Rent The Handmaid's Tale: Series 2 (2018)

The Handmaid's Tale: Series 2 review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Season one of The Handmaid’s Tale ended with a spark of rebellion and solidarity among the women-turned-vessels of Gilead. June has made her first big stand against her oppressors by convincing the many Handmaids to not succumb to being part of the execution of one of those that have fallen from their ranks. As they walk off the killing ground with no stains of the dead, June smiles, having one her first big battle. At the start of season two, however, terror sets in again when Gilead starts taking this matter of rebellion more seriously.

The opening scene doesn’t mess around. June and a host of other Handmaids are gagged and forced up onto gallows. We assume the worst, that execution is on the way. This turns out to only be a threat but one that they want to burn into the collective. There are fates worse than death for Handmaids, however, as the picture zooms out to show the more hopeless areas of Gilead. We watch as Emily is proclaimed an unwoman and shipped off to a work colony where women are forced to toil in radioactive soil for resources until they die.

We also expand outward to see what is going on in Canada. Having reached the nation granting asylum for those who escape Gilead’s rule, June’s friend Moira is relieved to finally exist in a world where her rights are not taken away and life seems to proceed with a sense of normalcy. People can freely walk the streets, where what they like, believe what they want, and, most important for Moira, date any gender they choose. While there, Moira rooms with June’s husband Jake, still holding out hope that June and his daughter Hannah will find a way out of Gilead.

June goes through a rollercoaster of fighting for freedom. She finds herself escaping here and there but constantly finds herself captured and restrained by the state. This is made all the tougher when she becomes pregnant with a child for the Waterford family, a prospect that causes the overseeing Aunt Lydia to become all the fervent and emotional in keeping June contained and safe. But keeping the Handmaids subservient becomes harder on a grander level when acts of defiance spread throughout the land, leading to suicide bombings and escapes from the country. It also seems that more allies crop up, as with Commander Lawrence trying to take down the system from the inside, made all the more believable from such a slick-talking actor as Bradley Whitford playing the role.

Season 2 also ends on a rather hopeful note, as June is given the opportunity to escape the country. Instead, she decides to stay and fight, giving her spot to someone who is not as strong. Why would she leave now? She still doesn’t have her daughter and the rebellion has just started to grow, making this season a great built of excitement and darkness for what will follow in the more chaotic continuations. This is some of the best television for both being a powerful work of speculative fiction and boasting rather frank and palpable writing.