Twice-Told Tales

I watched the second season of The Handmaid's Tale and it was just what I feared.  While we learn a bit more about the Republic of Gilead--and the unveiling of Gilead's ways is what's best about the show--it's mostly the new adventures of the same old characters.  In an attempt to be more dramatic, they do more outrageous things, but it simply comes across as repetitive and even silly.

The producers seem to have lost control of their characters, jerking them around to do whatever fits the scene, whether or not it makes sense.  Thus the central character, Offred, the Handmaid of the title, is in one episode openly rebellious (in a way that would have gotten her killed in the first season) and in the next resigned to her fate, only to be openly rebellious in the one after that.

And her relationship with the Waterford family she serves jumps back and forth as well.  In the first season, the growing fascination Fred Waterford had with his handmaid was one of the highlights of the show.  In season two, half the time he's at her throat, the other half, he's still intrigued.  Same for his wife, Serena--in some episodes, she's Offred's closest ally, in others, her worst enemy.

All the characters behave like this.  Maybe it's because the show is off the book at this point. The first season, I believe, mostly followed the original plot of Margaret Atwood's novel, so had a certain integrity.  Now they're just going down a wish list of "wouldn't it be interesting if" without regard to the arc or the characters. (Not that a show has to fail when it leaves the book behind.  The first season of The Leftovers was the book, but seasons two and three were entirely original, and superior.)

In the season finale, Offred makes a decision so bizarre, so bereft of reason, that I'm not sure how the producers thought they could get away with it.  They didn't with me--I'm done with the show.  But what do I know?  It's Hulu's critically admired hit, soon to release its fourth season, so they must be doing something right.  Though my guess is they're living on residual interest created by the characters in the first season.