My initial thoughts on Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale

Ooooh lawdy, I’ve got thoughts on this one.

A few posts back, I talked about my adoration for Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale and the premiere of this show. Now that the show’s been out and circulating, I took some time over the past week to watch the three episodes currently available on Hulu.

I. Am. Shook.

I could get pretty lengthy in the description of the show, so I’m going to just leave it up to you to either check out this trailer or at least watch the first episode.

We’re all aware of the fact that this book had an uptick in sales for the first time in like 30 years after Donald Trump became president. But is the story relevant after thirty years? Here’s my top five thoughts about the show (spoiler free).

1. The first thing I noticed is that this is loosely based on the novel, but not brick for brick. I actually like it this way because then you don’t find yourself trying to match it to the book. I’m a huge advocate for movies taking their own creative choices with the way the story is written. If it makes sense and still respects the novel then I’m OK with it. Even without it being completely based on the book, you still get the dark feeling you get when you’re reading the novel
2. Speaking to the point just made, what I find really interesting is how the mood is strikingly dark. Like super dark. Like watching Stranger Things but knowing that people bought this book in 2016-2017 because they felt like it could possibly happen. I left my couch feeling like I was going to get kidnapped in the middle of the night
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3. One of the many things I was thinking about was how realistic this story feels in a day and age where technology and science have caught up to science fiction in a way. However, the story takes care of that by using chapters from the Bible to justify the stuff that happens and it really annoys me as a Christian woman to take the Bible out of context. It’s just frustrating to see people not seeing the bigger picture when it comes to biblical text and just use it as a way to punish people (I think that might speak too much about me)
4. Ofglen. Just watch it for Ofglen
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5. Margaret Atwood makes a super quick appearance in the first episode. If you know anything about her, you know she’s got this signature perm and you just can’t not see it when she comes up

Lastly, just watch it. I would say be careful to believe that this is reality because it’s not. While our country is in its own personal crisis, it’ll make you feel like the end is near but also remember that this is a novel and sometimes novels have a happy ending.