The Handmaiden.
13 Episodes. Starring: Elisabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Ann Dowd, O.T. Fagbenle, Max Minghella, Samira Wiley, Amanda Brugel, Bradley Whitford & Marisa Tomei. Creator: Bruce Miller.
Praise be to legendary Canadian poet and novelist Margaret Atwood's sacred text that birthed season one of 'The Handmaid's Tale' on Hulu, filmed in her native Ontario. By way of Toronto this writer is so old I read this book wrote the year I was born back in school. And I sure hope more than 30 years later this narrative is part of the curriculum today. Because this caustic, cautionary tale which is now a sign of the times we live in and are making too needs to be a woke up education. So kids of today brought up on video games, reality-less T.V. and an even more real world lacking "social" media can learn to treat each other better and not for the worse this novel idea wears. If we are taught about sex in school, why are we not taught about the rights and wrongs and the do's and dont's of how we approach all our relationships? Personal or otherwise. Maybe we are now, but if not we should be, like me and my friend we're talking about only last night over a brew as he was closing up his coffee shop for the night. And the most talked about over lattes show this side of the all too white picket fenced, sanitized, saccharine solutions of 'This Is Us' is as indelible as it is undeniable. Last year season one of the outstanding 'The Handmaid's Tale' and its explosive ending, cliff-hung on the noose of a rope couldn't have come at a more timely time. Although just like the seasons of Marvel's most underrated superhero serial 'Jessica Jones' and it's 'Black Panther', 'Luke Cage' and 'Wonder Woman' real world implications, this Handmaid's show, let alone the three decades in the remaking book it was based on was wrote before the Me Too movement took hold of everyone who spent far too many years not being accountable for their actions. Now this Emmy and Golden Globe winning dystopian drama concludes it's sophomore season with a third on the way. As 'The 100' creator Bruce Miller keeps it exactly real and raw that with his cinematic series, complete with a sensational score of a pop culture soundtrack that reveals more of the hidden meanings behind these hits to the mainstream. And with iconic imagery in Handmaid primary colours of striking scarlett and snow white this makes its mark like bloods on the tracks of this runaway hit, just dying to escape from oppression.
And it doesn't get much more extreme than the hangman's gagged beginnings to the second seasons opening scene, played out to revolutionary pop singer Kate Bush's iconic 'This Womans Work' that will leave you lost for words with shock and awful disgust. And from then on out this compelling, at times explosive series doesn't let up its hands on your throat. Choked full of incendiary real world implications and incinerations, don't binge watch this show like Netflix's 'Orange (Red) Is The New Black'. Not even a two a day. Because you won't be able to take your eyes off this hard to watch story that is far from all fiction as a matter of fact. Yet 'Girl, Interrupted' star and Vulture's 'Queen Of Peak T.V.', Emmy made, Elisabeth Moss refuses to wear a crown of thorns in the only season that looks like it could take the head of 'Game Of Thrones' this coming Winter. The award winning actress started off as the Presidents daughter in the beloved administration of 'The West Wing', before showing the fifties flair of 'Mad Men' was more than just the cigarettes and suits. And with this and the Australian accented (which will make you forget that Elisabeth is actually American) 'Top Of The Lake' and it's 'China Girl', porcelain perfect sequel series, Moss' gathering body of work is as unbreakable as her soul of spirit. What more could you expect from someone who stirringly showed us like 'Shutter Island' and 'Arrival', but without a word just how haunting and moving Max Richter's 'On The Nature Of Daylight' is in the video for the most beautiful yet saddest piece of music I've ever heard? And in a second season that goes beyond Atwood's acclaimed authoring, but not her authoritative tone and words of wisdom in overseeing consultation, Moss says more with her outward expression in her eyes than she does with anything merely scripted. Part of the niche nuanced, Saoirse Ronan and Rooney Mara next generation of great actresses who like a picture can say a thousand words with just one look. Just like this whole show says more in it's 13 episode season than the 30 characters or more of a trumped up tweet. No longer going by the book, this sophomore series refuses to slump as it 'Fahrenheit 451's' the pages of Gilead's Orwellian like oppressive regime with an inferno more illuminating than Michael B. Jordan's hottest year on screen. But this is Elisabeth's moment. And in what her career will be remembered for we are only just scratching the surface of her ceiling breaking potential. In a time where actresses are finally getting what they deserve and even in this darker than the times they take on series, Elisabeth Moss is a beacon of light and symbol of solidarity for the Time's Up era that shows the more art imitates life, the more we can make sense of all this insanity. And bring it all to a long overdue, wrecking ball like reckoning.
But Moss' June character isn't the only Handmaid in this tale marking the calenders this summer. Draped in red and with a cone of white atop her silenced head, 'Gilmore Girl' Alexis Bledel graduates to a whole new level with her secondary story that is anything but, as she shows the freedom of the oppressed lies in the truth they hold below the stuttering surface of what remains unsaid. Real strength holds true below the nervous look and mannerisms, to the actual manner of the nerve held inside. Whilst 'Orange Is The New Black' stars Madeline Brewer and Samira Wiley are truly arresting under the bars of their oppressors. But it's former 'Chuck' and 'Dexter' actress, about to star in this years 'Predator' Yvonne Strahovski who truly kills it in a story full of predatory males. Not least her on screen husband, played by former 'Shakespeare In Love' Joseph Fiennes, grizzled and reptilian in this Atwood adaptation that accents his whispering menace. A Kathy Bates, King 'Misery' like unnerving, veteran Ann Dowd also exerts her small-screen legend on the second wind of her careers library book collection of classics. Whilst more is added from the 'Seeds' of 'Room' and native Canadian actress Amanda Brugel, Royal Exchange, 'Romeo and Juliet' and 'Macbeth' classically trained actor O.T. Fagbenle (who graced the stage as the Sidney Poiter son impersonating 'Six Degrees Of Separation' character Will Smith made famous, post-Prince, pre-Hollywood) and 'The Social Network's' Max Minghella who truly showed king of hearts, love in the Las Vegas sin in The Killers 'Shot At The Night' video from the love at first sight, "dear" in the headlights, first across the street moment. And guest stars in the form of the who's who of Hollywood like Academy actress Marisa Tomei, who has pure presence in every role she presents to us and former 'West Wing' and 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip' hero boy Bradley Whitford gone grey and 'Get Out' and 'Cabin In The Woods' sinister (so much so he becomes as likable as his, 'guess who's coming to dinner? Don't choke on your main course' character in Al Pacino's 'Scent Of A Woman') are welcome too. All to help tell a story that has been living in the blank white spaces in the edges of print for far too long. Just like all the individual stories of the people who have suffered abuse by the hands of those who need to be brought out of the shadows and to the gavel of swift justice right, damn now. Excruciating as it is to watch, this is crucial viewing for a critical time. But you don't need a man like me to explain it to you. Let's just say it like Atwood did. "Nolite te bastardes carborundorum!" Blessed be the fruit of the labor of this series. Now get ready for the uprising. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: '1984', 'The Stepford Wives', 'Top Of The Lake: China Girl'.
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