Hey guys, it's Emily! For today's video
I'm doing a review / discussion of The
Handmaid's Tale TV show. So recently I
finished the book The Handmaid's Tale by
Margaret Atwood and I absolutely love
this book. I read this in high school and
then decided to reread it for the TV
show to kind of get it like fresh in my
mind and all that stuff, and I just
am blow away by this book, it's just
so, so good. This takes place in an
alternate history version of the United
States in which there is this aggressively
Christian, anti-woman regime in power and
because there is rampant infertility in
this society, certain women are rounded up
and then have to serve as handmaids in
the households of the elite, and that
means that they're essentially breeders.
They have to bear the children of these
elite families. And it's brutal and
terrifying and also grounded in quite a
bit of American history, and if you
haven't read this book I so, so, so
recommend it's... I read this in a day, even
though it's not a super short book.
Just read the book! It's so good! But I'm
not talking about the book, I'm talking
about the show, which I have enjoyed so
so much. I feel like "enjoy" is kind of the
wrong word, because it is deeply
unsettling and uncomfortable to watch. One of my
roommates was actually talking about it
and she was like, "I can't watch it alone.
It makes me so uncomfortable I can't
watch it alone." And I think that's like a
very true sentiment for the show. I have
been so blown away by it that I was
literally taking notes on my phone while
watching, which I I never do. I'm way too
lazy for that, I never do that that. I did
this for this! It's just so good. I think
this is going to be generally spoiler
free, so if you're worried about that,
don't be. Most of my notes aren't really
about plot points they're kind of about
film technique and things like that
because I'm a snob. One thing I really,
really, really wanted to talk about, which
is such an important part of the book,
but I think works better visually is the
visuals. So a lot of things are described
in the book: the regime itself, seeing
soldiers all over the place, the uniform
of the handmaid. All women and men in the
society have to wear a uniform
associated with their particular caste
in this regime. The wives mid wear teal
blue dresses and the Martha's have like
their outfit guys who chauffeur the rich
dudes around, they have their particular
outfit, and the handmaid's outfit is both
iconic and visually striking and so they
are supposed to
wear all read, this big shapeless shift
thing, and then they wear a bonnet.
but the bonnet, when they're outside, has
these things that are referred to as
wings, and it's this white like cone
kind of thing. They kind of show it on
the cover of the book, this is like one
person's interpretation of it. The
interpretation of it at the show works
so well visually. First of all the all red
like tent dress which is both oddly kind
of alluring. In this world that's very
black and white and shades of grey the
red stands out a lot, and yet it so
shapeless that it's this like weird sexy nun
thing going on, which is essentially kind
of what the handmaids are. They're not
supposed to be experiencing sexual
pleasure or anything like that they're
just supposed to exist for their womb
essentially, and yet they are obviously a
sexualized object, and so the red dress
really plays into that in a very
interesting way. But back to the wings
themselves. It makes for just such a good
filmmaking tool! Oh it's so good to watch!
The first of which is that because the
handmaids have this, it's supposedly
like protecting handmaids from other
people looking at them. The wings are
also an object of control because they
make it so that anytime a handmaid
moves her head you see the whole
movement because it's not just her eyes
moving around or things like that. She
can't do that because she can't see so
she has to move her whole head to see
things, and it automatically makes you as
a viewer realized how the main character
Offred, at how little control and freedom
she has literally when it comes to
looking at things. They do a lot of
really great close-up shots of Elisabeth
Moss who's the actors who plays Offred,
and the wings make this really great
framing device. And because of them they
make you, as a viewer, feel that
claustrophobia. You can see it cutting
off areas of the screen that you're used
to seeing when you do get a close-up
shot of a person, and so it immediately
makes you go like, "Oh I'm not seeing as
much as I should be seeing,"which puts
you directly in her shoes, and it's
just such a good bit of filmmaking. I
absolutely loved it. It also helps to
emphasize them being meek
because all handmaids are kind of supposed
to not be looking at anyone, like I said
earlier, and they're kind of supposed to
be like looking down. And again, because
of the structure of these wings you
literally get that like downward angle
as opposed to just their eyes being down
which you can't really see. You get a
strong silhouette of like them looking
down which emphasizes this position of
weakness of vulnerability and it is just
so good. The other thing is that the
regime itself is so much scarier in the
visual than in the book, for me anyway.
