We got a lot of The Handmaid’s Tale in Trump America think pieces when the show debuted all of which made me roll my eyes. Gilliad is a place run by religious zealots and Trump is by far the least religious and least moral president of my lifetime (and possibly ever) and I lived through a president who stuck cigars in an intern. Sure when (or if) Trump gets impeached, maybe we would have to worry about America turning into Gilliad under Mike Pence, a guy who forced aborted fetuses to have funerals while he was governor of Indiana (that sweeping abortion law was just deemed unconstitutional last week), but certainly not while Trump is still president. If Gilliad were to happen and he was not treated like the other adulterers, Trump would be like the Commander, taking his mistress to sex clubs on the weekend.
That is not to say The Handmaid’s Tale did not deserve all the praise that was heaped on it. The show was a shock to the system, haunting and even funny at times. Elisabeth Moss played the titular with gusto, a compliant slave on the outside with an inner monologue almost as snarky as that of Veronica Mars. While her fellow Handmaids escaped to Canada or send to the fields to work until they die, Moss ends the season still in the service of the Waterford’s.
At the end of last season, Aunt Lydia promised retribution to the Handmaids who refused to execute Janine by stoning. The new season starts up with Lydia fulfilling that promise including an apt and sadistic punishment for the Handmaid who first spoke up for Janine. Well everyone by Offred is punished because she is with child an and a trip to the doctor proves very helpful to June who gains help from someone I did not quite expect.
Where the first season was a rush of blood to the head, the second feels like it has fallen into the dreaded sophomore slump. All the fresh ideas in the first season just feel like retreads when they continue to happen in season two. And at every turn of something interesting in the first couple episodes, things just seem to reset again.
As great as Elisabeth Moss was in the first season, it feels like the second season could have been better spent on the secondary characters that are only sporadically seen at least in the first couple episodes. We get to see Moira adapt to her new life in Canada in the premiere but is not seen for at least the next five episodes. Rory Gilmore, who was last seen in episode five of the first season, does finally reappear in the second episode of this season where we get to see more of the “Unwomen.” Rory does show up one more time in the first half of the season, but I really would like to see more of the camp she was sent to.
We do get to see Rory with her family prior to the revolution and seeing just how Gilliad came to be is always fascinating. Also in flashbacks this season we get to meet June’s mother, who may be even more opinionated than her daughter, as well as Luke’s first wife who makes a great juxtaposition to what June is dealing with in that episode. Apparently the writers are keen on those Trump comparisons because “Resist” sign show up to a speech by Mrs. Waterford in one of her flashbacks. And just when you thought the people of Gilliad could not get any creepier, the Waterford’s get a new houseguest.
Sophomore slumps happen to the best of them and it is not as if The Handmaid’s Tale completely falls off a cliff. There is no Landry kills a dude moment or even a Carrie has sex with a terrorist who killed the vice-president by hacking his pacemaker moment. And unlike Lost, the flashbacks are still interesting in the second season. Really the problem is the flashbacks in the second season are more interesting than what is happening in present day. And there is the problem, the present day scenes have gotten a little stale. But something does happen at the end of the last episode I saw that hopefully sets a spark for things to pick up in the back half of the season.
The first two episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale are available today on Hulu with new episodes every Wednesday.
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