The ones I didn’t know about was the purpose of the boot covers, and the nod to female genitalia in the design of their clothes/uniforms... lol I’ve done WAAAAY to much background research on this show 😅
@Shy'mFan2007 I believe that it was stated in the book that red is highly visible to most people and could be used to recognize any Handmaids who try to escape.
Atwood said that every aspect of Gilead was something that existed in reality at one time or another. Her biggest influences were the Iranian revolution, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union. You can really see that come through in the show too. The female citizens being forced to dress modestly and having no voting rights (Iranian revolution), the Aunts look very similar to "brown shirts"/Sturmabteilung as well as the hatred for Judaism and Catholicism which was prevalent in Nazi Germany, and the "colonies" share many similarities to the gulags/forced labor camps of communist countries/the Soviet Union. That's why there's long been a debate if Atwood's novel is a critique on fascism, communism, white supremacy, etc. Honestly, I see it as a critique on authoritarianism, regardless of politics. Radical regimes never end well, regardless if it's left or right.
Here's what I'd like to know. Has anyone here wondered why they gave this dystopian country within a country the name "Gilead"? The company that owns Pfizer is named "Gilead". In light of the science fiction novel we've been living in for the past two years I wonder if that's just a coincidence. Get back to me if you have a chance to read it before it's wiped. Oh, with regard to aunt Lydia, I'd like to take her face off with a cheese grater. Dowd is fantastic in that role, almost too good if you catch my drift.
@@Mike-yg8ig Gilead is the location in the bible that Jacob travels to. It’s considered a ‘fertile’ place and as its Jacobs last location where he met with Laban, and the church in Handmaids tale is called the ‘sons of Jacob’ that’s probably why Attwood chose it.
One of the best series I've ever seen in my whole life. Very intensive, deep and breathtaking. There was no one single moment of boredom, so much unexpected turns. You can't look away. This chilly and icy atmosphere in every minute. I hope they make more parts than only the three ones.
@@SB-vt4uw Season 4 is awesome. They were starting to lose me at the end of S3, it's a hell of a thing to become desensitized to, but S4 expands everything substantially.
@@furiousapplesack Handmaids Tale is LITERALLY (sometimes word for word) the Future Atheist-RU-vidrs wanna prevent. Its a Theocracy, which real Americans really and for real request right-now. The Show even literally says the Bad-Guys replaced the Constitution with the 10 Commandments. Am i the only one who recognizes this to be an actual Thing that COnservatvies in fact fight for and that A-Channel fight-back against?
The attention to detail created a sense of horror I've never felt in any other dramatic series. The Handmaid's Tale is terrifying because it so easily come true here in the West, in the same way freedom for women and men in Iran was destroyed by conservative Islamic theology coupled with an old man's fear of the female.
Well, you don't have to worry about that anymore. It now has an old man and a vice president who will unite all strong, powerful, independent women under the equality, poverty and oppression that comes with communism. Congratulations.
@@remc0s Thank you. We're very pleased with the election results AND the knowledge that Trump will be gone in less than a week. Sounds like someone feels that his Natural White Christian Male Superiority is no longer part of the dynamic. Poor lil' snowflake.
@@krisaaron5771 Snowflakes are liberals by default, and i am not even remotely religious. You sound like a very prejudiced, hateful and intolerant person. And did you just assume my gender?
@@remc0s "...prejudiced, hateful and intolerant" -- if you say so. But I'm not crying like a little bitch because my actions on January 6th got my ass put on the no-fly list! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-4-EUOw9_IUg.html
@@athairn I think the TV Lydia doesn’t really sync up with book Lydia 100% though. Her flashbacks on the show showed her getting swept up in the fundamentalist tide, turning into a true believer. It’s been a while since I read The Testaments so I’m fuzzy on small details but I don’t think they’re quite the same person. I absolutely love that version of Lydia though. I think it’s a bit of a love letter to Ann Dowd’s performance. If you go back and read the first book, Lydia’s scenes read like a novelization. That’s how amazing Dowd’s performance was, these incredibly specific, poetic descriptions of her demeanor, her facial expressions... you could tell someone the show came first and they’d believe it. So I kinda felt that Atwood was in turn inspired by that performance and specifically had Dowd in mind when she wrote The Testaments.
