The Eyes: News and Media

[Nande]

 

[Scarlett45]

I saw a trailer today on Youtube and I dont know if I am emotionally ready yet. Given that its been 2yrs since I saw Season 3 (the pandemic and all) I would think I would want to watch season 3 first. The trailer was good though.

[Umbelina]

On 3/30/2021 at 11:15 AM, Scarlett45 said:

I saw a trailer today on Youtube and I dont know if I am emotionally ready yet. Given that its been 2yrs since I saw Season 3 (the pandemic and all) I would think I would want to watch season 3 first. The trailer was good though.

I am SO ready.  

After reading the sequel, I'm  ready.  

[marinw]

44 minutes ago, Umbelina said:

I am SO ready.  

Same. I know we are not supoosed to talk real-world politics, but I hope I'm allowed to say that the change in White House Occupant will make this season a bit easier to handle.

That said, I remember watching the Washington Scenes is season three and thinking "Well, at least I don't live in a society where I have to cover half my face in public" hahaha

Edited April 1, 2021 by marinw

[marinw]

Not seeing this on my DVR. Anyone know when Season 4 starts in Canada?

Edited April 21, 2021 by marinw

[secnarf]

1 hour ago, marinw said:

Not seeing this on my DVR. Anyone know when Season 4 starts in Canada?

I don't think it starts anywhere until April 28. I believe it will be on CTV Drama, as Bravo had carried it before.

[marinw]

9 hours ago, secnarf said:

I believe it will be on CTV Drama, as Bravo had carried it before.

Not seeing it listed on CTV

[secnarf]

14 hours ago, marinw said:

Not seeing it listed on CTV

CTV Drama is different than CTV. I googled it just now and it showed up there.

[marinw]

Still not seeing it on CTV Drama

 Weird 

[Trillian]

On 4/22/2021 at 8:28 PM, marinw said:

Still not seeing it on CTV Drama

 Weird 

It’s not showing using “search”, but I scrolled through the online guide to the listing for Wednesday at 9 and it’s definitely showing as on. 
So long, “A Million Little Things”. You should’ve stayed on Thursday. 

[marinw]

It's there now! Thanks @Trillian

Edited April 25, 2021 by marinw

[Umbelina]

https://www.hulu.com/series/the-handmaids-tale-565d8976-9d26-4e63-866c-40f8a137ce5f

Several extras up already!  Inside the episodes, one on Moss directing, etc.

Nice interview with "Lydia" in the episode 3 inside the episode.

These are informative this year!

[Umbelina]

They have also added season 1-3 recaps of a ton of characters, and a sneak peek at episode 4.

Also, the "One Burning Question (s)" answered/discussed each time by different actresses are pretty interesting.

Edited April 28, 2021 by Umbelina

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Emily's journey

Nick's journey

Janine's journey

Aunt Lydia's journey

Fred's journey

Luke's journey

Moira's journey

Serena's journey

Rita's journey

June's journey

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

McKenna Grace interview:

 

[Umbelina]

AV Club:  The Handmaid’s Tale starts to make its way out of Gilead

Could it be? Dare I hope? Are we actually free from Gilead, or at least, in the process of freeing ourselves from Gilead? And obviously only the physical reality of Gilead for, as the previous episodes have really hammered in, Gilead is also a state of mind. But I can’t say I’m not feeling relief at the prospect of actually seeing this story move beyond the confines of that regime.

---

June and Janine hop onto a freight train heading to Chicago, only to find themselves in a refrigerated container full of milk, looking like two frightened fruit loops floating around in a cereal bowl. June is still on full problem-solving mode, finding a way to drain out the whole cargo while Janine is still in her usual panic mode. Thankfully the milk hijinks are resolved quickly enough to get to the meat of this scenario, which is the spat between the two over whether divulging the secret location was a betrayal or a necessity. Janine tends to be presented as weak, emotionally fragile, too eager to please since Gilead had her eye removed as punishment. But this is also a character who lost one eye precisely because of her rebelliousness, and it was exciting to see that fighting nature come back during her argument with June and during flashbacks of her life pre-Gilead.

 

[Umbelina]

Review: ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ is far from perfect. Here’s why I’m not giving up on it yet

I’ve stuck with the show this long because it captures the trauma of a country at war from the viewpoint of those we rarely see on the news in real-life combat zones: women. They suffer the worst indignities, often behind closed doors, which I know from my relatives who went through multiple foreign invasions, a brutal dictatorship, religious persecution and destabilization in Baghdad.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” draws inspiration from heartbreakingly true tales of conflict all over the globe, and the sad truth is that justice and peace take ages, if they arrive at all. Men’s wars cause misery on a loop, from which generations suffer and rebellions spring. Some revolts succeed. Many fail. “The Handmaid’s Tale” reflects that hard-to-digest reality. The hangings on Gilead’s infamous Wall look like the Shah’s Iran. The torture, like Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and the U.S. military’s Abu Ghraib.

