I find the show, and the first season in particular, to be really magnetic. I say magnetic because it's honestly hard to watch a lot of the time. I struggle to say that I enjoy this show, but it is gripping.
In particular, Elizabeth Moss and Anne Dowd are great in their roles. I think the first season does a great job of staying faithful to the novel, while also deviating enough to keep informed viewers on their toes. The second season is interesting in that it treads into territory post the ending of the first book, which at the time seasons two and three were released, was a stand alone piece of speculative fiction... that SAID, I actually think the show almost glamorizes and glosses over some of the darkness the comes across in the books. I think that's probably just part of the adaptation process in general, but as disturbing as the show can be, the books are much more unsettling IMO.
I actually really enjoyed Margaret Atwood's follow-up, The Testaments, which came out in 2019. It takes place primarily like fifteen years after the ending of The Handmaid's Tale, i.e. where season one of the show ends. It doesn't really directly contradict anything in seasons two through four (so far); I think it actually connects things very nicely. In particular it sheds a lot of light on Aunt Lydia, including her backstory, and other major characters are clearly implied to be Hannah and Nichole. I hope the Hulu series is able to kind of get to an intersection with The Testaments if it gets a season five and even six. | Yeah I honestly had to take a break in S4 ep 3, I’ve seen everything preceding that though! |