NorthstarATL

Pretty much hated it. The problem with prequels is that you are (or should be) boxed in by the later version in how far you can go. How can future crews be surprised by something that is apparently old hat in an earlier version. Plus, no eye candy.

I wanted to bring up my GPA for graduation and took an easy "A" class in African Studies on slavery in college. Because it was aimed at students who had to maintain a "C" in order to get Government to pay their tuition, there was only one book assigned: "Gone With the Wind". Most boring thing I ever read, but I was dating someone at the time who loved the movie, so I sat through that and skimmed the rest of the book. Got the "A". A few years back I worked a job that I had to pass the Margaret Mitchell house every day to get to. Easy FJ.

If I've learned anything from television, it's that you DON'T WRITE STUFF DOWN! That's going to bite June in the rear regardless of whether the guy is on the level about Luke being alive, etc., because there are so many ways that anything she writes winds up in the manicured hands of Serena Joyless. Gilead trading handmaids makes no sense to me. The problem with Gilead is the Theocratic Fundamentalism that subjugates women and ignores the science and biology behind procreation. Unless the rest of the countries in the world post-whatever happened ascribe to the same, or similar, view, there is no reason for them to incorporate a system that uses women such as June, et al. Fertility would likely be addressed by, as a previous poster put it, elevating the status of the fertile, or utilizing various artificial methods, along with natural ones. The Gilead "solution" is very narrowly defined and short-sighted.

Could be that he is filming flashback scenes. You can't assume. Stahl is obsessed. He would do anything to maintain a "relationship" with Harlee, even if it makes no sense. I liked the way they had the whole thing play out, but, Geez, Woz and Harlee were just so guilty-seeming when they left that building! They're supposed to be good at this. They should have rehearsed a contingency story, AND they should have known that every office building has recording devices, even if they are just used to spy on employees. Dumb.

I thought they were as well, though the crone's appearance in daytime and the maiden's at night threw me off a bit. Gaiman made much use of the Triple Goddesses in his other work, so his use of them here is unsurprising, but welcome. In fact, pretty much everything in AG was also in Sandman.

Catholic here as well. They gave us more Mary, but they took away Lilith and Judith.

Depends upon the version you read. Lilith was Adam's first wife in at least one version. Though misogynistic tellers turn her into a demon historically, if she were still around after Cain and Abel were born, she wouldn't be biologically related to them. But, you're right, of course, that incest rules have a lot to do with the fact that inbreeding goes horribly wrong after awhile.

I really thought they might kill off Cheryl there when she went under the ice. The rescue was pretty cool, even if Cheryl was unrealistically fine soon after. Archie bleeding Cheryl's signature color into the ice was a great visual. Comics Veronica would never let a wistful look from Archie toward Betty derail her game. Don't let Riverdale Veronica become second choice. That's not her. They need to hire someone to fix the music. The original stuff is crap so far. The second season had better give the Pussycats more to do than be the occasional entertainment at town or school gatherings. Betty's speech was more scolding than inspiring to me. Who wants to be talked down to by a high schooler? I hope Fred's recovery period means more Riverdale boys working construction to pick up the slack. Perhaps Reggie Mantle can help out once he comes back from plastic surgery?

Hopefully any child produced by them will have a chin, which, sadly, Nick lacks.

Atwood may very well not get how men's sexuality works, just as many male writers don't get female sexuality. We are not "on" all the time, even at our peak.....BUT Atwood did not foresee Viagra and the many knockoffs coming along in the future as they did, and anyone familiar with how porn actors manage "gay for pay" knows that those little pills make up for a lack of interest. I am sure there is some way that Gilead could allow for the use of pharmaceuticals if they were going to help the "ceremony" along.

I didn't even think about it as the religion, so much as the idea that, even in the U.S. now, there are people who thrive in prison/jail settings, and have a huge difficulty with freedom and the choices that entails. Personally I think freedom is ALWAYS better, but it's interesting to have a character whose sitch prior to Gilead was NOT like June's or Moira's and this new reality from her perspective is not the hell that it is for someone of June's background. June's child is bi-racial, but looks entirely black. June could always say that there's mixed-race in her lineage, which is usually true. They chose her; they had to consider the possibility. Janice asking what Emily was doing, and June answering "driving" was such a keen reminder that there are societies NOW where women do not have the right to drive. Made the allegory of Gilead that much more powerful. Also, great scary foreshadowing with the girls in red coats playing under supervision while June and Luke were at the fancy restaurant.

Maybe it's just me, but I thought Paige deliberately photographed pages that would "get to" her parents in a very passive aggressive way. It might also be the actress not bringing nuance to anything, which makes me work harder trying to figure out what she's attempting to get across. Or maybe she's getting neighbor boy, Henry, and Pastor Tim safely out of the way before she brings down P&E for lying to her.