As a gun enthusiast I can tell they actually paid attention to detail pretty well. I only noticed a few faux pas like 1 rifle with no sights and a pistol that magically reloaded.
This is one of the few creations that captivated my attention from the beginning. Great cast, wonderful performances from all of them. No, the details I did not notice but I do appreciate you for bringing them to light. I will, definitely, binge on this program, again. Great day to everyone.
I knew it was Margaret Atwood that slapped her. I actually paused it to prove to my friends it was her when it originally aired. I rewatched the series before season 4 came out and I couldn't stop crying. Maybe it's the oppressive times we live in now. Or myself I have PTSD from all the real life trauma I have seen on TV news over the past few years but it got me thinking that I just might need some help.
I recall that Lydia was Aunt Lydia's real name because, unless I am imagining it, it was her name in the flashbacks of her life. Can anybody confirm that?
This show is my addiction I had ever heard of it my friend turned me on to it and I banged watch 13 seasons it was totally awesome hands down the best show and I can't wait till wesnday nights I only pray that there will be season 15. I'm ready bring it plez thank you all all the hard work that you all do to bring us the gift of the Handsmaid tale I Love u all
Awesome show, so horrifying, but yet it gives you the feeling of live in the moment and show love to people around you. I'm crying every episode of season 4 right now ;-). I've noticed a couple of the details shown in this video. But what's with the "Funny" Handmaids sketch at 5:23 and a couple more times?
I knew almost all of these, except the Oprah one! Very cool. I am excited for Season 4, and hope the plot doesn't move slow like s3! Thanks for the vid
I knew it was Oprah... it had me thinking about where do the other celebrities fit in if this was to actually happen lol like would Beyoncé be a handmaiden since she is fertile? 😂🤣😂🤣😂
@@ms.craftycapricorn9475 I don't think she would be a handmaid since she is married with children. If she did something against the bible, then she would be condemned. Such a interesting thing to think about!
Not a sadist and I’ll tell you one episode to prove it is when they were gonna trade handmaids to another country and ms Waterford wanted “the bad apples in the back” out of sight. Lydia was proud like they got them through the will of god and they should be proud of it cause it made them who they are which was sweet, compliant, and duty full. No sadist thinks like that. Aunt Lydia is fully devoted which in my eyes means blinded by faith and delusional.
The outfits of the Handmaids reminds me of the book the scarlet letter. A giant red A on her chest for everyone to see that she was a sinner. Another thing I noticed in the show and the book is how the use the story of Jacob Rachael and Leah to justify there oppression of others. The problem with this is, that story is so much deeper than one paragraph about Rachael giving her Handmaids to her husband cause she was barren. Jacob sinned everything that happened to him was him reaping what he sowed and then having to repent to god. The show does a really good job at making the oppressors of Gilled reap what the sow. Ironic.
I love Handmaids Tale....cant wait for season 10....I think thats the last one for now....I think we have to wait maybe 1 year or more for new episodes....in the meantime, I'll be waiting.......patiently!
How about when Nick takes his wedding ring from his pocket and puts it back on his ring finger after his coupling / meeting with June? What? Is he also in possession of a Handmaiden in his household? Food for thought and I’m starving!
Is there anywhere those of us in the deaf community can read a transcript of this video? Or do you not want us to learn this information? I read "The Handmaid's Tale" as soon as it was published; how strange to be closed off from this content.
The Waterfords are a particularly brutal household, how and why they were allowed another handmaid after the previous one killed herself shows a failure in the system to protect a resource so seemingly vital to its power.
Did anyone notice Serena standing at the bottom of the stairs when June and Nick walk up them, she’s there in the small crowd with Eden staring, then she, Serena magically opens the front door. Continuity error. it’s in season 2, episode 6.
