Eureka

Tawdry is totally the word for it. I didn't feel like the show Jezebels was tawdry enough if that makes sense.

I didn't have friends much older than me when I was 24. With the exception of my now-husband, who is almost 9 years older, but we went to school at roughly the same time so were in the same stage of life. Which I guess is the point with this group on the show. I think Rachel said at one point she's the oldest and was about to turn 34. (Maybe we should call them OG (lol) because they could very well be getting another group together of little kids like Rocco.)

I feel this way too. Show Commander seems much more into mind games. In the book I don't remember them "getting it on" so to speak, at Jezebels.

Good point. Hadn't thought of that. If they were going by today, I'd think she'd be showing a lot more skin than she was. Wouldn't she?

Random thoughts: This episode was so dark (literally) that it was hard for me to see. I don't feel like I needed Nick's back story. I don't feel like Offred's makeup as garish enough, compared to the book. And I wish she had had the playboy bunny outfit instead of the dress...oh well. Why does the Commander speak like a normal person in the time before and now he sounds like he's talking to a four year old all the time? (I know bc the handmaids are treated like children, but his slow speech drives me bananas.)

Random observations: Elena is like a different person this season! Whatever mood stabilizer or antidepressant she's taking sure seems to be working. I love hearing how she's working on her self confidence. She has some really insightful comments. And in response to what someone said above about comparing her conversation in the pet store to Sean's inappropriate comments, I didn't get that vibe at all. I think there are times when she says inapppropriate things but this scene struck me more as hanging out, kind of shooting the breeze with the guys. It seemed clear to me that it was very scripted, whereas many of Sean's scenes seem more organic, that they come out of his comments. Speaking of scripted, what the heck was that conversation with Kris and Rocco's mom? She obviously is not a single mom. I know that is the theme of Kris's storyline but couldn't they have found another way to get that in there? That just was weird to me. And Kris keeps talking about Megan being more independent but other than her telling her mom to butt out of her dates, I'm not seeing it. They could at least try to show us stuff like Cristina at the ATM etc. Which brings me to my last point. Cristina and her parents seem so mutually respectful of each other and I love seeing it. She seems very capable in many ways and I love how her mom said now they just have one left (at home). Lol.

Wondered about that too. In the book she's 33. Don't know why they aged her down.

High schools would probably would be a good place to find fertile young women too. She never mentioned school in Gilead in the book. Do you think the little kids are sent to any kind of school? What about the people who are teens in present-day Gilead? Would there still be high schools?

I read a lot of her books back in the day. This one is by far the best, imo. It's the only one I've ever wanted to reread every so often.

I think he's going to like how it's a historical document. He likes history a lot, so I think that framework will appeal to him.

My 16 yr old son is reading the book right now. He hasn't watched the series yet. He is a very smart kid but I had to laugh when he said he "didn't get" what they did at the Ceremony. I had to be pretty explicit about the "layout" if you will, and then said the Commander "does his thing" in that configuration at which point he said, "well, that's no fun!" Lol. Yesterday he told me he thinks he knows how it's going to end. He thinks Original Recipe (my words, not his) Ofglen is going to bust Offred out of there and they'll go find Luke and the daughter. He said not to tell him if he's right or wrong, so I didn't. He is very smug, thinking that because he's read other dystopian novels, he knows how it will end. It will be interesting to see what he thinks about the real ending. You didn't miss anything in the book. We never really know. Personally I think he is both an Eye and Mayday. That's what bothers me about the show is that he talks a lot more to all of the characters when in the book he didn't bc they all knew talking to each other was dangerous. Same with the affair. In the show, he is instigating things (kissing in the hallways for example) when as far as I remember in the book, Offred always comes to him and he rarely talks even then.

This one is about the (real) idea of pollution hurting fertility: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/05/could-the-handmaids-tale-happen/527274/

That sounds like it matches Steven's romantic movie ideas of dating too.

Ok, so for some reason the episodes that go really off book don't seem to bother me as much as the stuff that they've rearranged and left out from the book. Does that make sense? I'm not sure I really want them to keep focusing on Luke but I did like seeing more of the escape attempt. And they even mentioned her mom.

I gotta say, as a native New Englander, I love hearing them call all the towns by name - and what they're saying makes sense - Jackman really is a border town in Maine, Somerville MA (I used to live there!) is near Cambridge and Boston, Marblehead (I have relatives there!) is on the north shore of MA. I haven't lived up there in years but it makes me a little homesick.

Camom, does she live with you? (Not asking in relation to conservatorship, just curious) I agree with you that she clearly wanted it. And you may be right that he doesn't, and if that's the case, probably if she had pushed for the conversation right then, we would have seen a fight. I don't want to watch that stuff, you know? On a kind of related note, I thought it was very funny when Megan asked "What is this, Jerry Springer?" I think she (Megan) is an interesting person - like any other person, she has her strengths and weaknesses. It's clear to me that life skills are not her forte and she has a little diva thing going on that personally, I do not find cute, but she actually has a very good sense of humor at times.

I love it because it's setting viewers up for the end of the season. Because non-book readers don't know what that is :). I remember LOVING the very end of the book the first time I read it, because it was not what I expected. (Have I been vague enough? LOL)

I haven't watched yet but I didn't change my name and this summer will be our 20th anniversary. My only point being if the series is saying "before" was circa 2015 then I am not surprised at all that she kept her name, especially in the Boston area. We lived in that area when we got married and even back then, it was a very common choice among professional women to not take your husband's name. I live south of the Mason-Dixon line now and it's much less common here.

See, I didn't feel that way about his dad at all. I took that to mean he didn't want to have that conversation on camera.

Agreed about Rocco's hair. Also loved how Rachel's dream was handled, they didn't mince words about it could take awhile and even the "is she too old?" conversation was refreshing. She should lose the huge glasses if there's another option because after seeing the photo shoot, I realized they age her a lot. Megan and Steven's date made me think of being in middle school. But I did feel bad because her mom really was kind of annoying at times. And is she more likely not to have sex if she can't even say the word? Another shallow note, Cristina always looks so nice, her parents' European fashion sense rubbed off on her :)

Didn't it say in the book that it turned out Janine's baby was a shredder? I don't remember if we knew the time lag on that realization. I think we just found out that "it wasn't good after all."

Thanks for posting that article about Elena. I find her one of the most interesting ones on the show, partly because of the cultural differences with which she was raised (and how her mom had issues for the same reason). As a writer and editor though...I wish I could have done some work on that article before they published it :)

Yes, and to me, she was clearly looking for her daughter.

Do I need to hide spoilers for the book in this area? I will in case: While I was happy to see the Serena Joy backstory (even fleshed/out changed), to me it didn't seem as effective with a much younger person, but the show is making Serena Joy more alive and resentful or even maybe bitter, I guess I'd say. She clearly wasn't done having her moment before the regime cut her off. I think the original older Serena Joy was just riding it (Gilead) out, she had had her life and now here she was and that was that. I may be alone in that view.