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This show is really well done, and conceptually really interesting/terrifying/ infuriating, but the pacing is sort of losing me. That probably a criticism of my own attention span more than anything but I'm finding myself dragging to watch it each week lately. Really wish Hulu didn't do weekly releases. I binged the first 4 episodes and thought it was a lot more enjoyable to watch in a big chunk.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 18:49 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:31 |
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It certainly doesn't rip forward at a neck-breaking pace, but I do appreciate that they didn't rush to dismantle Gilead in a season.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:11 |
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Different strokes, I reckon. Every Tuesday I stay up super late until Hulu puts it up, I watch it before I watch Fargo and this week even before I caught up on American Gods or Better Call Saul. If it weren't for Patriot, this would be the best show of the year so far, easy.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:22 |
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it definitely hasn't fully lost me, but yeah my lizard brain just wants to see Gilead destroyed with extreme prejudice and it's really not what the show is about.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:26 |
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I think that the slow pace works to augment the horror of June's conditions. I think the show manages to be exciting due to the character drama, even if it doesn't ultimately connect to the background politics and the resistance. Everything to do with Janine was really emotional and heartbreaking, you can't do that without giving the show time for exposition and minor characters.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:30 |
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I agree with all of the above. The slow pacing really works to the show's benefit in many different ways, but I'm itching to see Gilead burned to the loving ground and the ruling elite executed. It's good that they don't cater to that part of me, because they're really painting a magnificent picture the way they're going about it.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:37 |
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I wish this show was a video game, like a Fallout. This show has made exploring the world of dystopian America so intriguing. More than the navel-gazing into a few people's cloistered lives, anyway. And the cutting to flashbacks. Oh god the flashbacks. It's just the prestige TV thing to do these days. Rely on endless flashbacks to tell a story. I can appreciate the technique but I also wonder if it becomes a crutch for lazy storytelling. You don't have to work so hard on crafting a compelling chronological narrative when you can cut to whatever the gently caress you want whenever you want.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 19:50 |
Vegetable posted:
It was also a thing that the book did.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 20:04 |
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Vegetable posted:I wish this show was a video game, like a Fallout. This show has made exploring the world of dystopian America so intriguing. More than the navel-gazing into a few people's cloistered lives, anyway. Homefront: The Revolution is set in a Korean-occupied US. Has a few issues game-wise but quite an oppressive feel to it, might be near to what you're looking for.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 20:27 |
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Sitcoms have spent a dozen seasons in the same house and people ITT want this society destroyed by the ninth episode. Your lovely attention span is making me feel old.
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 23:47 |
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That half blind chick was all like: "this has been the worst trade deal in the hystery of trade deals, maybe ever"
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# ? Jun 10, 2017 23:54 |
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Die Sexmonster! posted:Sitcoms have spent a dozen seasons in the same house and people ITT want this society destroyed by the ninth episode. Your lovely attention span is making me feel old.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 01:47 |
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tetrapyloctomy posted:... ummm, maybe it's something about the society that makes us want to see it destroyed, not the way the show is set up ...? I mean, if Archie Bunker was raping his neighbor repeatedly per government order I'd probably want their suburb to be bombed. You're not who I'm referring to, as you've already admitted they're taking the time to paint a picture to great effect. Still, fair point, but c'mon people, have a little patience! And faith
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 03:19 |
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Well this is clearly a TV show and not a miniseries, so I'm guessing they have to stretch everything out. I don't know how far along in the book we are or whatever, but they still have to fill at least another season. They can't end everything now.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 05:01 |
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Die Sexmonster! posted:You're not who I'm referring to, as you've already admitted they're taking the time to paint a picture to great effect. Still, fair point, but c'mon people, have a little patience! And faith I said that too. I'm not criticizing the show for it. I mean, I've watched every episode it's not like it stopped me. For me, it's more an issue that they frequently toy with the idea of the rebellion but so far it never really goes anywhere. It's by design and it's fine. I think it's hard to deny that it's an incredibly slow paced show. For me at least I still want to watch it,but I guess I'm not exactly failing all over myself on Wednesday to find out what happens next. I personally wouldn't mind a little more momentum.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 05:11 |
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Die Sexmonster! posted:You're not who I'm referring to, as you've already admitted they're taking the time to paint a picture to great effect. Still, fair point, but c'mon people, have a little patience! And faith veni veni veni posted:I said that too. I'm not criticizing the show for it. I mean, I've watched every episode it's not like it stopped me.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 17:37 |
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I hope there's at least one season spent with assholish sexist college professors in the far future working on their book.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 18:01 |
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business hammocks posted:I hope there's at least one season spent with assholish sexist college professors in the far future working on their book.
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 18:12 |
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Re: Timeline Janine is already pregnant when June arrives at Gilead, this makes sense as June spent a few months recovering from having her legs broken at the Red Center, and I figure Handmaids don't spend much time in the Red Center so all in all it could be as little as one year between the time June was captured and the time Janine jumps. I figured that Janine handed the baby when she was weaned from breastfeeding so the toddler could be quite young (particularly with Warren's wife trying to get rid of Janine).
