The Handmaid's Tale : La servante écarlate

After the first season, I was basically satisfied. The theme was great, I enjoyed the story, and I was looking forward to the next season. Imagine my disappointment after that. Season 2 very quickly ruined everything I liked about the show and focused mostly on emotional blackmail and constant close-ups of Offred's face, which was torture. The development of the characters got stuck in a loop (the personality traits of the characters lacked any kind of nuance). Logic, atmosphere and pace of the story went AWOL, and after Season 2, I’m going to follow suit. (03/10/2018)

I have mixed feelings about the first season. I'm willing to say that Elisabeth Moss is a good actress. On the other hand, I also have to admit I'm not exactly thrilled by the sight of her. As if to spite me, there was a large number of excruciatingly long close-ups of her face, which I could certainly do without. Although it was obvious early on that this was a feminist thing, I didn't mind it in any way. I never thought women were supposed to stick to a well-trodden path between the kitchen and the bedroom. On the contrary, I quite understand the mood of the show, as some American conservative politicians would love to take women's rights back to the Stone Age. It annoyed me that the final two episodes, from which I expected the most, showed certain flaws. It was slightly disappointing. Anyway, my favorite character was Serena Joy Waterford played by Yvonne Strahovski, who was nice to look at. She was also absolutely convincing as a cutthroat bitch. (20/09/2017)

As usual, I skipped the preparation before the series and only briefly read the content, so it was a step into the unknown that I do not regret so far. The filmmakers have an interesting vision of the future in the country of Big Brother, first there was Panem, now Gilead has appeared, and as they say, it goes from bad to worse. After the first episode, I am quite satisfied, the series has a paranoid-depressive atmosphere and the villains have adjusted the Lebensborn program to their liking, so I am curious about the further development. (18/09/2017)

Thank goodness I'm not a chauvinist, otherwise the trash would already be flying here! The previous two episodes were only slightly influenced by feminism, but the third episode was fully saturated with it. Luckily, I'm a realist, so I realize that conservative congressmen would gladly vote for such laws tomorrow, so why not just go for it. (18/09/2017)

Similarly to the previous episode, this time it's also about a strongly feminist episode, but it doesn't matter, still better feminists than fundamentalists. I have a bigger problem; I couldn't get used to Elizabeth Moss even in the Mad Men series, and I have a problem with her now as well. She is a talented actress, but she has never seemed to me as an object of sexual desire. Every time I see her, I remember a frog. On the other hand, Yvonne Strahovski plays a dominant bitch (and she plays it very well), but I find her extremely likable. (18/09/2017)

And here it is, the vile sin always finds its way and in the Waterford's house, various forbidden practices occur. This episode has maintained an excellent oppressive atmosphere and a generally desperate mood, and that is good. (19/09/2017)

I have no idea about the author's experiences in life before the series, but she must have had a terrible experience with men because while watching this episode, I almost succumbed to the urge to auto-castrate myself because I felt embarrassed for being a man :D. But no worries, considering that I know how a considerable part of the male population in the USA feels about the fact that women were granted the right to vote in their time, I understand that frustration. The story is still interesting, Yvonne Strahovski is still excellent, only the Commander Waterford could be eliminated by some furious assassin because I really don't like Joseph unlike his brother. (19/09/2017)

The seventh episode was annoyingly descriptive, an average intelligent viewer surely could have guessed the course of events leading up to the first episode. So I spent three-quarters of an hour watching Lukas suffer, which was basically indifferent to me. (19/09/2017)

I simply cannot give this episode more stars because I was convinced the whole time that Offred is beautiful beyond words, but to me, it's like being handed a lemon and being expected to pretend it's sweet. No, I really couldn't believe the creators anymore. (20/09/2017)

The ninth episode returned to the development of the story and thus there was an improvement compared to the previous part. All events are heading towards a big finale according to all indications, I'm just afraid that the ending will disappoint me. Well, we'll see. (20/09/2017)

I gave the final episode four stars, although I had been considering only three stars for a long time. I was terribly annoyed by the victorious march home after a great moment of defiance, it looked terribly cheap and only the crowd's supportive shouts like "Yesss!" and "That's it!" were missing. The strong moments caused by Mrs. Waterford convinced me, she is the true ice queen and I am once again leaning towards the dark side of the force, Mirek Dušín forgiven. (20/09/2017)

I wasn't exactly thrilled about the first season, but I was satisfied. The second one, on the other hand, seemed like a blow to the head. With the exception of two episodes, the story was awfully stretched out, the creators forgot about the atmosphere that had been so great in the first season, as well as about logic, and bet everything on playing on emotions and filling the screen with close-ups of Elisabeth Moss's face. A crashing bore. (03/10/2018)

The first episode of season two left me with mixed feelings, mostly leaning towards the negative. It felt like all the focus was on Offred/June, reinforced by the extremely long close-ups of her face. No offense to Elisabeth Moss, but she's not exactly my type, so I could do without those shots. Overall, I didn’t learn anything new, and the episodes from the previous season seemed much more engaging. (01/10/2018)

Well, that's what I get. I criticized the previous episode for not revealing anything new, and this time, I saw things I wasn't interested in at all. The Confederation of Political Prisoners should consider filing an official protest if this shovel-scraping is what they call hard labor — it’s an insult to those who endured real hardships. To sum it up: it was boring, the colonies were laughable, and the main character's sex scene was just disturbing. (01/10/2018)

The quality really took a nosedive. If I could empathize more with the female characters, I'd probably need someone to throw a noose over a beam in the attic because I couldn't live with how terrible we men are portrayed. The plot was weak, and the ending was the final nail in the coffin. (01/10/2018)

Returning to Aunt Lydia and the Waterfords brought back some of the first season's atmosphere, but I was disappointed by how much time was spent on the pre-birth ceremonies — I've seen them all before. The most striking moment for me was the terrifying close-up of Offred's face in one of the opening scenes. These shots appeared multiple times throughout the episode, so I’m honestly glad I don’t have a plasma screen where her expression could be permanently burned in to haunt me every day. (01/10/2018)

Fred's scheming intrigued me (especially with his "I'm just reading the paper" act) and his clever move to both get rid of and keep Nick around. However, that’s where the positives ended. The visits to the colonies felt like a waste of time — an unknown woman breaks down, Emily loses a tooth, a wedding between two unknown women, a funeral for a woman I’ve seen three times but still don’t care about. Offred’s situation was dull; even if she cut off her hand, I'd still be bored because it would take forever, and we’d get endless static shots of her face, making me worry my DVD player had frozen. (02/10/2018)

Finally an episode that I really enjoyed. It brought back the great atmosphere of the first season, and I appreciated the flashbacks for focusing on the intriguing events surrounding the Waterfords rather than tugging at my heartstrings. Surprisingly, I wasn't bored by the scenes with Offred and Serena either. The ending was a definite highlight — too bad Ofglen couldn’t shout out a striking anti-government slogan. (02/10/2018)

This one was a major letdown. There was so much potential to build on the last episode’s ending, but instead, the creators chose to bury all my hopes. The storyline with Cushing was the only part that had any substance; the rest felt like pointless filler. (02/10/2018)

If I weren't such a cynic, I might have been moved by the storyline about the sick child, but it felt like a blatant attempt to tug at the heartstrings of more sensitive viewers. I had a hunch about how it would end, and I was right. Watching Serena soften bit by bit was disappointing; I preferred her as the ice queen. And let's not forget the dreadful frozen close-up of Offred's face after leaving Fred's room, just so we could appreciate every single detail. (02/10/2018)