THT: Plot Holes, Plot Armor, and Other Things a 2nd Year Film Student Could Do Better

[kieyra]

This is more long-term speculation than anything, but it didn't seem like it belongs in the spoilers thread. Still, it contains this spoiler for the upcoming finale:

 

That June stays in Gilead.

One of the reasons I stopped watching this show back in season 2 was because I realized (or at least deeply suspect) that they are playing the long game with Fred and Serena, and will eventually give them both full redemption arcs. Which I am so not here for, no matter how good an actress Yvonne S is. Once the trio (June/Fred/Serena) continued to be a major part of S2, I realized that, duh, they are the three leads and so the Waterfords are not going anywhere, and their plot armor is as thick as June's. Which already makes this not a story I want to watch.

But since the spoiler and my feelings stated above mean the Waterfords are probably going back to Gilead, I started thinking about how the show will make that happen. There are various dumb ways they can do it, since the internal rules about borders and international relations seem to change from episode to episode, so that's not really the point. And then I started thinking about how the show intentionally puts Luke in the way of Fred and Serena repeatedly via all these jaunts to Canada.

Then I started thinking about how all Serena wants is a baby, and how I'm pretty sure her story/redemption arc/whatever is going to end with her holding her own baby in her arms. 

Then I started thinking about how Luke is one of the few known fertile males on the show.

Then I had the absolutely nauseating theory that part of the Waterfords' path to redemption and grace is going to be Luke agreeing to "give" them a baby for Serena. Out of gratitude for them willingly freeing June in season 10 or whatever.

Edited August 9, 2019 by kieyra

[AnswersWanted]

As a woman of color I find myself with a particular set of complaints regarding this show, and their treatment of the characters of color on the show, plus their misuse of the historical background in this country, especially where slavery is concerned. 

I will never forgive them for the way they showcased Rita's relationship with Serena this season, playing it off as if Rita had come to "love" her mistress and sympathized with her. 

They love to avoid the real conflict of these sensitive situations, a helpless slave trapped in a home where at any time her master or mistress can determine her unworthy or unfit and her life could be over in mere minutes. 

They cannot be friends or pals, show, they cannot truly "love" one another, it's a cruel and demeaning "relationship" that only benefits one and leaves the other at their mercy. 

The way Atwood dealt with the subject was so poignant and thought provoking, and this show just wants to make, excuse my french, "magical brown ladies" that assist the main white character and only exist to further her will and her existence without question, comment, or resistance. 

And if they must die in her stead than they'd do so gladly. Or they just will because she has to get away somehow and they will always be her scapegoats. 

Just watching how so much unwarranted praise was being heaped on June this past episode, it was nearly nauseating. 

Exactly why should she be so special? I get she's the main character, and obviously she drives much of the action, but in the book Offred wasn't this supreme leader or someone you could see acting like Rambo Jane on steroids. 

Atwood wrote her as a person, this show wants to turn her into a god of sorts, and I hate it. 

Edited August 9, 2019 by AnswersWanted

[alexvillage]

4 hours ago, kieyra said:

Then I started thinking about how all Serena wants is a baby, and how I'm pretty sure her story/redemption arc/whatever is going to end with her holding her own baby in her arms. 

Then I started thinking about how Luke is one of the few known fertile males on the show.

Then I had the absolutely nauseating theory that part of the Waterfords' path to redemption and grace is going to be Luke agreeing to "give" them a baby for Serena. Out of gratitude for them willingly freeing June in season 10 or whatever.

I had the same thought about the ending for Serena. Redemption and Reward. I hadn't thought about the part Luke might play and it is disgusting. And if it happens, it will not be a rape either, so she will still feel like she was "the good one" in Gilead. No consequences. Ugh.

4 hours ago, AnswersWanted said:

They love to avoid the real conflict of these sensitive situations, a helpless slave trapped in a home where at any time her master or mistress can determine her unworthy or unfit and her life could be over in mere minutes. 

They cannot be friends or pals, show, they cannot truly "love" one another, it's a cruel and demeaning "relationship" that only benefits one and leaves the other at their mercy. 

The way Atwood dealt with the subject was so poignant and thought provoking, and this show just wants to make, excuse my french, "magical brown ladies" that assist the main white character and only exist to further her will and her existence without question, comment, or resistance. 

