Definitely enjoyed the series, I have to say- felt more like a guilty pleasure type thing to me than a serious "I'm going to freak out about the state of America" thing that many of my friends seem to be doing on FB, but I can recommend it. Basic premise is it's in the near future where a religious oligarchy takes over the United States, and fertility rates have plummeted so women like Moss who have had a child are basically held as slaves to bear children for the leaders. (The creepiness factor works well because Atwood was very insistent on only using things in her society that have been done somewhere on Earth in the past, so it's all technically plausible.) Fairly faithful to the book, but this season basically ran us to the end of the events in the first season so I'll be curious to see what happens in the next one.
I think there are a few reasons I really like this, just to discuss (minor spoilers ahead)-
- I don't usually notice/care about this, but the design work is phenomenal, from the costumes of the people to just the "everyday" items. Like, there's one or two scenes in a grocery store. Women are no longer allowed to read, so in the book they just have pictures on everything... and apparently the design team designed hundreds of labels for the grocery store that were various pictoral representations of all the normal stuff you'd have on food items. All the subtle details like that are fantastic, and add to the creepiness factor.
- It's filmed in Toronto, and this is the first series I've enjoyed since coming here where I keep recognizing places they've filmed. Like, one famous scene was literally filmed on the street I go on between the grocery store and my apartment (link here), and it's pretty cool except when I forget the series is supposed to take place around Boston, not Canada.
- Lots of great acting. Won't give that scene away, but Elisabeth Moss has a scene in the season finale which she should definitely win an Emmy for, and it might sound weird but I was happy I don't have a child yet because it made me so upset now to watch it and I suspect I'd be more upset if I was actually a mother. Which I realize for many may not sound like a good reason to watch, but it's a very powerful performance. And the vilianess, oh man, never heard of that actress before but she's so good at showing a twisted, vindictive woman who actively helps her rights get taken away.
- If I have to criticize, this might sound weird but the biggest implausibility to me is how race is never a factor at all. The show does an awesome job at casting characters from all different backgrounds and all that, to a commendable degree, but to me I always felt like the super religious in America have definite racial overtones and bigotry, and this society appears to not have any of that. And this might sound weird, but I just don't quite buy that a lily-white religious nut would be ok raising a bi-racial child as their own. I suspect the show has enough to unpack though that they decided to leave that out.
And then this was north of the airport, and I had to shower because of all the makeup/ crap in my hair (the latter is still a bit greasy even after five lather/ rinses so far), so didn't hit the pillow until almost 430am. Let's just say it was an interesting experience but think I'll need to sleep a few times before considering whether I ever want to repeat it. 
