The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 41 Critics

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 494 Ratings

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7.9

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7.9	Your Score
7.9	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 494 Ratings

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The Handmaid's Tale

Season Details & Credits

Hulu | Season Premiere Date: April 26, 2017

Starring: Alexis Bledel, Elisabeth Moss, O.T. Fagbenle

Summary: In the totalitarian society of Gilead, a handmaiden enslaved to produce a child for Commander Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) and his wife Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski) named Offred (Elisabeth Moss) seeks the daughter taken from her in this drama series based on Margaret Atwood’s best-selling novel.

Genre(s): Drama, Science Fiction

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Show Guide

86
Series Overview
92
Season 1 Overview
Air Date: April 26, 2017
tbd
10. Night
Air Date: June 14, 2017
tbd
9. The Bridge
Air Date: June 7, 2017
tbd
8. Jezebels
Air Date: May 31, 2017
tbd
7. The Other Side
Air Date: May 24, 2017
tbd
6. A Woman's Place
Air Date: May 17, 2017
tbd
5. Faithful
Air Date: May 10, 2017
tbd
4. Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum
Air Date: May 3, 2017
tbd
3. Late
Air Date: April 26, 2017
tbd
2. Birth Day
Air Date: April 26, 2017
tbd
1. Offred
Air Date: April 26, 2017

Metascore

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

100

The Oregonian - Kristi Turnquist

Apr 20, 2017

Painfully timely. It's also absolutely enraging, and completely riveting. ... The Handmaid's Tale isn't just the best original show Hulu has ever done. It's one of the most impressive series of the year. Read full review

100

The Salt Lake Tribune - Scott D. Pierce

Apr 24, 2017

At least in the first three episodes, which were screened for critics, everything comes together for A Handmaid's Tale--Miller's script, direction by Reed Morano (who's best known as a cinematographer) and the performances. Moss' performance is arresting. Read full review

100

The Detroit News - Tom Long

Apr 28, 2017

[It] sounds pretty dark, and it is, but the wonder of both Atwood’s novel and the series is that it actually manages to be playful and witty at times. Read full review

Newsday - Verne Gay

Apr 25, 2017

Beautiful, immersive and joyless, Tale can be tough to watch, but “rewarding” trumps “tough.” Read full review

RogerEbert.com - Brian Tallerico

Apr 26, 2017

It is ambitious, rich, complex, beautifully made television. It may take a couple episodes to really show you what it has to offer, but then you won’t be able to turn away. Read full review

USA Today - Kelly Lawler

Apr 25, 2017

The Handmaid’s Tale is something unique, with an adult take on the dystopian genre and a somber and relevant story about the lives and fears of women. The show serves as a wake-up call, and you won’t easily fall back asleep after viewing. Read full review

Wall Street Journal - John Anderson

Apr 21, 2017

The problem with Hulu’s Handmaid is that nothing is dreadful enough. ... Ms. Moss’s Offred comments regularly on her condition with outraged, silent vulgarities, and seems appalled by rituals and outrages that had become routine in the book. ... But the original Offred was almost too terrorized to imagine defiance, much less exercise it. And such calibrated portraiture helped make the novel click. Read full review

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User Score

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7.9

User Reviews

Bianca9

Mar 21, 2019

It´s must-watch show. So deep and wonder. It´s very hard to watch sometimes but realy worth.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

cmac

Jul 27, 2017

This show is one of the most striking shows that I have ever seen.
No point to comparing to the seminal shows like The Wire, Sopranos, BB because it is so different.
The bleakness is abnormally haunting, the acting especially by the leads is terrific and the overall atmosphere isThis show is one of the most striking shows that I have ever seen.
No point to comparing to the seminal shows like The Wire, Sopranos, BB because it is so different.
The bleakness is abnormally haunting, the acting especially by the leads is terrific and the overall atmosphere is incredibly scary.
I love it but look forward to the end as I wake up with this show still in my bones.
Extraordinary.… Expand

3 of 10 users found this helpful37

DukeCumberjack

Apr 26, 2017

Don't believe the low user ratings. Excellent distopian drama. Leave politics aside while you watch--it has been an incredibly well done series so far after three episodes.