Because when you're reading it it's one
thing, but authoritarian regimes are
always so rooted in the visual. If you
think of those regimes as we know them
throughout history--look up Mussolini's
headquarters in Italy like for a crazy
visual. That's the real world. And then
you have all of the Nazi symbols which
are this instantly recognizable symbol
of terror and horror. A lot of people
don't know that like graphic design has
a very strong root in Soviet Russia, in
that regime, and so once again these are
all real world example of how autocratic
regimes do use the visual as an
important part of like establishing
themselves. And so to see those visuals
in the Republic of Gilead, which is the
name for this alternate US, you see a
couple like stage things and like a big
ol' symbol. It really drives home the fact
that this is a big old regime. The other
thing is you see in the background of
shots soldiers everywhere which makes
you as a viewer automatically kind of
on alert. You know you're automatically
in that in that zone of stress that
something could go wrong. When you're
reading a book it's first person from
Offred's perspective, and so if she isn't
actively describing a soldier walking by
you aren't seeing that so to speak. But
in a wide shot you are seeing that every
single time, and so we're seeing the
military presence that are an added
stress and pressure and fear added on to
our main protagonist's everyday life.
Another thing I was so unbelievably
impressed with--in the book it kind of
goes back and forth between Offred in
her present tense when she's living in
this regime but it also talks about the
past and one distinction that I noticed
is that when she's in her present
there's an emphasis
on describing objects, and there's a kind
of tactility to the world around her,
which i think is a dual, or triple,
purpose, maybe. Number one it sets a
distinction in the language used in the
past and in the present. The second is
that it's an emphasis on objects because
Offered herself has been reduced to an
object--she is nothing more than her
ability to bear children. And then three,
I think it serves as a kind of reminder
of reality.
So when Offred's talking about objects
it's kind of this like, this is a chair
this is a table, these are all real
things, this is real life. So it's a kind
of reality check that this horror,
this, this unbelievable reality, is in
fact real. And so I was kind of curious
if they would play around with that in
the show and they do in a really
interesting way! And the way they do that,
at least it's my opinion of why they're
doing this, they have a million and a half
shots of just hands touching objects, so
grabbing oranges or touching a banister--
things like that. It's just essentially a
disembodied hand touching stuff. And that
is such a wonderful visual
interpretation of the language of the
book! I live for that stuff! I just
love it! And then the other thing that
they do is with the music. They play
around with music in a really, really
interesting way. I should say I am four
episodes in at this point and so I've
seen enough, because they do it a little
bit in the first episode, but they do it
a lot more in later episodes. They have
the dystopian noise, which is, you
see it in like The Hunger Games in The
Dark Knight, and any movie that kind of
has a dystopian feel to it even if it
isn't outright dystopia, where it's just
like some kind of synthetic, like, "MEEEEHHHHH"
in the background. That was kind of a weird
noise, but like do you know what I'm talking about!
There's that noise and they play it
kind of over and they play around with
it but it's just like menacing foghorn
kind of thing. And so they have that and
it is very disconcerting and it makes
you uncomfortable and on edge, but they
also have a lot of contemporary music.
Not even necessarily from the 2000s,
just very recognizable music. It has that
same function of reminding us that this
is reality even if it's a distorted reality.
A couple of times they take iconic songs
and like slow them down or distort them
in some way, so it's like this is
recognizable and you've distorted it. I love
that because the music and the score is
so clearly not an afterthought. I was
talking to one of my friends about this
because in the book they basically say
that people of color are kind of shipped
off out of the regime and you don't
really see them and instead the
showrunners decided to cast people of
color in roles that were originally
white, and I think that's really
interesting. And I think A. Samira Wiley! I
love Samira Wiley! She's so incredibly
watchable. Like you know that there's
like good actors, but for some reason
they just kind of piss you off, you don't
know why? Samira Wylie is is not, she's
like the opposite of that. She's a great
actress who also I just like
watching. I am excited whenever she's on
screen. And my friend and I were talking
that we're so glad that they kind of
sacrificed the the "accuracy" elements as
opposed to sacrificing visual diversity.
Just overall I'm, I'm so into the show
I am so into this show. It is
unbelievably good. It's really bleak, like
very bleak, and very scary, and very
unsettling. The Savaging scene, which
doesn't mean anything unless you've read
the book or seen the show, is one of the
scariest things I've seen in a really
long time. Like just disturbing and it's
so well shot and it doesn't actually
show like violence in any way and yet it
is so visceral and feels very violent
without showing it, which I'm like, the
skills to do that! UGH! It's
so good! I'm repeating this over and
over and over--it's just so good. If you
have not seen The Handmaid's Tale change
that because it's the best show I've
seen in years.
Thanks so much for watching! If you like
this video give it a thumbs up, hit
subscribe to see more of my face, and
I will see you next time
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