It’s understandable why former fans of “The Handmaid’s Tale” checked out of the series by the end of season three. Our country was a mess, so why watch it fall apart on TV? They could not stop June from heading back into the fray one more time. In some respects, I share their frustration with her and with the series’ brutality. But as much as I wanted June to leave Gilead, I also am glad she stayed to fight another day.

 

[Umbelina]

Luke or Nick?  (in reality, they talk about tons of things, not just Nick or Luke)

Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Ann Dowd, Bradley Whitford, and more of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ season 4 cast reveal whose side they’re on – June’s husband Luke or lover Nick – in the drama’s central love triangle.

Edited May 5, 2021 by Umbelina
clarified

[chocolatine]

3 hours ago, Umbelina said:

Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Ann Dowd, Bradley Whitford, and more of ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ season 4 cast reveal whose side they’re on – June’s husband Luke or lover Nick – in the drama’s central love triangle.

I never thought of it as a "love triangle" - that's too trite of a description - and don't think June's romantic relationships are central to the show at all.

[Umbelina]

1 minute ago, chocolatine said:

I never thought of it as a "love triangle" - that's too trite of a description - and don't think June's romantic relationships are central to the show at all.

Me either.

I did love this interviews though, because although that question was asked, the interview went much further than that, and covered much more.

[Umbelina]

 @chocolatine  Actually though, the answer I liked best was to that question though.

O. T. Fagbenle knocked it out of the park, talking about how Luke had failed June so miserably, from the beginning, not leaving, not thinking it was a big deal that she lost her bank account or job, etc.  He said raising her love child from another man was the least he could do to try to make his earlier failings a tiny bit better.

[Umbelina]

therealmargaretatwood June is on fire! Can anyone do a Don’t Even Think About It glare like Elizabeth Moss? Can vengefulness go too far?

https://www.instagram.com/p/COk-Kn2DOP9/

Nice photo of Margaret in front of a Handmaids poster today.

[Umbelina]

 

[Umbelina]

 

[Umbelina]

The Handmaid’s Tale explores the razor-thin line between Gilead and Not Gilead

AV Club  A really thoughtful and interesting review of Chicago.  Much more at link of course.

There have been several moments over the course of the show where June and Aunt Lydia mirror each other, especially when it comes to their drive. This is one of those moments. Over in Chicago, June is realizing that Leader Steven is way more interested in humping Janine than in actually, you know, resisting. She is desperate to go on missions, help with the trades, figure out how to kill even more people with her bare hands. Over in Gilead, Aunt Lydia is leaving her frustration on that treadmill with an intensity usually reserved for Peloton fanatics right on January 1. A new batch of girls is ready to undergo Handmaids bootcamp and she wants nothing more than to be their drill sergeant.

June, done with any submissive behavior or soft power tactics, tries to be direct with Steven. She wants to go on trading missions across town but, as he points out, “fresh meat stays here.” Excellent choice of words for a guy who charges sex as an entry fee. Lydia, confident that protocol and pious attitude will help make her case to the Head Aunt, is shut down. (I don’t know what the official title for the woman who makes this decision is so I’m dubbing it Head Aunt until someone corrects me.) She then turns to Commander Lawrence for help—okay, to blackmail him into giving her the position. But it’s the only recourse she has left, aware that only a man has the authority to grant her true wish.

----

In other words, men’s bullshit is still running all their lives.

[Umbelina]

Season Four of the hit Hulu series finally promises an escape for June. But relief from the show’s grim truths — for her, and for viewers — may be harder to find than it seems

Rolling Stone  This one is quite political, comparing the USA to Gilead, so skip it if you aren't in the mood for that.  It also has several statements from Atwood and Moss.

Neither Atwood nor Moss have much use for those criticisms. “Female abuse is a gigantic part of the story, and I think it would be quite cowardly and two-faced to shy away from it,” Moss says. “It’s important to face those stories head-on, to give them a voice. It’s important to tell them honestly — and if that’s not for you? Totally fine. I don’t care.”

Atwood takes a similar view. “History is hard to watch,” she says. “The present moment is hard to watch, which is why a lot of people don’t watch it. What is happening to the Uighurs in China — all of these things are hard to watch, if you have a personality that includes empathy, which most people do. Unless they’re psychopaths.”

 

[Umbelina]

Wait, Is Janine Dead After This Week's 'Handmaid's Tale' Episode? Here's What We Know

Cosmopolitan  Just a very short, including it for the interview with Madeline Brewer, a bit more at link.  Much more at link, and yes, I completely missed the hint in the "previously part."

