Anyone watching "The Handmaids Tale" ?

Watched the first three episodes this past weekend and I thought it was really well done.

I'll watch episode four & five this evening. This series definitely seems like the type that people will either love or hate.

Also, did anyone else get "Children of Men" vibes from some of the themes in this series?

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Most of them come along with a very strange premise that we are always just supposed to accept as a logical way of life, rarely if ever giving good reasoning for that logic.

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What are your main issues with this dystopian universe?

I want to read the book first, but the show seems really good

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So far, the very odd way in which a husband, a wife and their handmaid copulate

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Sex is viewed purely as a means for populating. Also, the sex (actually we should just call it rape) between the husband and the handmaid is supposed to be done purely from a biblical standpoint. That's why all three of the individuals involved in this are clothed.

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also the rapist beatdown

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That's because handmaid's are viewed as property or walking uteruses. By law, they are only supposed to be with their owner and his wife. The rapist wasn't her owner and I'm under the impression that he had not been given a wife yet. So it's a pretty hypocritical society. It's alright for your owner to rape you. But the average guy walking the street will be killed if he does the same thing.

I understand all of what you explained. I just find it hard believe that those are the practices that society winds up with...knowing where society came from. I get that by saying that, I am assuming that where society came from in these stories is society as we the viewer know it today, but I also feel that writers want us to assume that.

I suppose to narrow it down further. We as the viewer are supposed to accept that at some point before the story starts, life is how it is now in the real world, then an big event happens, then things devolve into what you see happening on screen. And everyone just seems to accept it for what it is for the most part. Its not like those were the only options or practices available... we have better ways to do those same things right now in today's society. It just doesn't seem like a sensible way for things to end up

How many episodes have you watched and did you read the book?

Some of what you are asking about is explained throughout the episodes I've seen so far. Plus you have to accept that this is an religious authoritarian society. So many things, aren't supposed to be explained. For example, the handmaid's are not allowed to read.

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This goes back to my previous post about how I'm supposed to accept that this is where society arrived from where we are now. Being only a few episodes in, they very well may give good reasoning for this later. A lot of other dystopian stories don't give good reasoning IMO.

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Well during episode two and three they have flashbacks to how things quickly changed in society. They also talked about the great war that fractured the United States (Anchorage, AK is the capital) . From the sound of things it seems like a Civil War took place and the other nations around the world didn't interfere with what was taking place in the USA. Also, throw in the fact that some kind of plague was making it difficult for women to have children.

BUMP

Did anyone else stick with this series? I thought the season finale was pretty good and was the right kind of cliffhanger.