Let's take the menstrual blood red, a step further. At some point large churches had red runners and carpeting in them. Two podiums and a cross in the middle. The two podiums are fallopian tubes, and the cross in the middle is "ex marks the spot". Churches were originally designed as women's sexual organs, and the red carpet is menstrual blood. Many are domed, which is the pregnant womb. Misogyny represents what men cannot do, have babies. That's why no women priests. These observations came from a book of architecture, written by a man. They came from a talk given by Gloria Steinem, as she read the book, giving it to the world.
To be Honest, I've never seen This Serie! Believe me! Maybe It was on TV but I live in Spain 😎💥... And in those days I was in My 20's so I was either working or having such a lot of Fun,Enjoying myself with My Friends ♥️👌🏻... Nevertheless? Have I spelt,written It well or not? Cause I don't remember if It goes altogether or seperately, Never the less? I'm going to watch It again,just in case,you know!? Then I'll tell You if I know the Serie or not... Thanks a lot be back in 11 minutes or so Ok?
@@tamf61 Completely available Thanks!! How stupid of me I think I didn't even know what It was All about! HAHAHA... OH really stupid cause I thought This was at least 40 years ago! Could you imagine where My mind was at that very moment? I meant, when I recieved This? Forget It I'm ashamed of myself! Well, I'm human aren't I??
As someone who has done years of costume design, let me tell you, this insane attention to detail is like, obsessively indicative of someone who lives and breathes cloth haha. The content of this show is painful. But I love to pause it and delve into the stiches and textures of the costumes.
After watching nearly every show on Netflix I decided to give this show a shot. It’s so good I ended up watching all 3 1/2 seasons in a little over 2 days. Can’t wait for Wednesday
I did that. I got all 5 seasons on DVD and was staying up until 4am watching, almost every night until season 5 finished. Fortunately it was a vacation week so I could sleep until noon....only to watch more until 4am again 😀
No mirror in her room was also practical in that Handmaiden’s couldn’t shatter it and use shards to slit their wrists or necks. Pretty sure that’s in the book as well.
When America finally devolves into this type of dystopia, I will be on the wall. I couldn't even do blue eye/brown eye in high school. I'm too stubborn to be pushed around. I only pray that my children and grandchildren get out first, r that we are all long gone before it happens. And I truly believe that life imitates art and there are pockets of people who are thinking of doing this right now.
@@dvh3113 As a man, I have to say I grew substantially as a person watching it and wept many times. And almost every woman I know has told me about abuses. Right-wing evangelical types want that world and the scene where they overtake congress is way too reminiscent of january 6th. I would be proud to be on the wall.
@Shy'mFan2007 I second this, I loved The Testaments. Aunt Lydia's back story was fascinating and I actually felt a little empathy for her towards the end which I didn't think was possible
@@beth6717 I’ve always found her character conflicting. I genuinely think she believes in what’s she’s doing is holy and right, and I believe she does care about the girls to an extent, but she’s also fucked up and nuts.
I was late coming to this show … didn’t have Hulu 🤷♀️ But I’ve caught up and can hardly wait for the Season 6, Final. This has brought ALL the feels: Terror, Anger, Tears, Laughter & a heaping helping of Anxiety ! My God, could this really happen? I’m scared the answer is “yes”
tbh there's plenty of ways for handmaid and really any woman in gillead to take herself out. there's glass windows, bottles, cutlery, you can jump off high places like Janine did, you can drown yourself in a bathtub of you're really desperate. so shoelaces probably wouldn't matter much. but the psychological pressure of your means of control being taken away on such a mundane level is very true
Season 1 states that the windows are shatterless, and, in the books at least, handmaids are not allowed access to knives. The windows dont open fully to prevent jumping out, and handmaid's are not allowed out unsupervised, so jumping off a bridge isn't that easy.
@@dvh3113 physically, yes, but for most people the brain refuses to allow that. People have the physical ability to bite a finger off, but most people can't even bite their own finger and draw blood.