Madeline Brewer, who plays Janine, is keeping her lips sealed on this one.  She gave an interview about this week's episode and wouldn't say whether Janine was dead or not. “Who is to say whether or not it was a fatal choice? I will not say,” she told TheWrap. “But the fact that Janine made a choice based on just herself and what she thought would be best for herself. She even says, ‘I feel safer when we’re together.’ I think she made a choice based on the fact that she loves June, she does. She loves her like a sister, like a friend, like her own blood.”

"Sometimes we kind of think of Janine as childish and she doesn’t allow a childish crush or fun little moment to sway her from the fact that, ‘This is my friend, and she needs me and I love her and we’re going to see this through to the end, no matter what. No matter what that end is for either of us, or whether it is an end for us, I’m going to do this with her because I’ve committed to this now. I’m going for it.'”

The Handmaid’s Tale Recap: Boulevard of Broken Dreams

Vulture

So at the beginning of “Chicago,” when those “previously ons” roll and we see Moira with her girlfriend Luna, chatting about how Moira will accompany her on a quick humanitarian mission to the western front, alarm bells should have clanged so loudly in your head that they rendered you temporarily unable to hear the dialogue.

--

Of course, of all the streets in all the towns in all the world, Moira walks down the same one as June. Is it the world’s biggest coincidence? Yes. Is the sound crew reaching down into your soul and twisting it in knots with that Coldplay “Fix You” cover? Absolutely. Did I still cry a little because this show manipulated me into believing June would never make her way to safety? You didn’t even need to ask.

The setup to get both of them there, in the midst of a bombing campaign during a ceasefire(?), consumes most of this episode, yet another brilliantly acted and woefully written example of how Elisabeth Moss is carrying the Handmaid’s Tale writers’ room on her back across large swaths of North America. June and Janine have only been at the camp in Chicago for a short time (one or two days maybe) when they head out on their first reconnaissance and trading mission. Fresh recruits, if that’s what they are, aren’t typically allowed on such forays, but Janine’s close relationship with Steven is more fruitful than just shooting lessons and a few good orgasms. And so out they go across the city, so June can prove she will pushily demand that everyone obey her commands, even in situations where she lacks even a basic understanding of the terrain. Antiheroines these days, huh?

---

But the map we once glimpsed on Commander Waterford’s desk shows that the whole of America isn’t under Gilead’s control. The coast of California, the Gulf, and the Canadian border are all held by the resistance. Los Angeles is a nuclear wasteland. Vermont is, as we all could have guessed, a disputed territory. 

 

 

Edited May 12, 2021 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

A rave review from AV CLUB

On the flip side, it also highlights how Moira’s commitment to June is akin to that of a mother and child, or a life partner. Or really of the kind of friendship that is closer to that of chosen family. Moira’s warning about Luke isn’t about jealousy, not really. She is just better at analyzing the aftermath of a decision. June is acting more like a flashing “Warning! Warning! Warning!” sign. It’s the role that she plays out in this friendship, a foil or a break to June’s stubborn, leap-of-faith defiance. In short, she slaps her back into reality, a skill that proves crucial when we jump into a bombed Chicago, a concussed June, and a Moira hellbent on getting her out of Gilead. She knows how to handle her. She guides her to a medical truck with the suggestion that Janine might be there. She tempers a massive freak-out by telling June she’ll take care of her. She convinces her to become a stowaway on the Canadian boat by pointing out a very real truth: Hannah is safer without her. For a brief moment, June believes that the best way to fulfill her vow as a mother is by getting on that damn boat.

[Umbelina]

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Showrunner on June ‘Dreading’ Leaving Gilead as Much as She May Have Looked Forward to It

Warning contains spoilers from the sequel The Testaments.

June eventually leaves the boat with Luke and Moira, although she lingers for a long time on the ramp before actually touching a foot onto the dock and letting out a breath that everyone had been metaphorically holding for years.

This family reunion, although only partial, comes well ahead of how the literary characters’ stories played out. “The Handmaid’s Tale” showrunner Bruce Miller breaks down the challenges the couple will face now that they are together again but their family is incomplete — and June has a lot of trauma from which to heal.

[Umbelina]

Wouldn't the arrival of June Osborne on Canadian soil draw a crowd of some sort? Whether you love or hate her, the media would have a field day with her arrival. I can see the headline now: Angel Flight Leader Arrives in Canada.

It was heartbreaking to watch those Americans banging outside the barriers, begging the aid workers to save them. I don't think I could live with the guilt of leaving all those poor helpless people behind.

