'The Handmaid's Tale' Is Way Too Real -- and Watching It Has Become Masochistic

[demmiblue]

Separated families. A newsroom massacre. Forced pregnancies. The parallels between Hulu’s Emmy-winning series and present-day America are shocking.

The current season of The Handmaid’s Tale has been brutal. And so has America as of late. When the show, based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, premiered on Hulu last year, critics and viewers discussed its relevance during that political climate. This could happen in America—to America. That was the general consensus of much of its viewership, failing to recognize the long history of abuses portrayed on the show committed in real life—in America—against Black, Latinx, indigenous and other women of color.

Even so, the election of Donald Trump felt like a precursor to the menaces, dehumanization and persecutions of the most vulnerable people in America, and the show was playing out the what-if’s that were well on their way to being realities. Spoilers ahead.

As this country continues to slide down a slippery slope into chaos, watching The Handmaid’s Tale has become masochistic as the main character, Offred/June, and other women are raped, abused and heavily oppressed by the fictional government of Gilead. I imagine this is what Stephen Miller’s dream journal looks like.

...

Now with Justice Anthony Kennedy, a vital swing vote for the left, announcing his retirement, Trump has an opening to make another lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court. This creates a very real threat to the repeal of Roe v. Wade, further risks to women’s reproductive rights and an attack on LGBTQ+ rights. On top of this, one of the leading judicial nominees, Amy Coney Barrett, is a fervent opponent of abortion rights and belongs to a religious sect that literally refers to women as “handmaids.” Basically, if you value a moral and just world and are petrified of a real-life Handmaid’s Tale situation, we’re fucked.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-handmaids-tale-is-way-too-real-and-watching-it-has-become-masochistic

[gordianot]

1. We do seem to be in a dystopian nightmare.

And....I refuse to be Civil to Fascism or Fascist.

[kcr]

2. I think it's one of those things where maybe they did it too well.

I've read some recaps and think, wow. Everyone needs to watch this. But... nope. Those who get it will have a hard time, and those who need to watch it won't want to anyway.

[Dave Starsky]

3. I made it two episodes into season 2 and said screw it.

I've got enough problems without subjecting myself to something so relentlessly bleak and depressing. That show makes Dancer in the Dark look like The Lego Movie.

[barbtries]

4. i read the book last year

and got hulu to watch the show, but haven't made it past the first minute or so of the first episode of the first season. guess i'm not a masochist.

[Dave Starsky]

6. I read the book and saw the movie a long time ago.

I made it through the first season okay.

This season is just way too much. Someone would have to be into serious self-harm to "enjoy" watching this show.

[barbtries]

8. that's right

i watched the movie too. what i would like to see is how democracy overcomes. especially in real life.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Some glimmer of hope.

I live in an affluent (red) county in NJ. "Handmaid's Tale" (Season 1) is checked out in every single town's library (35+). Not one copy is available to take out.

It is a warning about the future.

[Dave Starsky]

7. It's merely preaching to the choir.

I doubt any of the slobbering MAGA red hats are running to their local libraries to check out The Handmaid's Tale.

[Silver Gaia]

9. Well, I'm not a masochist,

I'm not "into self-harm," but I think this show is the best thing on TV. It is top-notch in almost every way possible--writing, directing, acting, even cinematography. Elisabeth Moss is SUPERB and should win the Emmy for Best Actress again this year. This season, it has amazingly been hitting home, especially the past few weeks, which is even more amazing when we think about how far in advance each episode was filmed. But they are nailing it. Is it scary? Hell yes it is! It was scary as hell when I read it back in the 80s, too. But it is fiction. And it is damn GOOD fiction. It is so consistently excellent that I look forward to each new episode. This is cinematic television at its best. It WILL make you FEEL something, but it SHOULD make you feel something. It should also make you THINK. This isn't some network sitcom from days gone by. This is a hard-hitting, modern drama, and it has lessons for us all, if we look for them. It will rip your heart out, then tenderly give it back to you. Good art should make you feel something, and it definitely does that very well. OK. Done with rant. I love this show, though.