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[adrotate group="5"]"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
Aunt Lydia’s commentary on the normalization of totalitarian violence is incredible, and terrifying — this will soon feel normal to you feels very much a propos, but it should also feel intensely familiar if we take into account the history of the 20th century
The “this will soon feel ordinary” line was bone chilling. And I think Elisabeth Moss goes such good work in showing how it does become ordinary, particularly during the Ceremony when her thoughts aren’t on what’s happening to her (institutionalized rape) but the mundane procedure of it all and just wishing the Commander would finish.
I also note here that in the novel Ofred doesn’t actually consider this rape. She’s not sure what to call it but she’s says that it’s not quite rape because, of course, she’s not a person. She’s an object.
I’m curious about the political economy of the show’s world, though
Yeah I was too because I don’t think it quite jives with what I remember from the novel. Or at least how I pictured it while reading the book the first time. I almost suspect that they went a more modern route (grocery store style) in order to enhance the realism factor and make it that much more terrifying. Everything looks normal; it still looks like a New England quiet village until you pull back and notice all the horrors.
I haven’t gotten to watch episode 4 yet but hopefully soon! I have some other passing thoughts as I continue to reflect on the works.
–I really should have noted this in my initial post but the fact that Offred names herself (My name is June) is actually really different from the novel. People–the readers and what happens in the epilogue–suspect she’s June because you’re essentially given a list of 6 women in the beginning and the story more or less tracks the location of everyone except June so it stands to reason that Offred is June but it’s never confirmed, IIRC. For Offred to give herself a name–an identity–so early on, and really at all, is shocking.
–One of the themes in the novel is control and this comes across in the Salvaging when control means tiny controlled rebellions that let the inner fear and anger surface just long enough to ensure that it doesn’t surface on the home front. It’s very cleverly designed by the Aunts that they accuse the man of rape, something that on some level the Handmaids know they are experiencing on a monthly basis, even when they can’t call it that (again, my note about Offred in the novel not being able to call it rape). They are given free reign to tear into one rapist who serves as the collective rape society and rapers who are violating them. I think this also speaks to what @nevermore was saying about women not necessarily being allies. I mean what Aunt Lydia does to Ofglen is…monstrous and it’s shocking not only in the crime itself but in the fact this is a woman doing it to another woman.
–The show was already renewed for a S2. I’m…hesitant about this. This isn’t a book that can easily turn into a multi-seasonal show. The book leaves it *very* up in the air about Offred’s fate.
–Really hoping to watch episode 4 before the weekend.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"Was it better than “Once More, With Feeling”?
No. Matt and I agree on this, I believe. Buffy’s musical will continue to remain in a class of its own.
–Bex’s voice is outstanding. I was worried because the B-roll had her sounding rough but her song is really sung well.
Oooh, any Wicked/Defying Gravity references? Whats it sound like? Pop? Rock? Jazzy?
Sultry?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"So JMo is really responsible for the nonsense Emma’s been wearing all year?
She also had a heavy hand in the Dark Swan’s attire. I can’t say I’m entirely surprised, cause JMo has “interesting” fashion choices, to say the least. Just look up some of the stuff she’s worn to various events.
Oh yes. There are some definite eyebrow raising ones over the past few years. My favorite fashion bloggers have documented several of them (fair warning: they are fairly critical and can come across as mean but it’s part of their brand)
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"but in the end, they settled on a brand new Storybrooke location for the ceremony.
It’s not Granny’s? Looks like we were all wrong. But seriously, what other building has a checked roof?
Originally we had an ivory gabardine suit made and, somehow, it did not hit the mark,” Castro wrote. “At the very last moment, we threw out the ivory and went for a black velvet Burberry jacket that was far more in keeping with Hook’s demeanor.
It still doesn’t work, guys. It’s super dark and velvet just absorbs the light making Hook look like a menacing figure.
We barely had time to fit the gown once, but it all worked out,” he said.
It…didn’t. I’m sorry, but it didn’t work out. It’s a poorly constructed gown for reasons that others have pointed out (for example: the seams are completely visible, the cummerbund sits too low, the lace portion is really tight across the bust, it’s oddly off center and that head thing is heinous.)
Kitsis and Horowitz explained that they have always encouraged the actors to “take ownership of their characters,” and allowing them to select things like the right gowns or props is a natural extension of that.
So JMo is really responsible for the nonsense Emma’s been wearing all year?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think if they killed Rumple, it would basically be spitting in the faces of RumBelle fans, especially as RumBelle don’t get any considerable happy screen time together- they’re either fighting or one of them is off-screen or asleep.
yeah but the writers don’t care if it’s unfair to the Rumbelle fans. They’ll say that Rumple died a hero, sacrificing himself to save his family and fulfilling the destiny that should have been his. They’ll say that Rumple freed his son from the clutches of the Black Fairy and that now Belle and Gideon have a chance at a life together because of Rumple.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"3×16
“These Delicate and Dark Obsessions”
GENERAL : Ugh. Okay, I didn’t like this one nearly as much as last week’s episode. There are two different storylines going on with Gotham: The CoO and Penguin/Nygma and one far outstrips the other. Hint: It’s not the CoO one.
