The Handmaid's Tale

Carried by a never-better Elisabeth Moss, Hulu’s disturbing series based on the Margaret Atwood novel about a future in which women are subjugated is rivetingly relevant 

- Daniel J. Fienberg

In an alternate version of our current reality (one in which last November’s presidential election yielded a different result), Hulu’s new adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale could be enjoyed as simply a beautifully made speculative thriller — a cautionary tale worthy of particular appreciation for Elisabeth Moss’ terrific lead performance. Instead, it’s that, plus an urgent and terrifyingly timely portrait of a world in which religious zealotry and despotic forces combine to control female reproductive health as a way of totally disenfranchising women.

Adapted by Bruce Miller, The Handmaid’s Tale is set in the near future in what was once Boston, now patrolled by the armed guards of the Republic of Gilead. Infertility is widespread, and the few women still able to give birth have been enslaved as “handmaids” to the ruling class, forced into ritualized intercourse and child-bearing.