I started the second season of The Handmaid’s Tale last week. I’m quite a few episodes in.
I watch it by myself, but frequently my husband is in the room while it’s on. He can’t understand why I like it. He thinks it’s the saddest show, devoid of any kind of happiness of hope. He calls it Misery Porn.
(I have to admit, I love that name. It is fitting.)
I wonder sometimes, why I watch it. It is hard. Sometimes very hard. (There was one episode that triggered the pregnancy loss survivor inside me in a way I didn’t think could be triggered anymore). With all that is going on in the real world, you’d think I’d want something lighter during my free time. But maybe it’s all the crazy shit happening that makes me want to watch something as intense as The Handmaid’s Tale. Maybe I appreciate seeing the fucked-upedness of reality reflected in what I watch.
Maybe I’m just a masochist.
I am struck by how my… fertility history colors my feelings about the show. I’m especially conflicted in my feelings surrounding Serena (June’s “Martha,” who cannot have children of her own). Sometimes I express empathy toward her, and her past, but my husband is always quick to correct me. No sympathy for fascists! It’s a fair point, and yet… life is complicated.
I know I could (should?) say more about the show, but if I try I may never publish this post…
I’ve always appreciated dystopian fiction/drama and Handmaid’s Tale is done superbly. It is hard to watch but I can’t look away – it’s just plausible enough. And like House of Cards, its topics are eerily resonant these days.
It is superbly done. The acting is fantastic and the shots are gorgeous. It’s an amazing show. And does not feel that far off at all at this point. Maybe that is the real reason it bothers my husband so much…
I read the book in my twenties, and considered it a masterpiece. I stopped watching the show after about 3 episodes. I know everyone thinks it’s the best thing to watch right now and so well done and so timely. I feel it is, at its core, just depicting abuse and rape and humiliation of women,
or like you said, misery porn (at the expense of women and children).
The final straw for me was an interview by the (male) director/screenwriter? I forgot, in which he explained the scene in which they had conducted FGM to Alexis Bledel’s character. This scene was not in the book and the director was kind of laughing that he added the scene because he wanted to show a little bit more of Bledel.
I am so done with watching violence against women, especially from a male perspective (I feel that the show is made from male voyerist perspective though the book obviously isn’t). I just refuse to watch that kind of stuff anymore. Well, I’ll watch GoT to the end because I’ve seen the worst already but that’s it.
Sorry, got a bit carried away. I meant I sort of agree with your husband about misery porn here.
Hmmm I’m pretty sure that most of the episodes were actually directed by women (quick check- only two episodes of the first season were directed by men).
Anyway, I love this show. It is so well done. I agree that it is misery porn but hopefully what is playing out on screen never happens in real life with this administration….
I love love LOVE the show. The acting, set, music, direction—its PERFECT. When they played the Kate Bush song at the beginning of the 2nd (?) episode I was in awe. The misery porn moniker is not untrue but I actually disagree that there is gratuitous violence against women. I saw that much much more in GoT, for example, whereas here 1) the atrocities against women are 100% THE POINT of Atwood’s cautionary tale and 2) the sheer raw strength of the women and their willingness to fight and die for their freedom is f&cking inspiring to me. Not one male is really depicted as a strong and powerful character in his own right whereas pretty much every single handmaid is a badass and even Serena is made of steel (yes, she is a fascist and I do not agree with an iota of her beliefs and have 0 sympathy for her but she is STRONG)
I’ve heard it referred to as “misery porn” in several places already. It’s intense stuff, and it’s damned depressing sometimes (too close to reality??) but as I said on my own blog a while back, I almost feel like I can’t NOT watch, it’s like it’s my duty to watch as a woman. Besides which, it is so incredibly well done — the acting, the scripts, the filming, all the little details — everything. I was a bit nervous about this second season, since it was going beyond what was in the Atwood book, but it has been every bit as good as season 1.
I alternate between sympathy for Serena (as a fellow infertile woman) & yelling “You bitch!!” at her, lol. She’s such a complex character — she actually played a big role in creating the system that’s now keeping her from living out her full potential — and she knows it. She’s much more of a natural leader in some ways than her husband — but she can only sit & knit while he gets all the power. I hope the actress playing her gets an Emmy this year. She is fabulous.
Yes, I just watched episode 8, where i actually did feel really sorry for Serena. She is being “hoisted on her own petard” if you will…she created the system that is now enacting violence against her and I can see how her eyes are opening to the downsides to what she’s done….definitely AMAZING acting, she really does deserve an Emmy.
I agree with this, so much! My husband won’t watch it with me, he quit halfway through Season One. “Misery Porn” is so accurate, but it’s also just really good TV. I love that you get to delve so much deeper into the world of the book, and see more of how Gilead was founded, and what it’s like to be in the Colonies (so very brutal) and the perspectives of Serena and Aunt Lydia… I also love that Margaret Atwood is involved so heavily. It is definitely hard to watch Season 2 (I’m not as far as you are), and there were so many points when I could really identify with Serena Joy (but then she became utterly unsympathetic again). That one episode was so tough to watch, so trigger-y. But I watch it, and will finish it in the next week probably, because it’s such good freaking TV, such good storytelling, and so creepy in how possible it all seems.