The Handmaid’s Tale S04E01 – S04E03 are the first trio of episodes of the fourth season of a dystopian alternate reality drama TV series based on Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name. In this alternate history, the USA has been taken over by hardcore fundamental religious fanatics and renamed as Gilead. In Gilead, women have become the property of men once more as the nation is ruled by theocratic patriarchy.
The series is focused on June Osborn (Elisabeth Moss), the titular main character, whose life was torn apart by Gilead. Her husband has gotten asylum in Canada, her daughter has been taken from her and she becomes a “handmaid” — who are forcibly assigned to produce children for the “commanders” – the ruling class of men.
The first three seasons with minor exceptions chronicled June’s failed efforts to escape Gilead with her daughter to be reunited with her husband. That remains the starting point for most seasons before the narrative slips into the status quo of June facing physical, mental and emotional abuse.
READ OUR REVIEW OF THE HANDMAID’S TALE SEASON 1.
The Handmaid’s Tale S04E01 – S04E03 have recently been released and the pattern remains the same. Almost. At the end of Season 3, June had achieved the near-impossible, helping a group of women and children to escape from Gilead to Canada. June, however, elected to stay behind.
Now a fugitive at the beginning of Season 4, June and a group of handmaids find refuge in safehouses provided by the resistance group called Mayday. The plot moves briskly in the first 2 episodes and promises an exciting change in the story dynamic. Alas, by episode 3 the status quo has been reverted to. Or has it?
Suffice to say – without revealing spoilers – that The Handmaid’s Tale S04E01 – S04E03 provides the potential that Season 4 will breakaway from the predictability of the previous three. Hopefully, it lives up to this promise.
Now streaming at Hulu.
… still there’s more …