Handmaid's Tale: Season 4

[SeaConquest]

Is anyone else watching the new season? I just finished the third episode (they released the first 3 episodes all at once), and dang it was brutal. I feel emotionally spent.

[AbcdeDooDah]

Making myself wait until I turn in my PowerPoint on Sunday. I shouldn't even  be reading this thread. 🤣

[SeaConquest]

1 hour ago, AbcdeDooDah said:

Making myself wait until I turn in my PowerPoint on Sunday. I shouldn't even  be reading this thread. 🤣

I am with you. I have 3 days off this weekend, and have tons of work to get done for school. But, I couldn't resist. We waited a whole year, right?

 

[Carrie12345]

It was released on my birthday, so of course that’s how I spent a chunk of my day!
And, yeah, emotionally spent! So many things that I didn’t expect. Completely unprepared for the last scene. I absolutely hate loving this show.

[stripe]

I cancelled Hulu about six months ago, but I kind of speed-watched a Season 3. It’s such a dark show! I don’t know if I can handle it. Thoughts? Is it worth watching? Or just more hangings and eye pluckings? sigh

[catz]

I have a love hate with this show too!   So draining watching it!   But yes, binge watched all 3 episodes!   Honestly considering starting over as the new episodes come in because it has been awhile.   

[Carrie12345]

3 hours ago, stripe said:

I cancelled Hulu about six months ago, but I kind of speed-watched a Season 3. It’s such a dark show! I don’t know if I can handle it. Thoughts? Is it worth watching? Or just more hangings and eye pluckings? sigh

I obviously find it worth watching but, yeah, there’s no end to the brutalities.

[SeaConquest]

3 hours ago, stripe said:

I cancelled Hulu about six months ago, but I kind of speed-watched a Season 3. It’s such a dark show! I don’t know if I can handle it. Thoughts? Is it worth watching? Or just more hangings and eye pluckings? sigh

I mean, it is dark, but I like dystopias. I also like how June has evolved into this sort of freedom fighter/leader in the resistance while exposing the hypocrisy of Gilead. To that end, I also enjoy how she manages to develop these relationships with men for her survival -- first Fred and Nick and then Joseph. But, clearly, a lot of people who follow June, or get in her way, end up dead, so she is a complex figure and her struggle poses many questions IMO about her own culpability for the wake of destruction she leaves behind. It is clear that no one in Gilead gets off clean. 

Edited May 1, 2021 by SeaConquest

[SeaConquest]

1 hour ago, FuzzyCatz said:

I have a love hate with this show too!   So draining watching it!   But yes, binge watched all 3 episodes!   Honestly considering starting over as the new episodes come in because it has been awhile.   

I re-watched Season 3 for the same reason. I needed reminding since it had been a year.

[SeaConquest]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

It was released on my birthday, so of course that’s how I spent a chunk of my day!
And, yeah, emotionally spent! So many things that I didn’t expect. Completely unprepared for the last scene. I absolutely hate loving this show.

Spoiler alert:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly!!! I was gobsmacked by that last scene. And, after following all the stuff in the jail. The roof. It was like no emotional break. Argh!!! 

[alisoncooks]

So how far does the series deviate from the books (or is it a continuation from where the books leave off)?  I've read both books multiple times but I can't bring myself to start the series. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed...

[Sneezyone]

15 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

So how far does the series deviate from the books (or is it a continuation from where the books leave off)?  I've read both books multiple times but I can't bring myself to start the series. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed...

At this point, it will fill in the gaps between the final, ‘original’ book and the testaments. The first two seasons pretty much exhausted Atwood’s initial content.

Edited May 1, 2021 by Sneezyone

[stripe]

15 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

So how far does the series deviate from the books (or is it a continuation from where the books leave off)?  I've read both books multiple times but I can't bring myself to start the series. I'm afraid I'll be disappointed...

Season 1 mirrors The Handmaid’s Tale (original). I’ve heard Atwood say in interviews that she mirrored the epilogue in 1984 about the language, which made clear that later on, that society ended. So the epilogue about Gilead shows that it eventually ends.

Season 2 and beyond are a departure/continuation. Atwood’s sequel came out after the Hulu series had begun, and isn’t exactly related to the TV series, I wouldn’t say. Or at least, I wouldn’t say the later seasons are a direct dramatization of either book. But they are concerned with the process of trying to end Gilead.

[lauraw4321]

I had to stop watching it because it started to feel like something akin to sn_ff p0rn. Like being a voyeur of extreme suffering and violence against women. I watched the first two seasons and my DH couldn’t tolerate it any more and I realized it probably wasn’t good for me either. I was tempted to start again but this thread is reminding me it was better for me not to watch. 

[Sneezyone]

12 hours ago, SeaConquest said:

Is anyone else watching the new season? I just finished the third episode (they released the first 3 episodes all at once), and dang it was brutal. I feel emotionally spent.

It’s still horrific but it feels a lot less prescient now than it did before. The two year hiatus has made it easier for me to put it into the same dystopian alternate reality as DHs new series ‘Invincible’. Before, it felt too real, more like a possible future horror. No spoilers but I like the way the series is beginning to show the deeper layers in all of the characters.

Edited May 1, 2021 by Sneezyone

[SeaConquest]

11 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

I had to stop watching it because it started to feel like something akin to sn_ff p0rn. Like being a voyeur of extreme suffering and violence against women. I watched the first two seasons and my DH couldn’t tolerate it any more and I realized it probably wasn’t good for me either. I was tempted to start again but this thread is reminding me it was better for me not to watch. 

You definitely have to be in the right headspace for the show. Not to get too political, but I am finding it easier to watch this season because we have a new administration and Gilead feels a tad slightly further away than the last few years did.

[catz]

2 minutes ago, SeaConquest said:

You definitely have to be in the right headspace for the show. Not to get too political, but I am finding it easier to watch this season because we have a new administration and Gilead feels a tad slightly further away than the last few years did.

I totally agree.  Like sneezy said, it is easier to place it firmly in "dystopia" now. 

I don't think June's character is at all realistic in how a brutalized woman in a cult would respond to repeated trauma.  But I also find watching her resilience and revenge gratifying.  I think that is what keeps me coming back.   The character development is so compelling. I totally get why it isn't for everyone though.  

[stripe]

I’m seriously considering reading episode summaries online now. 

[popmom]

I couldn’t read all the comments because I saw a “spoiler alert” lol

There is so much I’ve already forgotten that I’m worried that if I start the new season, stuff won’t make sense. And then I also don’t want to re-subject myself to the pain of rewatching past episodes! Definitely have a love hate thing with this show. It’s crazy—I typically would NEVER watch something so stressful. My husband always wanted me to watch Blacklist with him and I refused. I’ve got enough stress hormones and adrenaline flowing through my body as it is, and yet I’ve been sucked into this “tale”. I’m doing this to myself ON PURPOSE. I FREAKING TAKE MEDICATION to NOT have these feelings! 😂