Also what was with Serena getting arrested? Are we supposed to think the Canadians thought she was really the child's mother? That they didn't know the handmaids were all raped in a ceremony involving the commanders' wives holding them down? I mean, they've taken in all these refugees so they know exactly what goes on in Gillead.

Then Fred says guess what, she's a rapist! And 5 mins later she is getting arrested? As if no one knew already? What am I missing?

It was pretty well explained.

The rapes by the commander that she participated in were 'under duress because of state/religious law'.

The forced 'rape' by the driver was not under duress and was dictated directly by Serena.

yeah, it was like the Canadians were okay with religious based rape, but raping on your own is where they draw the line. I guess you could think they were just humoring Serena with the baby until they got enough info from her. I also didn't see why they would take Waterford's word for what he said.

and a parade of Marthas and children from the most likely house to be behind a subversive plan through a town in full-blown search mode was total LOL.

They weren't 'okay with it', they were allowing her to use a defense of 'I was made to under duress of punishment by the state' as a reward for her cooperation.

But when they discovered further crimes committed solely of her own free will the deal is out the window.

Since it has been established that that the handmaids have lots of experience with stoning, it would have been believable if they took the guard out with a nice shot to the temple. These were mostly marthas, but a lucky shot from June or psycho-patch girl would have worked. The guard not calling for backup after the first wave was just lol.

My hope for Season 4 - The writers continue to draw parallels between Gilead and Scientology (not allowing outside literature, handmaids snitching on non-compliance), and Elisabeth Moss finally sees the light.

People can nitpick all they want but I thoroughly enjoyed this season. I thought insane/no ****s to give June was great. In for more LDO.

Well at one point they shined some lights towards the trees and the whole caravan ducked. that was a close call!

The writing itself is so bad. That scene when june had the gun telling lawrence about how shes in charge now blah blah, they couldn't just let the symbolism speak for itself they needed her to repeat some level 1 dialogue and spoonfeed the audience.

June going no shits is fine but the show was powerful because of the realities of the world that it built and now it completely ignores them. There are no consequences for anything. They've got a missing child and a captured martha, a full scale investigation, but no one in charge thinks "I wonder if that troublemaker Ofjoseph who snuck a child out already and the household we've been suspicious of for months has anything to do with this"

and they even made a point of the suspicion of June with the scene with Aunt Lydia

Another thing: Most of these kids are too young to remember any life before gilead. Some were born in gilead, their "parents" are the only family they know. They've had a life as the child of a commander which is actually pretty great. Somehow not one of them is going to make a sound while literally being kidnapped from their home and marched through the woods?

Nits gonna nit.

What a weird finale. No suspense at all, just a really boring hour of television with some obvious dumb plot holes. Agree on all the above points about all the nonsense plus I'll add one more: So a mystery plane from Gilead arrives in Canada and who are the people at the airport opening the door? The army? Some sort of special forces? Paramedics? The police? Some sort of designated emergency people? No, instead it's ****ing Moira and Luke TROLOLOLOL. There's narrative convenience and there's writers taking such ridiculous liberties that you can't help but laugh and cry at the same time.

Pretty hilarious how Luke in back to back episodes has gone from a complete random nobody to the first person to talk to the most important war criminal the world has caught in years before he's even been interrogated, and now also this.

This season was basically pretty insulting to watch. They're justifying every gigantic plot leak with the fact that it's a show about very important/real/urgent themes and issues that we should be paying attention to in the real world. They send us through insufferable levels of stupidity just so they can get meet their quota of YAY FEMINISM scenes which is starting to get really in-your-face as well.

The good news is that they have a lot of talented actors and a preface that could still get interesting if they just fired all the writers and more or less rebooted the whole thing.

Yeah life as they know it in Gilead was pretty great for the children. Living as a rich kid is awesome. They are treated as the most prized assets in the country. A six year old isn't weighing the theopolitical implications.

A more interesting show would actually have delved into that. They are just dumping 50 young kids into a foreign country. But I guess it's easier to put their dad among the random people at the plane arrival lol.

I dont think that's nitty at all. Like 100 women and children stroll through the woods to an airport during the height of an intense security sweep... and there was never a single time where the viewer got the feeling that the group was ever in danger of being caught. The kids didn't make a sound, guards never bothered to actually look IN the woods. Just duck when the floodlight comes, no problem.

I mean June literally stabbed and tried to kill a commanders wife, and also killed another commander with a pen, and suffered zero repercussions, so we need to suspend all common sense and skepticism and just enjoy it I guess.

Lolol yeah I forgot about this one as well

Signed up for a trial at Hulu so I decide to give Handmaid’s Tale a try

I'm on the 7th episode and while its done wonderfully & the story is creative, I'm so depressed watching it, I'm finding the experience too torturous to continue which is an ironic by product of accurately conveying would it would be like to live under that repressive society

it sounds like the tone never changes going forward either, I find myself dying for relief where she ultimately escapes and exacts some revenge but Im afraid it will never come

anyone else feel this way?

I actually burst out laughing at this one.

I didn't have this experience with Handmaid's (I suspect it helps that I'm not American and the show appears more dystopian/less realistic to me than it probably appears to people in Trump's US), but I can relate. I found Hannibal almost impossible to watch because even though it was really good, it was just so damn grim without any sort of break from the darkest of dark tones. I could never watch it more than one episode at a time.

Some shows aren't meant to be binged. Finish season 1 a couple episodes at a time, then it's ok to stop. The show is through the source material.

If anything the over the top ridiculousness made it easier to watch, but im not one of the people who thinks every new day is the worst the country has ever been so not quite the target audience I guess.

The first season when they have the book to go off of is good, then the second is when you realize the world the show built doesnt hold up to any scrutiny so they just start ignoring everything they said before and go for a ra-ra girlpower theme

in other words, the GoT playbook

yes

in general, there is usually a good reason an author ends a book at the point they do

Is Season 3 really worth watching? I got my once a year free month.

It really depends. If you watch a lot of TV shows and are struggling to find something decent left to watch, then sure. But if you feel like you've missed out on a lot of good stuff you hear people talk about, then don't, I'm sure you'll find better.

Story is C- at this point
perf by Elisabeth Moss and casting in general is still a solid A

Anyone watching the new season?

Off to a pretty good start, though absolutely baffled by the end of episode 3

Yeah pretty dumb...