Handmaid's Tale Season 1 Review: They Never Should Have Given Us Uniforms If They Didnt Want Us To Be An Army

"Handmaid's Tale" is a Hulu original offering. Margaret Atwood's book was published in 1985 and has had several film adaptations. Hulu's is the most successful to date. It swept the Emmys winning eight awards including: Best Drama, Best Lead Actress (Elizabeth Moss as OfFred), Best Supporting Actress (Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia), Best Guest Actress (Alexis Bledel as OfGlen), Outstanding Writing (Bruce Miller) and Outstanding Directing (Reed Morano). In fact, "Handmaid's Tale" is the first show on a streaming service to take home the best drama award.

Here's the basic premise. In the future the US birthrate nears zero. Democracy is replaced by an ultra-strict religious group. Fertile women (called handmaids) are separated from their families and forcibly used as breeding stock. They are assigned to powerful men who ceremoniously rape them once a month (in the presence of their wives who incidentally are all forced to wear blue). The women are stripped of their names and are instead referred to as "Of" whatever the guy's first name is so OfFred, OfWarren, OfDaniel etc. The woman are required to wear something akin to a nun's habit (except it's red with white "wings"). They are not even allowed to read or write.

No one can be trusted in the dystophian world of Gilead. Women have little to no choices. Most men are also trapped in their circumstances. "Eyes" spy on everyone. Nick who works as a driver for Waterford is secretly an Eye. The penalty for infringements is having an eye put out, hand cut off or, worse yet, being publicly stoned.

There are lots of catch phrases which everyone must recite including: "Under His Eye" and "Blessed Be The Fruit".

Our main character June (now called OfFred) is stripped from her husband Luke and child Hannah and assigned to a Commander Fred Waterford. His wife is Serena. She is one cold woman who desperately wants a baby.

June is also friends with Moira. The two attempt to escape but never make it. June feared Moira is dead for some time. They later reconnect but Moira is now Ruby and is working as a Jezebel (ie prostitute). Moira eventually makes it to Canada on foot. Those Canadians sure know how to treat refugees. Incidentally Margaret Atwood is Canadian.

In the finale, OfFred becomes pregnant. We all know it's Nick's child though. Serena is worried OfFred will harm the child so she takes her to see her own daughter. In an extremely powerful scene, June tries to get to her child but Serena is having none of it. She threatens the girl saying "as long as my child is safe, so is yours".

The handmaids are summoned to a public execution. They are shocked to see that the victim is Janine. They kept her alive after she jumped from the bridge only to stone her later. In a moment of defiance, OfFred leads the woman in refusing to kill one of their own. Aunt Lydia (who is herself having problems with the situation) tells the women "there will be consequences". And in the final scene, a black arrives to pick up OfFred. Nick says to "trust him" but we're not sure what her punishment will be. They of course cant kill her since she's pregnant but they can do lots of other powerful stuff to her. The good news is "Handmaid's Tale" will be back for a season 2 so hopefully we'll find out.

Grade: 4 3/4 Monsters (out of 5). Very thought provoking. The individual stories are what I find most compelling. OfFred's story is of course the main focus. But besides Moira, we also learn about OfWarren (poor thing was blinded in one eye due to being disobedient) and OfGlen (who has to spend most of her time in a muzzle because she's a "gender traitor").

"Handmaid's Tale" was always pertinent but is even more so today-- given our current political climate. We must all be diligent about protecting our rights (or we may wake up and not have any). My only complaint about the show that it's a bit slow in the middle. Some of the flashbacks could have been skipped. The ten episodes could have been condensed down to maybe six or so.