. The acting is astonishing, which it has been since season one. Yvonne Strahovski singlehandedly delivers one of the most layered and unnerving performances on television and the fact that she’s not won an Emmy for her role as Serena Waterford is a goddamn crime. Then, of course, there’s Elisabeth Moss who always delivers. The entire show hinges on her performance and she f..king sells it. She’s brilliant as June, the show without Elisabeth Moss would be nigh on unwatchable.
However, these things are not enough to keep me watching a show where the protagonist has so much plot armour that nothing that happens feels like it will have any consequences. At least not for June Osborne. For the people around her? Sure. For her comrades in Mayday? Sure. For innocent people who have nothing to do with her? Sure. But never June.
This was brutally shown to all who watched in the first three episodes of season four. Alma and Brianna, I hardly knew thee. June and Janine apparently did – well enough to have a secret language between them all, but of course we don’t find this out until after they’ve been hit by a train at great speed. Was this explored in any of the previous seasons to build their characters? Of course not. Let’s throw it in at the last minute so we can act like we’ve had deep and considered development for them. The Marthas from the Lawrence household, Beth and Sienna, are both said goodbye to in an especially brutal and heart-wrenching way. For what reason? To continue June and the audience’s endless suffering? To illustrate what’s happening with Commander Lawrence? No. It’s just to show one how brutal Gilead is, as if we haven’t known that from the very first episode of the goddamn show. It also did absolutely nothing to illustrate the situation with Commander Lawrence and his household. So as I said earlier, it was just misery porn.
June’s actions have consequences. A thing June seems to realise briefly when she realises her murder of Commander Winslow in season three meant the Jezebels of that particular brothel were gotten rid of for the most part. But this lasts approximately two minutes as she then plots the mass murder of a bunch of commanders and their drivers at another brothel in the very next scene. Because her actions don’t actually have consequences for her. Plot armour, may thee remain strong and unbending, because that’s the only thing keeping this show going at this point.
I’ve never read “The Handmaid’s Tale” or “The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood because I considered the show was probably enough. The show is now an empty vessel of what it once was, except with more suffering and, I’d assume, a bigger budget. Now that I’ve broken up with the show, I may finally read the book. I’ll be curious as to what happens with June Osborne, but I can no longer be along for the ride. It’s simply too f..king infuriating to witness.
June finally escapes to Canada but then, oh she has to go back and try to get her daughter. Brave, certainly, inspiring ? definitely, stupid? absolutely. After just barely getting out by the skin of her teeth and much luck she make a dumb and I mean dumb decision to return to Gilead on a suicide mission. Shark jumping at it’s best. She is a dead person walking if she goes back. A shoot on sight order would be in place and her daughter has been so brain washed and indoctrinated that she would never ever go quietly but be a never ending thorn in the side and eye of June. No, I had to give this show up when that bit of plot rose up. Of course it’s just a fiction show but some things just can’t be tolerated in my scifi fantasy mind. My crew and I have moved on.
Couldn’t agree more. Season 3 was a real slog just going around in circles of brutality with no actual plot or character development. And misery porn is a good description of it. But we hung on because we hoped season 4 would go somewhere. Episode 3 just blew that hope out of the water and made it clear there is no consistency or rationality at all in any of the characters. Nick is good, then bad, then good. At this point there’s NO sense of any rationality in Lawrence’s behavior, and June is looking more and more like someone suffering from a deep messiah complex who, instead of doing something constructive, like leaving with the children, has just gotten herself and her friends into deeper and deeper s**t all the while making it totally implausible that she’d ever rescue Hannah.
But the ending of episode 3 had us screaming at the stupidity and banality of the writers. First, there was the nonsensical and cliched running together for a kiss while romantic music swelled. But the worst was the stupid teeneagers in a slasher film trope the writers resorted to. After overpowering Lydia, with a 6 to 1 advantage and a cattle prod, the obvious play is to ambush the driver, kill him, and take van. But what does the “brilliant” June do? “Hey! Let’s run in front of a speeding train! And maybe the guard won’t get back in time to shoot one of us! And then . . . well, not sure how we’re eventually going to outrun the van but f**k it! It will make for another great overhead shot of women in red running desperately in an empty and forbidding environment.” OMFG! This wasn’t just jumping the shark–this was jumping a 100 foot line-up of sharks.
Stop using the Lords name in vain so much! We get your point.
I love the Handmaid’s Tale and I understand why June is still fighting to live and get her child back. In my opinion, she has suffered enough through Gilead’s horrific laws pertaining to women and children. Yes many people have died and some innocently but that is reality in our world and June’s world. I read the book. It was ok but boring at the end. I look forward to season 5. There are so many scenarios that can happen with this story. I don’t want it too end. It’s exciting thrilling and heart felt and in this crazy world that we live in today I need Handmaid’s Tale It’s a reality check of how fast the world can change. In my opinion Handmaid’s Tale is a keeper!! My sister also agrees . I asked her to watch and she loves it I’m going to keep watching and asking others to do the same.
Uh. I had a couple steaks issues with episode 3 but it definitely hasn’t jumped the shark and maybe you need to rewatch season 3 before you jump into season 4?
After reading the novel it did seem like they were trying to stretch it out a bit but season 4 makes it make a lot more sense. This is what happened in real time it’s not snippets of historical recordings found in a basement. It’s real it’s ugly it’s horrific. Honestly I thought a lot of the stuff that happened in episode 3 wasn’t horrific enough like they were holding back. And possibly because you know the main character has plot armor… But it’s still really good and it is very intense so I understand if people can’t handle that. But you may have broken up with the show one episode too soon because a lot of the things that you’re complaining about were actually about to happen. I would give it one more episode before you start defaming it on the internet.
Stakes* not steaks.
Having known people who worked for the KGB before the fall of the Berlin Wall I know that in actuality June would have been dead at the end of Season One. Her daughter Hannah would immediately been threatened then and June would have totally spilled her guts..in the end literally as well…
Good review. You write well enough not to use unnecessary expletives. After a while, like the show, they’re just unpleasant, and lose their power.
Read the books. Don’t judge based on TV.Atwood nailed it.
I couldn’t disagree more, I think the new season is great so far. It’s often brutal, but that’s the show. I can’t wait for next week’s episode.
I’m also a big fan of the book, which is a classic of the genre (and in general), and the idea that you ever thought “the show was probably enough” is completely bizarre to me. Everyone who can read should read The Handmaid’s Tale.
I’ve read the books and not watched the TV version.
Based on this article I think I’ll leave it that way.
P.S. You do get resolution in The Testaments…
My daughter has read the book and the ending is grimmer with no hope even no action thriller going on in the hands of june. I will still stay on the movie with hope and patience that you lacked because I still like to see Gilead down and buried.
You should totally watch the show. It’s actually very good and it doesn’t harm the book at all. It just tells the story of what’s on the tapes that you’re missing.
Frankly avoiding the show is an insult to the book because the author has been a part of it from the very beginning. This is the mysterious figure June’s actual life and if that’s too intense for you I totally understand Don’t watch it go watch something that makes you feel good because this is entertainment and you shouldn’t watch things that make you feel horrible but frankly I’m actually watching for the fall of Gilead which actually does happen because we have the book.