Line #46 YMMV/TheHandmaidsTale


1	----
2	!!For the Book
3	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation: Is Ofglen really part of LaResistance, or is she just another Handmaid who cracked under the pressure and is acting out a spy fantasy to stay sane?
4	* {{Anvilicious}}: The book is about as subtle as a high-velocity cinder block in its denunciation of patriarchal societies (especially those who QuoteMine the Holy Scriptures to bring people they don't like to heel), but it has a highly influential and important message. The villains all quote scripture and every building is named after theological concepts or religious figures in case you don't get that they're religious, and their sexual ethic permits mass sex slavery, brutal rape, and execution of anyone who dissents from their laws in case you didn't get they were bad.
5	* {{Applicability}}: Gilead can be interpreted as a satire of either the American right-wing or of Islamic fundamentalists or both.
6	* HarsherInHindsight:
7	** ''The Handmaid's Tale'' was, of course, written as an incredibly {{Anvilicious}} social commentary on religious fundamentalism. But the worst thing about it is that although Atwood focuses on Christian fundamentalism, the themes ''have already happened'' for women in ''Muslim'' countries such as Iran, which regressed from more liberal ideas decades ago when taken over by religious fundamentalists, and Afghanistan, which in the 1990s ([[HistoryRepeats and again in 2021]]) was taken over by the extremist Talibans who infamously commit ''severe'' violations of woman's rights. See NightmareFuel.
8	** Researchers have postulated for at least 20 years that sperm counts are dropping. The issue has been [[https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/sperm-count-dropping-in-western-world/ intermittently in the public eye since then,]] with environmental pollutants named as a possible contributor.
9	** A line about how the extremists "slaughtered Congress" hits harder after real-life extremists broke through police lines blocking off the capitol in January 2021.
10	** Birth rates having fallen below replacement levels is a significant part of why the setting is the way it is. Since the 2010s there has been a significant increase in sensationalist rhetoric about falling birth rates, especially with the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Replacement "Great Replacement"]] conspiracy theory and similar ideas of "non-whites" outbreeding the "whites", to the point where several politically motivated mass shooters have explicitly brought this up as part of their motivation.
11	* MisaimedFandom:
12	** The book is extremely popular with radical feminists, such as female separatists or anti-porn feminists, despite the fact that Atwood portrays these people, such as Offred's mother, as being similar to Gilead and supports a more moderate version of feminism.
13	** Many believe this book is anti-religious, including some militant atheists who believe this book is a cautionary tale about the evils of Christianity in general, but WordOfGod states that it is not anti-religious, and is only opposed to the ways religious fundamentalists oppress women. Gilead is run by a branch of fundamentalist US-based Protestants, and the series makes it clear that they persecute members of other Christian denominations, such as Catholics, and even other Protestants like the Baptists.
14	* {{Padding}}: The repetition and lengthy atmospheric descriptions can seem like this, particularly to readers already familiar with the genre.
15	* SciFiGhetto: Margaret Atwood [[InsistentTerminology insists]] the book is SpeculativeFiction, but not ScienceFiction. "Science fiction has monsters and spaceships; speculative fiction could really happen." [[HilariousInHindsight The book won the first Arthur C. Clarke award in 1987.]]
16	* ValuesDissonance: If Luke cheated on his wife when he met June (as opposed to the two having separated and decided to divorce and him already moving on) while there's nothing odd in the 20th and 21st centuries about portraying a woman pursuing her own desires by sleeping with a married man as positive (though it [[TheUnfairSex is not without]] [[GoodAdulteryBadAdultery its own negative implications]]), it's not common for feminist works not to condemn a man who cheats on his wife or partner; as June is the narrator of the story, the text naturally has nothing negative to say about Luke's treatment of his first wife, thus portraying cheating on a woman as perfectly acceptable.
17	* ValuesResonance: The idea that woman's rights could be rolled back to such a degree that even women getting an education became a taboo has gained greater attention with the Taliban's re-takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, which was followed by women losing their right to education, on top of other restrictions.
18
19	!!For the Series
20	* AlasPoorScrappy: Eden wasn't very well-liked at first, partially because she causes problems for Nick and June, and also because she's a pious follower of Gilead. (Though some viewers acknowledged that, unlike Serena, Eden is not malicious, and Gilead is all she's ever known as young teen, so it's not really fair to hate her for that.) The {{Squick}} of her marriage to Nick didn't help. But then came [[spoiler:her execution. The sheer tragedy of the situation, along with Eden's dignity and bravery in the face of her own death, turned around many people's opinions. The reigning sentiment tends to be either, "Poor girl" or "We were too hard on her."]]
21	* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
22	** Luke. In the flashback where his ex-wife confronts June she comes across as rather reasonable despite clearly being desperate. Then when June walks in on him while he is leaving his ex a message his tone and words are very harsh, maybe even downright abusive. Plus even though their marriage was over, he didn’t wait until it was finalized to start his affair with June.
23	** Fred: Is he really a believer in Gilead? Or does he just enjoy his new power?
