Best Album from Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale from the mixtapes the story is supposedly reconstructed from according to the Historical Notes in the back

The ceremonies are meant to sync with the handmaidens *most* fertile period, from 5 to 0 days before ovulation.

yes, I know. But doing it once per month is not a good strategy for babbies even if you are Captain Fertile.

I did imagine there was some kind of faith in "His Eye" or whatever God they obey I guess.

One thing that bothered me about this show, which I guess would have also bothered me about the book if I'd read it, is the phrase "may the lord open" (said in response to "under his eye"). What does that mean? It doesn't appear to be from the Bible. May the lord open what? His eye?

So why this weird system where commanders, wives etc are ok with rape but only in a way that's almost guaranteed to minimise any chance of pregnancy? (I.e. just once a month, by someone whose fertility is totally unknown, no doctors etc)

― kinder, Monday, 17 July 2017 06:53 (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

maybe gilead assumes the trade nation will rape the women all the time and just doesn't care

well yeah, that assumes no other nations actually wants babies really and everyone's just in it for the rapin'. otherwise they need some marker of 'success'

i really enjoyed s1 of this - love the colours and the sets, genuinely horrifying at times.

only thing i don't like are the terrible musical bits. the music choices don't fit with the show and the desperation for them to have some kind of "badass" twitter gif feeling is palpable. also the celebratory feeling of say, the nina simone bit in the finale - as emotional as the stoning resistance scene was, it's hardly like you'd be over the fucking moon after it. the entire world is so completely hopeless.

agreed.

The music is my biggest recurring problem with the series as well. Aside from either being too on the nose ("You Don't Own Me"), inappropriate (see xpost) or just plain cringeworthy (that horrid cover of "Heart of Glass"), they mostly just jar the viewer out of the reality of the show. The only effective musical bit in the entire series, to date, is when Kylie's "Can't Get You Out of My Head" suddenly appears on the soundtrack during a jump to a flashback. And that's how it should be: any musical presence in the show should remind us of it's being just one more glaring absence in this world.

the music worked for me, because it served as reminder that this world and these people are the same as ours, and that gilead is a giant artifice that hasn't changed hearts or minds. we're seeing the world through june's eyes, and feeling her rapid jumps between hope and despair. she's not one of them, she's one of us.

it just doesn't feel real at all though. the entire tone of the show is so deeply grim and horrific, like they set up a scene in which they're asked to stone a person to death. and okay they manage to resist this, with another person getting beaten in the face and held at gunpoint. then they use "feeling good" which has prob been used on like chocolate ads or something, as if some form of euphoria would be possible in those circumstances, or as if resistance would result in that kind of euphoria. the ep that ends with "nolite te bastardes carborundorum bitches" is also really jarring - who is she talking to? it sounds like the audience.

at times the show has been good at showing this is a world which seems like 100 or 200 years ago, but actually is taking place in the present, but it hasn't earned the right to just leap into 2017 with indie music and sleek music video type cuts etc. it's silly. the whole show is dark and grey for the vast majority of it, it's one of the more bleak tv series of recent times, they should just lean in to that. the resistance stuff would be even stronger if they didn't cheapen it by trying to give it these incongruously happy payoffs.

"is the phrase "may the lord open" (said in response to "under his eye"). What does that mean? It doesn't appear to be from the Bible. May the lord open what? His eye?"

may the lord open YOUR SLUT LEGS, HANDMAIDEN

really curious as to where they take this now .

The first episode of S2 was absolutely brilliant, stomach-churning stuff. The fact that they're going beyond the source text means they can take this in all kinds of fruitful directions. Like apparently they show the Colonies for example.

I loved the use of "This Woman's Work" at the beginning, and the vertiginous camera angles that emphasise the idea of surveillance. And Moss's acting is truly miraculous.

I watch the first and second eps of S2. Completely agree that it is brilliant. Some definite heart-racing moments.

Also, im starting to not like Luke at all.

I loved the use of "This Woman's Work" at the beginning

this was verging on self-parody for me. Show is always at its worst in the heavily soundtracked scenes

Agreed. The “Heart of Glass” cover still stands out as the serried nadir for me, so far.

it feels like it’s there to remind us that the world is this world, i mean yes we know that, but the regular reinforcement brings it back home. without it the world might feel more and more distant. not that music cues are necessarily the best way of achieving this.

It also follows an annoying trend that goes back at least a decade of slow, “serious” covers of old pop songs on contemporary tv series. The ads for the Dynasty reboot feature a draggy cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” and I remember one of the teen shows from a few years back having a similar cover of OMD’s “If You Leave.” I suppose the “Mad World” cover from Donnie Darko is to blame.

makes the show absolutely unwatchable for me but i understand i am a fuckin weirdo

I suppose the “Mad World” cover from Donnie Darko is to blame.

oh yeah, this has ruined everything

judging from comments on here I think I'll avoid this like the plague. Also Moss being such a fucking vacuous scientologist puts me off watching anything with her in it now, yeah probably ridiculous - but it's the way I roll!

judging from comments on here I think I'll avoid this like the plague.