31 of 57 users found this helpful3126

JLuis_001

Sep 6, 2017

A sad but crude and surprisingly close portrait of a future in which we can fall.
It is not easy to observe and even several times you will feel impotent, but when a series like this gets an emotional response from you, you know that it is very good and did its job well.

2 of 10 users found this helpful28

LeZee

Sep 16, 2017

From June to Offred: A 21st century slave tale!

SEASON 01: I was not sure to give it a try, in the end I just went on. The reason was, another dystopian theme. It was a short season with the 10 episodes, and I've got a mixed feeling. It was based on the 30 year old novel of the sameFrom June to Offred: A 21st century slave tale!

SEASON 01:

I was not sure to give it a try, in the end I just went on. The reason was, another dystopian theme. It was a short season with the 10 episodes, and I've got a mixed feeling. It was based on the 30 year old novel of the same name. I mean 3 decades old source is very old in the present trend. Since that book there were plenty of films, series were made similar to that theme, including one feature film adaptation. I don't know the screenplay was highly borrowed from its original source, but all I expected was alterable.

Even though I felt familiarity, I enjoyed watching it. My issue was the drag. The whole season was a drag. Dragged to have one more season, or maybe more in the future. Especially I was very disappointed with the season finale. It only felt like a mid-season finale and yet a lot more to come in the same season. But that was only my assumption, this season ended at the halfway. They had held back too much to have some of it in the upcoming seasons. That's very intense move from the production perspective, but for the viewers, it left with unsatisfying.

The plus points were the casting and production. Elisabeth Moss was very good. Her expressions saved in parts of the earlier episodes. Particularly, her smile during those circus were going on, instead of being tensed and confused. That reveals the character, who wants to stay alive for a reason. As the story progresses in the next episodes, you would know more reasons why. Alexis' part was short, as well as many others. The overall the characters design was good. But I anticipated more from the story side to reveal.

In the near future, the humans had lost fertility capacity, excluding a very few men and women. Those who are capable of having babies are taken as slave surrogate mothers, after separating from their husbands and kids, to assign them those who desire to have children. This tale follows Offred, who is one of the maids. Her struggle against the couple who took her in, and overall society, how it treated her and others like her. The American dreams are gone. Many fled to Canada and yet some are trying to make it there. But Offred is not concerned about that. She now has to find her daughter before planning anything.

Each epidoe was decent, but only a couple of them were top class. At least now we know what to expect from the follow-up season. Also the perspective of the story was very restricted like everything was from Offred. The episode like 'The Other Side' really made it interesting. We need more those kind of explanation of what's going on on the other side. Especially for a television series, they have all the time to detail out from all the angle. That's what I like in the series, otherwise I'm always a film fanatic, love to watch short and sweet tales. So I'm waiting for the season 2.

7/10… Expand

1 of 7 users found this helpful16

OlivierPiel

Apr 21, 2018

vastly overrated show. If I were American I would be on the left side of the political spectrum but this kind of show does a lot of disservice to what some critics can consider "the cause": The premise of the whole exercise seems illogical (if procreation were to become such a hot commodity,vastly overrated show. If I were American I would be on the left side of the political spectrum but this kind of show does a lot of disservice to what some critics can consider "the cause": The premise of the whole exercise seems illogical (if procreation were to become such a hot commodity, then women with that power would naturally rise to political power as well). Likewise, if a Franco-like government were to rule America, the country would fall into rapid economic decline and not be such a belligerant state.
To me, it seems to try to just pay lip-service to what some conservatives rightfully call libtards, trying to exploit all these female empowerment, LGBTXQEYZ#$% rights nonsense that is masking the true economical problems of America.… Expand

5 of 14 users found this helpful59

wrightfd

Feb 9, 2019

I have not read the book so I will only comment on this TV show, from what I have seen this is a poor propaganda at best, that pushes the narrative extremist men will enslave all women for the purposes of procreation, i'm not really buying the acting, the main character is a perpetual victimI have not read the book so I will only comment on this TV show, from what I have seen this is a poor propaganda at best, that pushes the narrative extremist men will enslave all women for the purposes of procreation, i'm not really buying the acting, the main character is a perpetual victim that is hugely sexist, all the men are one dimensional evil sexual deviant, even in the most barbaric of countries this type of treatment has not become mainstream, so suspension of disbelief is particularly hard.

TLDR; acting really poor, propaganda piece that soviet Russia would have found reasonable.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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