Disclaimer: This series deals with adult subject matter and should be viewed with parental permission.
Season 1 of “The Handmaid’s Tale” allows us to see a dystopian future where the United States has been overthrown and replaced by a totalitarian theocracy called Gilead.
Due to widespread infertility, the regime forces women that are fertile, known as Handmaids, into sexual servitude to bear children for the ruling elite. The story line follows June Osborne, renamed as Offred, who becomes a Handmaid in the household of Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy. Through each episode in Offred’s eyes, viewers experience the horrors of Gilead’s oppressive system, where women have lost all rights, and Handmaids are routinely assaulted during “ceremonies” in the name of reproduction.
Watching season 1, events you might see are people being hanged for being a so called “gender traitor,” and all Handmaids need at least one more person to walk anywhere with a language of only biblical statements such as, “Under His Eye, Blessed Be The Fruit, and Praised Be.” These words are used to show how the women are supposed to behave during the show.
As Offred secretly resists the regime, she recalls memories of her past life with her husband Luke and their daughter, who were torn from her during Gilead’s rise. She forges quiet alliances, including a complicated relationship with the Commander and a secret romance with his driver, Nick. On the other hand, we learn that some citizens are quietly rebelling against Gilead. Offred’s friend Moira escapes to freedom, and the underground resistance known as Mayday begins to take shape.
By the end of the season, Offred becomes pregnant and is taken away under unclear circumstances, whether being arrested or rescued, leaving her fate unknown.
I would definitely watch this TV series because it symbolizes so much, and the fact that women used to go through that is quiet concerning and the sympathy I felt for all the women being disregarded in it made my heart ache.