LIKED
–“What’s with all the plants?” “They are my friends.” “Your friends? Wonderful.”
–Barbara taking money from cowering men while “Love Hurts” plays softly in the background.
–“A tiny freak who used to hold an umbrella.” I like that so much of Oswald’s story is about him trying to compensate for what he once was. If he’s the King of Gotham than no one can ever make him their umbrella boy ever again.
–“If you were to become a symbol against fear then Gotham could be reborn.” As much as I don’t like the execution of Baby!Batman’s mystical journey this line is really good. It shows that it’s not really Batman himself but he represents that’s important.
MIXED
–Oswald simply cannot with Poison Ivy which is totally sympathetic because, my god, she grates. But we did get quite a few funny lines.
–Gabe double crossing Oswald is tedious but, in regards to Oswald, it’s a nice through-line that he places loyalty in people and doesn’t question how they might betray him. He believed that Ed could never hurt him because of their friendship and, well, look how that turned out.
–The mystical journey of Baby!Batman is sooooo cliche and overwrought. It’s full of all the trappings of other Young White Boy Must Become A Hero tales, including cultural appropriation of making the Young White Boy’s zen master an old white man who speaks in riddles and uses eastern mysticism. Basically, it’s the same criticisms hurled at Marvel’s Iron Fist.
DISLIKED
–The CoO are making a weapon to cleanse Gotham so that it can start over. So, the writers basically watched Arrow S1?
–*Insert all the criticism I’ve said about Adult Poison Ivy before*
–The CoO have cleansed the city of Gotham twice before? And no one knows about this or figured anything out? Well that seems highly unrealistic.
–Gabe and his crew are using a Polaroid to snap a picture of Penguin. It’s quaint and slightly insane.
–RIP Frank, I guess.
–Oh geez. They really did do a slow-mo walk to a car with Jim Gordon. Please, repeat after me: Jim is never going to be compromised. They’ve been teasing with the idea of Jim’s moral ambiguity for three years and it’s frankly pretty old. He never goes that route. That’s not his story. He stays a good guy, a white knight.
–What exactly is Lee’s point on this show anymore?
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I am quite certain people aren’t sitting in a corner just letting things happen. There are constant protests. The park service. The judges stepping in on those executive orders.
Ah, but I think that’s Ofred’s point in the book and show. These things happened slowly, and there were protests (we see a protest in the third episode) by the time people realized what was going on. There were things being done and still the tyrannical patriarchal government rose up because it was too late to stop it. Ofred talks about how everyone was “asleep” for so long, how when the big events happens–like suspending the Constitution–it was already too late . It’s the most famous line in the book:
“Nothing changes instantaneously: in a gradually heating bathtub you’d be boiled to death before you knew it
People aren’t able to have babies anymore which is world ending. I just think the ritualistic bizarre thing that is happening here is not what would happen. Descending into chaos, maybe, but not this. Violence, sure, but this. I just don’t know.
Very few people have babies, yes, because of what happened to the environment. Like, say, rolling back federal regulations on the EPA and clean drinking water and promoting toxic waster/coal dumping. That sounds awfully familiar to me.
And this ritualistic Ceremony thing that’s happening is religious based, from the Bible. How many times do you hear people making rules or regulations or come up with treatment of others based on religious readings? Like, say, denying to make a cake for a wedding because the couple is gay? Is the Handmaid’s Tale extreme in the depiction of Biblical interpretation and the affects it has? Sure. I don’t deny that but again it goes back to Ofred’s boiling water line. Slowly, surely, bits and pieces of freedom are hacked away until you end up with an extreme situation like this.
Maybe it is because i am from Ohio and i know people that voted for Bush and for Clinton and for Obama and for Trump and that doesn’t seem weird to me. Even if i may disagree completely with who they voted for.
Well I’m also from Ohio. Still live there and on my street alone this past November there were Clinton an Trump signs almost every other house. I also think you’re underplaying the ideologies behind some of the things people are protesting, like funding Planned Parenthood. But while one side is decrying abortions the other side is talking women’s rights and equal health protection for the female sex. And I’m not trying to open a can of political worms or get into right/wrong of abortion or PP itself but instead trying to show how the things that happening right now in this country have deeper roots than not liking one aspect of a program.
It’s about treating certain sets of people–women, LGBT, non-Christians, non-Caucasians–as “other.” They are un-people. That’s the driving through-line of Atwood’s novel and what some would say is happening in America every time people in power–President or Congress or the Supreme Court–attempt to otherize citizens (these people can marry, but these people cannot. these people can have total agency over their bodies but these people cannot–this one in particular is absolutely the main plot of Handmaid’s Tale, both in the novel and in the series. these people can enter the country but these people cannot).
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"I think if this did end up being the series finale, fans would still be bummed about all of the dropped storylines for the quote on quote “minor characters” that they had considered giving a vignette episode to this Season, but got canned.
#WhatHappenedToAna
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"