Interesting speculation in this review by TV Fanatic

[Umbelina]

 

[Umbelina]

 

[Umbelina]

 

[Umbelina]

Talking about the season finale.

[Umbelina]

https://ew.com/tv/the-handmaids-tale-showrunner-season-4-finale/

Nice video interview with Bradley Whitford about enjoying his role and the show as well.

Interview with the showrunner, much more at link.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Let's start with the scene between Mark Tuello and Serena Joy. Was there an implication there that Fred might not be the father of her baby, or is that reading too much into it?

 

BRUCE MILLER: I think it's reading too much into it; it's reading into the chemistry. His job is to make her very, very comfortable with him, and he does it very well. But I don't know how much is the job and how much is the way that he feels [about her], but I don't know that he even knows. This is his job, to make her comfortable and to trust him. So yes, they have a very interesting, complicated relationship. As an intelligence officer, his job was to kind of become obsessed with her, before he met her, and know everything about the way that her mind works. You can't help but be impressed by someone like Serena in that way. So is she impressive to him? Sure. But Fred is the father.

The other scene that really stood out to me early on was the first scene between June and Fred. Why do you think June went to see him? Was she looking for an apology?

No. First, we did a lot of research with our partners at the UN and UNHCR, and refugee workers and all that stuff, to kind of see what this scene would be like, and what would be the stuff that was affecting June. I think June went to see Fred to be able to let him go. That's why she went. "I'm gonna let him go. I'm going to be a good mother. I'm not going to let him control my life anymore." But when she got there, and especially when he apologized - we had a conversation with the refugees, and [they said] that the worst moment was when their abuser apologized. When they realized their abuser knew all along it was wrong from the very beginning. So that's the moment where June decides he should not be on the earth anymore.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

Oh man, there is some pretty possibly spoiler stuff in what he says in this interview, these question answers reveal a LOT.

[Umbelina]

 

Edited June 17, 2021 by Umbelina

[Umbelina]

Quick recap of the season, annoying voice, but well done anyway.

[Umbelina]

I've enjoyed this recapper all season, he's often wearing a handmaid headdress, but he make excellent points and is also fair.

Anyway, looks Bruce Miller joined his latest chat and answers some questions, which is kind of an awwwww.

I haven't listed to the whole thing yet.

 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

  

Elisabeth Moss & Gillian Anderson on Variety's Actors on Actors series

 

[Brn2bwild]

Don't know if you're familiar with them, but The Red Resistance has a great Handmaid's Tale podcast.  They just released the (very long!) podcast for Episode 10.

https://www.theredresistancepodcast.com/podcast

[AngieBee1]

Multiple nominations for the series, but unbelievably nothing for Joseph Fiennes.

Outstanding Lead - Elisabeth  Moss

Outstanding Supporting Actor: O-T Fagbenle, Max Minghella, Bradley Whitford

Outstanding Supporting Actress: Ann Dowd, Samira Wiley, Yvonne Strahovski

Outstanding Guest Actress: Alexis Bleidel, McKenna Grace

Outstanding Drama Series, and a slew of other nominations in the technical realm.

[paulvdb]

You forgot one in the supporting actress category: Madeline Brewer as Janine

[ComeWhatMay]

Yes, yes, he does. “The Crown” reigns in the supporting categories tonight, darn it. 

 

[ComeWhatMay]

Indeed. Ouch. 

 

[chocolatine]

It's already mid-February, and still no premiere date for S5? S4 started in late April last year. I wonder if Hulu is no longer excited about THT since they're releasing so many new limited series based on real events. Or maybe it's getting more and more difficult to coordinate everyone's filming schedules since the cast members are getting more and more famous and are involved in other projects.

[milkyaqua]

The Handmaid's Tale: Alexis Bledel Exiting Ahead of Season 5

“After much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid’s Tale at this time,” Bledel said in a statement to our sister site Variety. “I am forever grateful to Bruce Miller for writing such truthful and resonant scenes for Emily, and to Hulu, MGM, the cast and crew for their support.”

[Redrum]

Well, I am willing to bet Emily commits suicide off screen in some fashion....

[chocolatine]

6 minutes ago, Redrum said:

Well, I am willing to bet Emily commits suicide off screen in some fashion....

I really hope not. She's been through so much already. Last season showed her and Syl being concerned about Canada potentially returning Handmaids to Gilead, so a good way for her to exit the show would be moving to Europe with Syl and Oliver.

[greekmom]

On 5/27/2022 at 7:12 PM, Redrum said:

Well, I am willing to bet Emily commits suicide off screen in some fashion....

Hoping they just have her and her wife and son move to Montreal to get away from it all or new job. Then the role is open if she wants to return.