Ariam

I finally managed the time to read it on the christmas holidays. I read it in two days.I was a bit disappointed, to be honest. I was expecting excellent writing with the booker price and all, and the first few chapters felt better, but then the writing got sloppier, repetitious and I haven't seen anyone else say this, but the character building felt poor as far as Nicole was concerned. She felt like she was a poorly built shallow character out of a b-grade action movie. What teenager reacts like that to her parents dying, having to abandon her friends, home, life and all with practically no questions and very little emotions. Fuck, she talked more about her "puppy"crush than her parents dying and leaving her life behind. she didn't even demand to get her stuff, any memories from home, say goodbyes or anything. Made absolutely no sense at all. Sure it would have been unsafe but that is just not how people work, when their life is interrupted. Then she is happily practicing self defence and barely objects being sent into Gilead?! When she has shown no sign of being interested in saving people up to then. It made no sense. It also made no sense that once in Gilead instead of being terrified by what she saw and keeping quiet she behaved like a bratty teen. Stupid choice, and made me hate her chracter. I felt like Atwood was trying too hard to make a teenager, when she herself is too old to relate. It was poor, absolutely poor. I also had a hard time buying the aunt Lydia story. in THT she is much more sinister, but her it sounds as if she had made the choice tomake Gilead pay back from the beginning. Also, she says "we all believed this was good in the beginning" which doesn't make sense as she was practically forced into it. And how did all those women go from independent normal working women who loved the law to turturers who enjoyed torturing women? It wasn't explained enough. If anything, they would have been trying to save as many as possible since the beginning. A few days in solitary confinement just doesn't do it. And why where the 4 of them picked, when there were others before Lydia who had chosen to become aunts? So much was left untold, and instead we were given a shot of a poor happy ending action film in book form. Wasn't what I was expecting I'm sorry. The depth, suspense, the relatability was all gone. Makes me think it really is all Atwood behind the ridiculous shit in the TV series. In that sense Nicole fitted well as June's daughter, she had the same ridiculous survival sphere around her and that empty FY attitude. I'm mostly disappointed as I wanted to love it, but just couldn't.

Rita didn't even bring a kid, but she got out. The ones that endagered their lives didn't. Makes no sense at all.

She said she was going to watch the finale "tonight" and then couldn't watch more for a year :) 😉

I honestly thought she must be in her 40s most, in my mind she is around 30 though (which wouldn't make sense as she couldn't be younger than me). But she looked older to me as a wife than I remember her. And now I'm shocked because if she is really that old then it means I'm old too 😄 I just checked and the movies I remember her from are from like 20 years ago, but I thought they were just a few years old. If you google her name the pictures that come up fit my memory a bit better. This is just another example of how female actors mostly disappear after they age, while male actors still head movies, where their co-actresses are 20, 30 years younger. Sorry for the OT.

Wait, was she Marisa Tomei? I didn’t recognise her at all. How old is she now? And most importantly, if she’s now old, how old am I??!! 😱

I agree. With these writers, or whoever it is that decides on the direction (director?) of the show, I have no hope and don't think I will ever watch this again. For me the handmaids' tale has been ruined, which is a shame as the story was amazing and I loved season 1 and to some extent season 2 (although parts of it where horrible, wolves and all). Season 3 mad eme lose hope, so much would need to be redeemed. But if I imagine that it didn't all happen, and that we could forgive a horrible season, then: 1. stop making June an asshole. She is an antihero, but not a smart one, she is most like a teenage bully from a cheap teenage highschool drama. I bet none of the people who tuned in to the program for its feminist idea really appreciate the stupid way June has been developed. Teach her to speak English that doesn't sounds like a 12 year old talking back at her mother. She was an editor after all. Also, get rid of the angry eyes, they are universally hated. 2. also stop making june a marvel comics superhero, it's ridiculous. Gilead used to be scary and terrifying, now you can do anything without getting caught (unless you're black or an unknown martha or any other stranger). 3. use the other actors, I'm much more interested in Emily, Moira and Alma than any of the stupid stuff that makes no sense and has no continuity with the story that season 3 was full of. 4. Serena has to actually get punished for her crimes. Fred of course too.

Hmm, I remember seeing one where she repeats something like "i did all of this" EDIT: Sorry, promo, not trailer. I can't find it on youtube but it's here

I was posting this aptly titled Cosmo review in the June/Moss thread, but then realised it's a pretty good critique of the finale, so I'm posting more on it here instead. Dear God, 'The Handmaid's Tale' Needs to Come Up With a New Plot Twist I was surprised that a source like cosmo actually had some good points of criticism towards June, her decisions mostly, but also the rest of the season and episode. "Throughout the three seasons of The Handmaid's Tale, June has made some seriously dumb decisions. There was that one time she got a Martha killed, for example. There was that other time she tried to stab Serena Joy... in a hospital. And there was that OTHER time she got that family murdered because she stayed with them while plotting her escape. The girl has f*cked up a lot, leaving bodies in her wake as she goes." They even have a little poll to ask how much we are annoyed with June 😄 And as far as the season finale "I know June is attached to finding her daughter Hannah, and she thinks she can't leave Gilead without her. I get it. But this is literally the fourth time we have seen this same exact thing happen. Not only is it infuriating to watch June as a character make the same mistake over and over again, but it's annoying as a viewer to see the Handmaid's writers employ the same plot device for the fourth time. It's not so much of a twist anymore as it is a reason to groan." Honestly, how can they expect people to be happy with them repeating the same story every season (and it just gets worse every time). I get it that they don't think she can escpe Gilead for the show to work, but then for goodness' sake stop making it look so easy to escape gilead that she can keep chosing to leave on the next plane!! It's like she's not even aware that she has a husband and daughter in Canada, and it's very unlikely for her to make it out alive after refusing to go several times (as the chances of dying should be going up). Blah.

