THERE IS A COMMON MISPERCEPTION THAT HULU’S THE Handmaid’s Tale ended its first season on the very last page of Margaret Atwood’s novel, when the secret police loads Offred (Elisabeth Moss) into a van. But the book continues from there, with a crucial epilogue set at an academic conference 200 years in the future.
A parody of precious academic discourse whose lightness is striking in the wake of Offred’s harrowing narrative, Atwood’s epilogue confirms that Gilead may have been a nightmare, but it wasn’t the end of the world.
I’m dying for a full season of The Handmaid’s Tale set at this conference, which I know is never going to happen. But after almost three seasons of a series that began as a revelation but has become a chore, Atwood’s coda underlines how inert the show’s structure is compared to that of the book. The time jump jarringly recontextualizes Gilead, offsetting the gloom of Offred’s story. Hulu’s version could accomplish something similar — or at least stop repeating itself—if it weren’t so invested in maintaining a uniform tone, setting and cast of characters.
This story is from the July 29, 2019 edition of Time.
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This story is from the July 29, 2019 edition of Time.
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