95% of it is excellent though

this is very good btw, despite stating the obvious

Also Moss being such a fucking vacuous scientologist puts me off watching anything with her in it now, yeah probably ridiculous - but it's the way I roll!

Your loss, pal. I hate Scientology as much as anyone but no way are her beliefs going to make me miss some of the greatest acting I've ever seen.

otm, also most scientologists are victims

lol! stop it! I'll take the loss, only a finite amount of shite one can watch in a lifetime!

this show is torture porn

Really wish there had been a proper thread started for the TV series, rather than we Moss fans having to use this stupid never-ending poll thread. Anyway, it's too late now.

I doubt the Commander will be killed in the blast but things are warming up nicely

this show is torture porn

I haven't watched beyond the first episode of Season 2 (even though it ended on an intriguing note) for this very reason. Now that the show is unmoored from the source material, I'm not sure I trust it.

this week’s episode has floored people and is getting some incredible reviews, but to me it felt like the torture porn was (repeatedly) contrived to elicit the most gut-wrenching reactions from viewers. especially that last big set piece in which the writers were so desperate to wring every last drop of pathos out of the scene that you could see them pulling the strings. apart from “some of these people are really bad” (especially in that earlier scene, yes you know the one) i don’t get exactly what narrative/character point they’re trying to make apart from staging some visceral theatre for its own sake.

the subtler aspects of this show continue to work really well though, like the unique complexity in the situation serena’s got herself into, and june’s incredible trump card which pretty much wouldn’t work the same way in any other story.

> this week’s episode

which episode? different countries are airing them at different times. uk channel 4 aired S02E05 Seeds last sunday...

sorry koogs, i meant date of very first broadcast, so s02e10 in the us and everywhere that fast tracks it (although i left out spoiler details for people/countries who are not on the same schedule)

Yes, I noticed, and appreciated that. And then wondered what you were talking about before realising it's probably not the one I saw.

I guess uk Netflix is probably on the same episode.

Will try and remember to check back in a month 8)

so it turns out the commander was nick all along, which is why you never saw them in the same room

i refuse to believe that car couldn't ram through the garage door.

"so it turns out the commander was nick all along, which is why you never saw them in the same room"

is that meant to be a joke?

I found it entirely believable that the car couldn't get through the door.

who do we think shot and nabbed nick and why, btw?

also nick's wife is annoying but her crying episode was some of the most realistic convincing crying I've ever seen an actor do.

let me tell you my nick impersonation: "mumble mumble mumble" *loom off-kilter in the frame while looking at the ground stoically*

i assumed the commander worked out nick was the father, after june told him the kid wasn’t his

well yes, but I don't know what you meant by "turns out the commander was nick all along"

also I don't think the commander had nick nabbed and shot.

well yes, but I don't know what you meant by "turns out the commander was nick all along"

that was a very bad joke about spoilers for uk viewers

I thought it was a good joke. I lolled at any rate.

The commander killing nick is intriguing but let’s remember Serena told him a while back the baby wasn’t his because he’s ‘not man enough’ to make babby.

Speaking of which, if all of the gilead men are sterile, why isn’t nick?

I thought it was a good joke. I lolled at any rate.

<3

The commander killing nick is intriguing but let’s remember Serena told him a while back the baby wasn’t his because he’s ‘not man enough’ to make babby.

completely forgot about this! there is so much going on in this show that it’s impossible to remember it all.

Another question I had last night: what happens when all the handmaids are too old to bear children? WhTs the plan in Gilead then? Are they prepping some of the children for future handmaid roles? Who knows

I thought it was interesting that the black dude was having a baby with his wife.

So clearly not all the men are sterile, just a lot of them, maybe most.

Another question I had last night: what happens when all the handmaids are too old to bear children?

this is covered really well in the book, iirc they become marthas

i know i’m harping on about the torture porn aspect, but it’s so magnified and so heavily played out that it’s completely taken me out of the show. i can’t see it for what it is any more, all i can see is the writers’ room trying its hardest to manufacture horrifying crescendos.

Yeah, I'm done with the show for that very reason.

A shame, as I just heard Bradley Whitford is joining the cast.

I dropped out after the first episode of season 2 cos of the torture stuff. Was wondering whether it'd be worth going back, but if that kept up then no chance.

it kept up. some of the set pieces just escalate the point that this is a terrible place with terrible people, like the way they found new and progressively more horrifying ways to stage rape scenes (not a spoiler for this show tbh).

thanks! Thought I would've had it bookmarked but hadn't!

I see I commented there that I'd started S3 so I must have finished it, but no interest in S4 (because of what I thought of S3).