Yes, all of this. It is a mix of "the good negro" and "house negro". The ones that, despite all the oppression, still need to show deference to their masters, thank them for having a "good life". And I'm not even talking about something that stayed in the past. Isn't it how a lot of people in this country still think back people (and to some extent brown people) need to present themselves - somewhat submissive, completely resigned to a (badly) disguised second class status, compliant?

What is even more frustrating, is how the show runners decided that they wanted to have handmaids of color because whatever, union quotas, pressure from the people who pay, but they either don't have a real story for them, or they still use them as servants - including emotional servants. I am judging but I am going to call: the showrunners are either openly racists, or have a serious case of internalized racism, or need to realize that they are racists and unlearn it. JFC!

[Umbelina]

They have completely blown nearly every single issue about race on this show.

Their first, and largest mistake, was to eliminate racial prejudice and motives from the story of Gilead.  It was pure insanity to ignore racism, and that racism and misogyny go hand in hand.  I screamed about that from the beginning.  Making Gilead "colorblind" was not only completely idiotic, it removed half of the powerful story Atwood told.

I disagree that it would have left us with an all-white cast, especially now that the show has played out the way it has.  The love of flashbacks ALONE would have taken care of that issue, add in that so much of the cast is in Canada anyway, and that we DID see one "colony" story, the nuclear waste one at least, so obviously they could have shown another, one of the crop growing colonies, manned completely by POC in the books.  Seeds of revolution could have been sowed there as well, and certainly escapes.  To top that off, the freedom fighters still at war all over Gilead could have provided significant stories for POC.  We all know that women of color WOULD be added to Jezebel's "stable" as well, so Moira's story could have been much the same anyway.

As far as the way they have completely blown and even made worse the portrayal of POC on this show?  It's appalling.  I don't think they at all intended to be so insulting, I think they really believed they weren't being racist themselves, and probably had good intentions.  It was pure hubris to not bring in consultants of color, and frankly, more women as well.  White, male, hubris of thinking they "get" racism and misogyny, and that they didn't need advice or help to get those stories right.

I posted several incredible articles and podcasts in a thread here, either media or spoiler...every single one was so well done, and opened my eyes even further into just how bad the show has been with these portrayals.

It would have been so much better to follow the book, and to give racism the same cold eyed glare that misogyny is getting.  It's by far, to me, the biggest failing of the show.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Umbelina
typo

[AnswersWanted]

After spending so much time ranting about the show today, I came across this article addressing THT and the writer's assessment was so spot on with how I feel, I wanted to share it. 

These TV shows should have quit while they were ahead

They cover a few different shows, but here's what they said about THT: 

Quote

Adapting Margaret Atwood’s classic novel was a good idea, but it should have been a miniseries or an anthology. There’s a reason the book’s version of Offred/June’s (Elisabeth Moss) story ends with her leaving . . . because if she stays in Gilead, there’s not much plot left. Seasons 2 and 3, which extended beyond the book, spun their wheels looking for increasingly dubious reasons to delay her escape. A once-incisive show that should have ended with a bang instead became a slog. And still a fourth season is coming.

I don't think I've agreed so much with something written about this show since it was first announced. 

I remember the movie they did on the book and I wanted them to take it even further, get a little more indepth, and the first season pretty much did that. 

But to see what's become of it now, how they're so determined to get season after season out of this mess no matter how repetitive and ridiculous the subject matter has gotten, it just ruined what could have been a showstopper of an event on television that really touched on so many current issues it was as if the book it was based on had just been written. 

And I actually think if they hadn't been so desperate to make this a multi season show, they could have kept in the race portions of the story because it wasn't going to be dragged out or inappropriately mishandled. 

There's no way I would trust Miller and Littlefield to oversee however many seasons of a show dealing with racial bigotry and racism.

They already have shown even when they are trying to include something about the issue, they fuck it up. 

But I think if they had been limited to a specific run time, like a mini series, it could have been pulled off. Plus Atwood at the beginning was so much more involved, she could have kept them in check and really pushed for the ideas in her book to be fully explored, and not to shy away from the ugliness of it all. 

They even could have brought in experts and historians of African American history and slavery to make it even more of a genuine portrayal. 

This show has really missed the mark in so many ways, imho. 

[Umbelina]

I agree that, however well intentioned they may have been, they have completely bungled everything about race in this show, from conception of a ridiculous "colorblind" world set in the current USA on.

However, I do think there was a lot left to explore about Atwood's story, specifically the epilogue.

We are finally there.

I'm still interested in that side of things, I always have been.  I want to see the resistance, I want to see "the world" and I want to see the fighters as well.