I had forgotten that that was supposed to be Lucy in the book, so I was confused at first that Eve Arden seemed to be beckoning Shadow. I love Gaiman's take on the Triple Goddess theme that he had running throughout Sandman, so I fell a little in love with the sisters in the book, and they did not disappoint (thus far) in this adaptation. Whittle is doing amazing work with his facial expressions. So much fun to watch.

That was hysterical. I really like Nava, and I was afraid that Stahl was going to shoot him in the final scene. I hate rooting for the bad guys, but the show does a decent job of making their enemies even worse. But, as I said last week, I am sort of in awe at how the writers and the actor are making Stahl a serious threat. Great show all around.

I'm not necessarily defending the Institute's methods, but am I a terrible person if I don't take Megyn's side in this? She let someone else be imprisoned for something she did, lied about it, and falsely entered into a contract. They ran an intervention on her, cleaned up her mess, and thought they had helped her deal with a trauma. I think she should be thankful that she's not in prison.

True. But, TECHNICALLY, the Pope is the leader of the Church, so those are extremists veering from their own religion. Same can be said for Muslim terrorists or extremists of any faith. The difference that Gilead has (and there are currently examples all over the globe, thankfully not in America) is that it is a Theocracy, with the weight of Government, backed up by the military, behind it. The only Catholic power is Vatican City, which, while wealthy, is not a military power.

You might want to take a look at the current Pope vs. the one at the time the book was written.

This is purely my opinion, and it is that of a white gay male who read the book forever ago, but I always saw the book at its core being about the roles of the genders, with the other elements secondary. It's been my experience (and mine alone, so I am not making any judgements) that the differences between the genders are more fundamental than those between the races, which are largely cultural and have no basis in biology, therefore the fundamental plot of the book is maintained even if you drop the more period-specific racial bits. Obviously everyone has their own takeaway from the book/series, but Atwood did a great job of showing what a society COULD become under a fundamentalist, extremist theocracy backed with a military and a disarmed populace. Smart that she used Christianity and America as the imagined dystopian precept and world rather than focusing on very real and present examples that might get her killed. As far as June goes, at least so far as her captors know, if they knew her family situation, she is fertile, and her genes seem to be recessive, as the child she gave birth to looks nothing like her, so she would be perfect for a world where any progeny would be easy enough to pass off as not hers. (Even with the horrific structure of Gilead, "mothers" who raise the handmaids' offspring are not going to want to see the handmaid in that child forever.)

There are shark infested waters in Salem.

Well, that's two down and one to go, Tripp. Thank goodness it's not a large family, or he could be jumping to conclusions as to who offed Saint Ava for the entire summer before landing on the culprit.

I was thinking that the reason why Ivy/Oswald works so well is that she IS a child, and he is emotionally still a child. They're pretty much on the same level, though I don't think he quite "gets" what's up with her yet. I actually would be interested in seeing her interact with Barbara, who has had her own transformation since last they met. It still amazes me that I once hated the character's scenes! So that's Ras, huh? I still recall when he and Bruce met in the Batcave when he had orchestrated the kidnappings of Robin and Talia to test the Detective as a suitable heir. This Ancient One works too, I guess. Don't give a hoot about the Court. They were cool for a minute.

I hate aborted escape attempts, especially as we knew it was unsuccessful by the fact that the person recalling it was not, in fact, free! NOT gagging the "aunt" or in some way silencing her was a mistake, but they were in a rush, so I get it. I was shocked at how much the transit station looks like the one at Peachtree Center (or at least how it used to look; it's been a while), but I liked how disoriented June and Moira were. You can't just "run" if you don't yet have your bearings and know what's out there to run TO. I imagine that's why it was so difficult for slaves to escape in the South of the U.S. back when. They weren't FROM North America to begin with. That said, I would assume that the way to reclaim some anonymity would be to look as male as possible, even if it meant killing a couple to get their clothes. But that's not this Tale. When I was in college we had to read an account of one of the religiously oppressive regimes that actually existed while Atwood was making this story up, and I recall being at a loss as to how it was in large part women who enforced the restrictive social constructs. As I've gotten older and traveled more it is almost always the case in my experience at least. Turns out Serena Joy is neither serene nor does she bring joy. That must sting.

If television has taught me anything, it is that if a woman says she can take care of herself she will be in danger or dead shortly thereafter, and that if a woman is ill, it is either terminal or pregnancy or both. That said, if Lani is pregnant, timeline-wise, is it JJ's?

Is that where they serve chicken?

Personally I would prefer a return to the "old" way or perhaps a CGI newborn, but I know from Developmental that we really don't know how much babies absorb from their surroundings, and, what with all the precautions most parents try to take, you'd think that putting an infant under harsh lights with crowds of people (some of them overemoting) would have SOME effect that might be detrimental. I even feel for babies who you can see are struggling to get at something offstage while their pretend parents are arguing over an affair. It's distracting.