The trailer shows June shopping at loaves and fishes, so all the guesses of her going underground are wrong. She seems to get away with no punishment, surprise surprise. Yes but with how HORRIBLY they did with Lydia's backstory I would probably rather imagine it, that watch what they come up with.

I was surprised that a source like cosmo actually had some good points of criticism towards the way in which the character of June has been built, her decisions mostly. "Throughout the three seasons of The Handmaid's Tale, June has made some seriously dumb decisions. There was that one time she got a Martha killed, for example. There was that other time she tried to stab Serena Joy... in a hospital. And there was that OTHER time she got that family murdered because she stayed with them while plotting her escape. The girl has f*cked up a lot, leaving bodies in her wake as she goes." They even have a little poll to ask how much we are annoyed with June 😄 And as far as the season finale "I know June is attached to finding her daughter Hannah, and she thinks she can't leave Gilead without her. I get it. But this is literally the fourth time we have seen this same exact thing happen." Which has me thinking I should probably post this under episode 13. I'll continue over there but leave this here too. cosmopolitan article: Dear God, 'The Handmaid's Tale' Needs to Come Up With a New Plot Twist

From this it sounds to me like she hasn’t understood the whole story at all, and it shows. It’s not about any ruthless crazy system, it’s a country and system based on extreme misogyny. It would be impossible for her to become one of them and in trying to twist the story to do that they’ve lost the whole point of the story, which we related to in the beginning, the way in which woman have absolutely no power or means to protect themselves in Gilead. They were supposed to be afraid of their walking partner, of everyone around, eyes everywhere. In that system June could have never become a powerful badass. Moss’ interview to me reveals that she just doesn’t get it. I think she comes from a privileged position in which she has never had to really face the misogyny at a real meaningful level, and can’t understand it. Which is also why she and the rest of the producers and writers have failed at understanding intersectionality.

Oh i totally agree with both of you I wrote it in the middle of the night my tune and was unclear. I meant just that compared to the other things Serena did that was not the worst they could have arrested her for and I would think from June’s perspective some other things she did to her, including the rape at 9 months pregnant were worse. So I was pissed that this was the *only* thing they accused her of as far as Nick’s rape is f June I’ve always said I can’t understand how anyone would love him and June’s relationship with him, he chose to rape her (and yes there always is a choice!) and at best it was a relationship that was born out of trauma, there was nothing real to it. I agree also that Serena acted as pimp in that rape, for her own benefit. She also stole his child (not that he would have ever shown any signs of really caring)

There should be plenty of other powerful commanders. The show makes no sense. In DC they showed hundreds of handmaids and supposedly getting posted in DC is more powerful than Boston (since Fred wanted to move there). Winslow couldn’t have been running things on his own. They really should have left dc out of it as it made no sense at all and they can’t even follow their own story. But they wanted s cool episode with a silly gigantic cross and blown up statues. They spent so much money on that episode that they had to keep the budget low for the rest of the season and could only pay Moss and a few other actors but not even any of the main characters.

It also didn't annoy me just because it wouldn't be on in Gilead, and she should have been cattleprodded for that, but also because: who speaks that way?! She sounds like a 12 year old with attitude, not a smart woman who is trying to play it safe so she can get out of there alive and possibly help others too. This badass thing is so ridiculous because they've really just turned her into a preteen school bully with no manners. But then again, if the writers only have experience in teen drama then that shows.

Seriously. They have ruined her and made her so unlikeable. I was wondering if they are actually trying to prove what Fred said to be true, Gilead has changed her, but instead of changing her like it should have, into a broken person it's made her a ridiculous asshole. I was really upset about Janine staying back too. And while the show can't have me hold my breath for June I was feeling sick when the guard was firing bullets at them as I was sure they were going to make Janine die. And why didn't Alma escape, wasn't her 5 year old son one of the kids who got out?? Why didn't any handmaids escape with their kids???!!! I was really disappointed that THAT was what they charged her for, after everything else she has been part of. It was such a low, I was actually looking forward to her being arrested, but then when spyguy spoke I was really disappointed. Should have known, shouldn't have expected, silly me! I can't believe your 8 year old is brave enough watch this, mine is scared of disney animation villains 😄 That was what I was thinking, when she asked Moira that question. I didn't find her characther credible at all. She said she didn't remember a time before gilead, yet after 5 years she ran to her dad, and didn't react shyly at all? All of the kids in the program are always these quiet smart kids who dont show any signs of trauma, or being kids. Yes I know what a harsh christian upbringing with fear of punishment is like, but having lived among conservative christians most of my life I also know that they are still kids. As long as Mossy is a producer it's going to be a June show with none of the interesting characters getting any air time. And it's going to be about being a stupid badass. I really don't see, still, how someone who is part of an abusive cult can be allowed to run this show. The whole way they are portraying June as being "a woman of faith" is also absolutely ridiculous, and I think that must be the level of Mossy's spirituality. What happened to it having to be a plane organised by the Jezebel guy?? Suddenly it was a cargo plane that Gilead knew about, but had no cargo? How was the Jezebel guy, if he still was involved able to get on board past the guards? And how did canada know it was arriving with people on board? How did Moira and Luke know? And who on earth was the airline stuart who opened the plane door when it landed in Canada? It made so little sense. Any of it. How did they get past all the guards patrolling the streets, going house to house looking for one girl, with handmaids, marthas and 52 children?? They handily cut that part out because they couldn't have pulled it off.