I completely disagree with Aunt Lydia being a sadist. She has stated countless times how much she loves the Handmaid's and I think she's also made it very clear that any punishment that she delivers is because its 'what God wants' and all that crap. If anything (and Ann Dowd has even stated this), Aunt Lydia is just extremely misguided. She sees the abuse as tough love or that she is basically an extension of what she thinks is God's will - but does she derive sadistic pleasure from it? Not at all
Also, when she does something extraordinarily cruel like beating Janine at the party, she is visibly disturbed by her behavior. She regrets her harsh actions at times. June even uses her care for the girls to taunt her.
@@cb5484 such a conflicted character - I honestly completely understand why Ann Dowd says she *loves* Aunt Lydia, as strange of a thing that might seem at first
If you read The Testaments, Atwood's sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, you can see that Lydia is NOT a sadist, she was abused and trafficked like every woman in Gilead.
Hadn't read The Testaments yet… on my list. But I knew Aunt Lydia was not a sadist. She's got anger issues, for sure, stemming from her own oppression. Takes a guy to label a woman with something negative… that way he avoids discussing her humanity.
Abused yes. But not trafficked to the degree that the other women were. She manages to hold on to some semblance of power by agreeing to help traffick other women.
@@candicefrost4561 All of the women in Gilead were trafficked (however, in the case of the Wives, it's a bit more fuzzy). They were violently removed from their communities, isolated, and forced by threat of violence to perform some function to the men in Gilead. Each class of women had different roles which allowed the sons of Gilead to exploit them for specific purposes (sex/children, cooking/cleaning, maintaining order, etc). There are multiple forms of trafficking -- Sex trafficking, labour trafficking, trafficking for criminal exploitation. I would say the Aunts were absolutely trafficked just like the Handmaids, just to perform different roles. She only reaches for the power you refer to in order to survive.
I don't think Aunt Lydia is a sadist. Women in Gilead had little to no power, and a very limited range of duties - Wives to watch over the household and be mothers, Handmaids to give children, Marthas to cook and clean and Aunts to watch over the Handmaids and keep them in line. As Atwood said in her book, women were expected to know their place. In such a totalitarian and harsh reality where women were some sort of lower citizens, they wanted to feel needed and important in some way. It's a bit like the meme "you had one job". When you screw that up, it feels like you are useless and torn apart. Lydia wanted to carry her mission in Gilead as an Aunt, and we can see how determined she is to do so. When her authority fell down in the eyes of society, she feels endangered and loses herself - it could be the fear of consequences for not being able to fulfill her duties too. We see in season two (in her life before Gilead) that she is not heartless and cold. In season five she cries over Janine, prays to God and asks for forgiveness for her mistakes. The lack of love and loneliness brings out an evil person in her, who contributes to little Ryan being taken away from his mother. Gilead makes you insane, it takes away all your humanity. It made Lydia as she was expected to be seen.
One of the major things everyone misses is the Handmaid's names. It's not 'OFF-red', it's OF-Fred. She belongs to whatever Commander is using her at any given time. That's absolutely critical to understanding Atwood's work. OF-Warren, OF-Jim Bob, OF-Kyle, OF-Tom, OF-Dick, OF-Harry. The Handmaids are vessels, slaves, subhumans, rentals, if you will. They get three chances, then it's off to the Colonies. And Her name isn't June. Also, there are no POCs in Gilead. I love Samira and Amanda, but they would not have been in Gilead. The powers that be are exclusively white, Fundie Christian men who want to breed white Fundie babies. Taking that liberty took something away from the horror of the whole story.
From what I understand, Attwood was against that too because the book sons of Jacob were also racists. The show runners convinced her otherwise because if they did that, it was essentially a racist show where no person of color could be hired or work.
There's a drawing of a woman & child to the left of the door in Serena's bedroom or the nursery; it was drawn by Kathy Kollwitz (? I think that's her last name, & she was German ?). She's famous for her drawings of women & children together - with simple sweeps of charcoal, she expresses the intimacy between woman & child, mother & child, grandmother & child - she offers a vision of what life is from that point of view. Beautiful choice, but twisted, too, as Serena let her desire for a child warp her so much that she stopped caring about ANYTHING else. Maybe she never did...
