Name: The Handmaid’s Tale
Genre: Drama, Thriller
No. of seasons: 4
No. of episodes: 46
Cast: Elizabeth Moss, Joseph Fiennes, Yvonne Strahovski, Max Minghella, Amanda Brugel, OT Fagbenle, Alexis Bledel, Madeline Brewer, Bradley Whitford,
Sam Jaeger
Basically this series is based on Margaret Atwood’s famous novel on the same title, The Handmaid’s Tale(1985) which has got many honourable awards. Being a Hulu production’s baby, this series has got 8.4 IMDB rating and 93% liking on google.
I finished watching this TV series few days back, it became one of my top-listed series. It is now streaming on Amazon Prime video and Sony Liv. It consists of 4 seasons, number of episodes are 10, 13, 13, 10 respectively. All the episodes are so engrossing it leaves you in awe.
Plot:
A group of averse statesman vanquished over a part of USA to establish a separate fundamentalist country The Republic of Gilead, which is totalitarian community subjugates women in traditional patriarchal society. These people follows the rule of the God described in Old Testaments and are focused on increasing the birthrate by forcing a very few remaining fertile women to produce child to their country, called as "Handmaid".
The basic rights of all women were snatched away from them and under strict military surveillance, they were just property of the "Commanders", the men ruled country. The protagonist, Offred, known as June Osborne before Gilead, serving as Handmaid, refuse to obey the system, dares and break the rules by taking huge life risk each time. She determined to survive and get back her daughter that was taken from her forcibly.
But the underneath movement in Gilead, known as Mayday, helped her. Also she built up some friends of confidence. In the last season, Offred took her vengeance and got back to her husband.
My view:
Portray of "Gilead" is terrible, disturbing and arguable, thoughtful at the same time. There are very few TV drama series with such good content, which raise a question to think over. I liked this drama because of the flawless acting, excellent dialogues, extraordinary cinematography, Sometimes its so soft, passionate, sometimes its revengeful, full of conspiracy. Its a surviving story, revenge story.
I would definitely like to recommend this web series.