thanks for the heads up Eugene - I'll check the recording and add 'extra time'!  Looking forward to the finale, but as there's a Season 2 being filmed, I wonder how much of a resolution we'll have to anything.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the series though.

Kaffs posted:

thanks for the heads up Eugene - I'll check the recording and add 'extra time'!  Looking forward to the finale, but as there's a Season 2 being filmed, I wonder how much of a resolution we'll have to anything.  I've thoroughly enjoyed the series though.

No direct spoilers for anyone (including Kaffs!) who hasn't seen the final episode yet, but the ending was almost exactly the same as that of the book (minus the futuristic epilogue).

Perhaps discuss it further after everyone's up to speed?

Thought it was a powerful and optimistic series end.  The scene when Offred's normally by-the-book-fellow handmaiden lapses into pre-Gilead normal light hearted girlish humorous retort "you shut up!" was a sign that their strict conditioning was weakening under shared comradeship.  The series is so well written that little incidental bits like that stand out.

The rebellion against the stoning to death of 'batshit-crazy' Janine was another scene where the drama works so well that there's an emotional involvement and empathy for the potential victim who had been so exploited by the regime, disfigured by the regime but delivered the regime's utmost objective, a child for the regime.  This sort of rebellious scene could look clichéd, cynical, trite and exploitative of emotions - a bit 'meh' in a lower drama, but because of the sheer quality of the series and characterisation, worked so well. 

Then there's the "aunt" who veers from zealotry monster to empathetic protector to a 'just obeying orders' cog in the wheel of the regime - with such contradictions, such a complex role to play but convincingly played that the contradictions seem plausible rather than risible.  

I've avoided this thread all week  - just in case.   Just had a chance to watch the final episode tonight.    I thought it was so well done - can't wait for season 2 and I admit, part of me wondered if it would be a disappointing ending to set it up for the next one.   

I haven't read the book - might do so now if this is us at the end of the story as in the first book?

Kaffs posted:

I've avoided this thread all week  - just in case.   Just had a chance to watch the final episode tonight.    I thought it was so well done - can't wait for season 2 and I admit, part of me wondered if it would be a disappointing ending to set it up for the next one.   

I haven't read the book - might do so now if this is us at the end of the story as in the first book?

 

 

* Warning - The following contains potential spoilers for both the final episode and the book. *

The very end of the TV series is essentially the same as the book, i.e. Offred being driven away by the "Secret Police". Offred's last speech as she steps into the van is lifted directly from the book. One slight difference in the book is that as well as telling Offred to trust him, Nick also tells her that the men are with "Mayday", i.e. the resistance. However Nick's intentions and affiliations remain uncertain, so Offred's future is too.

The book's ending is deliberately ambiguous, and no sequel was intended. The "epilogue" I referred to above is an academic discussion set further in the future at a "Symposium on Gileadean Studies" in 2195. Two of the academics have discovered Offred's story on cassette tapes and transcribed them as "The Handmaid's Tale".

The TV series has kept pretty faithful to the book. The main difference is that the book is written entirely from Offred's perspective, so the TV series has taken the opportunity to expand on things she knows nothing about, e.g. what happened to Luke. I think it's fair to assume that the TV writers will take full advantage of the book's ambiguity to go even further and create their own interpretation of what happens after Offred enters the van.

Thanks, Eugene.   I will get the book, I think (although I don't seem to have the same time to read as I used to - might finish it before Season 2)  Let's just hope that the writers do it justice in the next series now they'll be left to their own devices.