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 18:18 |
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I thought in the Luke episode after he got on the boat it did a 3 year flash forward to "current" time
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 20:13 |
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Every scene in this show feels like it's stretched out in order to fill time
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# ? Jun 11, 2017 20:58 |
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An earlier episode states that June is on her second posting. Same as the book. So it's probably a few years since she was captured.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 06:41 |
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What happened with her first posting? Presumably she didn't conceive or that would pretty major plot point to omit. Do they just "rotate" every so often to roll the dice on fertility?
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 13:45 |
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They reassign if they don't conceive after a while. Remember that publically they never acknowledge the men as sterile.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 15:47 |
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I think Serena Joy also mentions/threatens Offred with going to the colonies if she doesn't conceive so there's definitely a path for non-productive Handmaids.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 16:13 |
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That is not much of a path
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 17:14 |
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Is it ever clarified where the colonies are? Are they parts of the former US?
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 17:23 |
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There Bias Two posted:Is it ever clarified where the colonies are? Are they parts of the former US? Yeah, parts that are super contaminated. If you're sent to the colonies it's a death sentence, it's forced labor cleaning up toxic waste and you die in short order. bambus posted:An earlier episode states that June is on her second posting. Same as the book. So it's probably a few years since she was captured. June mentions, I think talking to Ofglen in an early episode, that Anna would be eight now, and Anna looks to be... 4-5? in flashbacks. So I think it's been a couple years between June's capture and the "now" in the show.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 17:30 |
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emanresu tnuocca posted:Re: Timeline They didn't break her legs. They beat the soles of her feet with frayed steel cable. It's a very different punishment and one with much deeper roots in theocracies than just smashing some kneecaps up.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 17:54 |
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There Bias Two posted:Is it ever clarified where the colonies are? Are they parts of the former US? They say it's to clean up toxic waste but I imagine it's just what they tell people, the actual destination is probably a bullet and a hole in the ground.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 17:57 |
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business hammocks posted:I hope there's at least one season spent with assholish sexist college professors in the far future working on their book. tetrapyloctomy posted:Jesus, while that would be funny the last thing I need is for this to end with the pendulum swinging back again. This was the epilogue to the book, which is what was being referred to (a scholarly conference in Nunavut, it's heavily implied that global warming and the infertility plague led to a distinct lack of white people.)
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 18:43 |
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Shima Honnou posted:They say it's to clean up toxic waste but I imagine it's just what they tell people, the actual destination is probably a bullet and a hole in the ground. In the book they show video footage to handmaids of the toxic cleanups, it's made very explicit that it's due to the environment getting polluted and causing fertility to go haywire. It's never addressed in the Hulu version, wouldn't be surprised if it was being saved for Season 2 exposition.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 18:49 |
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It's not difficult to believe that between the general chaos of a civil war and Gilead's regressive theocratic policies there really are a bunch of wrecked fossil fuel storage/manufacturing waste/spent nuclear fuel/etc. facilities that need taking care of, and they're being used as American gulags.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 19:40 |
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They haven't shown video in the tv show but the way the meeting with the Mexicans went makes it clear the whole toxic environment thing is very real.
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# ? Jun 12, 2017 19:51 |
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In one of the first episodes Offred and her shopping partner went by what I assume was a school. Little girls in pink uniforms marching in a line. But why would Gilead even have schools for girls? And wouldn't that bounty of children be under heavy guard? Compared to how Janine's former mistress had an armed guard when she took baby Angela/Charlotte for a walk.
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 00:20 |
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It was probably more like a daycare situation. Keeping the girls specifically away from books and whatnot.
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 00:27 |
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I never thought there actually were any colonies, I always assumed getting sent to the colonies was a euphemism for "disappeared" anyway, what indication have we had that it was anything else? Also I though Gilead was all for reducing technology's role and going "back to basics" - they boast about how this has lowered the US's carbon emissions significantly, which I always took to be true, it's just that I always thought the dis-ingenuousness of that proclamation doesn't come from it not being the case, it comes from the unstated social cost of forcing such an environment onto a modern populace.
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 01:14 |
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Lum_ posted:In the book they show video footage to handmaids of the toxic cleanups, it's made very explicit that it's due to the environment getting polluted and causing fertility to go haywire. It's never addressed in the Hulu version, wouldn't be surprised if it was being saved for Season 2 exposition. I've wondered who guards the people in the colonies to ensure they do the work. It seems like any guard sent there would inevitably die too, so do they just send a portion of their military to die?
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 02:01 |
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Lum_ posted:This was the epilogue to the book, which is what was being referred to (a scholarly conference in Nunavut, it's heavily implied that global warming and the infertility plague led to a distinct lack of white people.) I don't recall the sexist part of the epilogue, but it's been fifteen years and I don't even recall the epilogue in detail.
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 02:45 |
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# ? May 16, 2024 17:31 |
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tetrapyloctomy posted:I don't recall the sexist part of the epilogue, but it's been fifteen years and I don't even recall the epilogue in detail. The professor is kind of patronising. The message/account of Offred's takes a back seat to the Professor's own ideas and interpretations. The epilogue is a jab at academia.
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# ? Jun 13, 2017 03:02 |