When this show started I screamed my head off about the idiotic decision to make Gilead "colorblind."  I wish we hadn't lost the original thread or I'd quote myself.  Almost no one agreed with me back then.

This didn't have to be an all white cast, not at all, but ignoring racism was boneheaded and complete nonsense.

I detested last season, and it's ridiculous how many mistakes they made, but this season is growing on me, specifically the last 4 episodes.  Things are finally happening, the "rest of the story" that was only touched on in the books, is finally playing out.  There IS forward movement, and I'm hopeful that the criticisms of the show last season are finally paying off.

They need to hire more POC and Women to correct what they can of the other issues.  Hopefully they will do that, but overcoming the idiotic "color blind" USA/Gilead will be almost impossible.  They should have left the book as it was.

[alexvillage]

3 hours ago, scrb said:

In any event, we knew June can’t leave Gilead or else the show is pretty much over

This is one of the things we have discussed here. They could have June leave and have another handmaid continue the tale because the idea of the book was not to tell the story of one handmaid, but the system that created them and how the women were abused by that system.

Yes, I know that they said the story was about June but after two messed up seasons, they could have realized the ridiculous situation they got themselves in. I commented somewhere else that they should have have a disclaimer at the beginning of each episode that the show is LOOSELY based on the book. Because they created a handmaid that gets punished sometimes but whose worst violations - according to Gilead - are met with a shrug. She breaks all the rules, the wall doesn't even get a mention (I think, I don't watch it anymore), and life goes on.

They could give new life to the show if the story of oppression and the fight to liberation continued from the point of view of a different handmaid, with a different personality. Or even if they moved on to the Marthas' point of view for a few episodes, really tell a story, where the ones who stayed start spreading the news of how June organized a escape and took the children, and how they will continue the Underground to save more people. Gosh, I am not a writer or in any way creative and I have IDEAS!  

But the writers don't have the interest, talent or ability to write something better than a super hero soap opera and the Executive Director is the star, so no chance this show is going to get better. 

[scrb]

For better or worse though, Moss is the star of the show and presumably the one that a lot of people tune in to watch.

I'm sure her name drew many viewers too, to have her name attached to the project.

Maybe they're wrong but the show runner and Hulu (and Disney) probably want to keep Moss on the show through the end, because they believe she draws viewers.

[alexvillage]

1 hour ago, scrb said:

For better or worse though, Moss is the star of the show and presumably the one that a lot of people tune in to watch.

I'm sure her name drew many viewers too, to have her name attached to the project.

Maybe they're wrong but the show runner and Hulu (and Disney) probably want to keep Moss on the show through the end, because they believe she draws viewers.

I don't have a problem with a show having a star but when the writing keeps getting ridiculous to please stardom, then they cannot claim that they are not a soap opera. 

It also doesn't mean that another actor wouldn't be successful in drawing viewers and being better at the craft. I would probably still watch if they had given Emily a storyline, not a maze to navigate and then throw everything into the void. 

I would probably go back to (try) watching if they dared to be creative and bold, hire another "star" - better yet, use Alexis and Samira more - and develop better stories - at least keep developing the stories they start but never finish because June has to do her heroic act of the week. 

[Umbelina]

I am wondering if we need a spec without spoilers thread for coming seasons?  Any interest in that?

I was thinking something like:

Hey Bruce Miller!  Ideas for Season 4 (and beyond.)  

ETA

I suck at thread titles though, so if anyone has a better one, or wants a thread like this?  Go for it.  He does seem to be reading message boards and reviews as evidenced by his massive interview spree for the finale.

Edited August 15, 2019 by Umbelina

[LBS]

1 hour ago, Umbelina said:

I suck at thread titles though, so if anyone has a better one, or wants a thread like this?  Go for it.  He does seem to be reading message boards and reviews as evidenced by his massive interview spree for the finale.

I would like one!  

Beyond June Doom 

[Umbelina]

3 minutes ago, LBS said:

I would like one!  

Beyond June Doom 

We have a June thread...I'd rather use Bruce Miller's name, since he apparently searches the internet for it.  😉 

Also, to me, the issues are the WRITING and it's his damn show.  

[Umbelina]

17 minutes ago, LBS said:

I would like one!  

Beyond June Doom 

I started one.  Jump in anyone, I kept the first post to two issues that bug me most, but obviously there are many others.

I didn't even mention ideas for season 4.