24	** Eden’s Father: he sure seems like a true believer in Gilead and the fact that he turned his own daughter in is despicable to the audience. But was he simply making a sadistic choice to save his other daughter and probably his wife as well? Remember that Eden went back home which is the first place authorities in a society with due process are going to look. How long would it have taken Gileadean Eyes to find her? We know that children are removed from “unfit” homes and parents executed or sent to the colonies. We also know that even though Eden seemed like a true believer she did read. Was her father hoping that maybe she would get a lighter sentence if she confessed her sins? Was his grovelling to the Waterfords a last desperate attempt to save the rest of his family?
25	** The doctor who offered to impregnate June. Did he genuinely want to help in one of the safest ways for him that he could? Was he trying to use her and possibly other women's position as (a) sex slave(s) to try to score for himself? A combination? Or would he have reported her if she said yes? If he has successfully impregnated other women, has/will he attempt blackmail? His consistent amiability and lack of pressure when she says no doesn't give any true clues to what his motivation might have been.
26	** The Wife who suggested to Emily that she could play sick to avoid the Ceremony that month, and, by extension, the Wives' general automatic culpability in the Handmaids rape. We've seen many truly responsible, and one completely innocent, which was possible, because her husband also wasn't interested. But ''can'' a Wife just refuse to partake in the Ceremony and spare the Handmaid? Or is there some extension of MaritalRapeLicense that makes the 'I can pretend I'm sick' the only way out?
27	*** Season 3 establishes that the Ceremony is mandatory for everyone involved, Commanders and Wives included, and that Gilead is willing to enforce this law by sending a doctor into the Commanders' homes to check the Handmaid afterward for "proof" that a Ceremony occurred. If they don't obtain that proof, everyone in the household is considered to have broken the law and is subject to Gilead's justice, which would almost certainly be execution for all of them. June notes that this occasionally happened in the early days, with families that deemed the Ceremony distasteful or unnecessary.
28	* AluminumChristmasTrees: The wives dramatically mimicking the handmaids' birthing agony may seem outright goofy if the circumstances weren't so dreadful, in the world of commercial surrogacy it's actually very common for the customers of surrogate mothers to photograph themselves with the newly bought baby in a hospital bed.
29	* {{Anvilicious}}: A lot of the criticism of the second season was that the writers seemed to go out of their way to show how oppressive Gilead is, with some critics feeling it went beyond heavy-handed messaging into "TorturePorn". Given that the show had already made it pretty clear how awful Gilead is by this point, some viewers felt that it was excessive for it to still be reiterated every episode as opposed to actually advancing the plot.
30	* ArcFatigue: After all the promises that Season 3 would finally show the Handmaids rebelling and getting their righteous vengeance against Gilead, a lot of fans were quite put off that the season is really just more of the same, long after the point has been made and we'd like to move past the endless misogynist cruelty with no comeuppance. At the same time, the producers stated they hoped to have as many as ''ten'' seasons, raising serious questions about how many people would be willing to spend that long watching June be a FailureHero who never manages any lasting change in Gilead.
31	* AssPull: [[spoiler:June staying in Gilead]] at the end of Season 2. Even several characters point out how little sense it makes, and many fans and critics called out that it seems the entire reason it happens is that the alternative would be a much bigger change to the show's setup than the crew was willing to make.
32	* AwardSnub:
33	** After performing incredibly well at the Emmys for its first season, the show was largely expected to have similar success for Season 2, especially after it earned 20 nominations (up from the 13 it had gotten the year before). Its performance at that year's Creative Arts Ceremony seemed to support this, as it won for Drama Guest Actress (Samira Wiley), Editing, and Production Design. However, at the main Emmy ceremony, many were surprised when it ended up getting completely shut out, with it largely being overshadowed by ''Series/GameOfThrones'' (which had been absent the year before when ''The Handmaid's Tale'' had dominated), ''Series/TheCrown2016'', and the final season of ''Series/TheAmericans''. The most stunning loss for fans was in Supporting Actress, when Yvonne Strahovski, Ann Dowd, and Alexis Bledel all lost to Thandie Newton for ''Series/{{Westworld}}''.
34	** Elisabeth Moss was snubbed at the Emmys for Season 3.
35	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
36	** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08HOZ5PzVyw remix]] of Heart of Glass by Blondie that plays during the protest scene early in the first season. It amps up the tension of the scene from unsettling to utterly terrifying, especially given the progression of that particular episode, which shows the gradual transformation of America into Gilead.
37	** The ethereal cover of "For What It's Worth" in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxQhWrAcQnE Season 2 teaser]].
38	** The closing credits of "First Blood", [[spoiler: after Lillie suicide bombs the whole Gilead government]]. Cue the X-Ray Spex.
39	--->Some people think little girls should be seen and not heard, but I think - '''OH BONDAGE, UP YOURS!''' ONE TWO THREE FOUR!
40	* BaseBreakingCharacter
41	** Serena. While everyone agrees she's detestable for her role in bringing about Gilead and her treatment of June, the fanbase is split on whether she deserves any sympathy or not. Some see her humanizing moments and her own mistreatment by Gilead as proof that she's worthy of pity and maybe redemption, while others feel that [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor she made her bed, and now she can lie in it]]. And some think that [[TakeTheThirdOption while she deserves to suffer, suffering inflicted by people who are even worse than her doesn't feel like justice.]]
42	** Emily; partly because the writers rushed through her entire storyline in three episodes and the fact that she got repeated mulligans from authorities on the TV shows, while refusing to properly follow her character's arc (which has her kill herself rather than be taken alive and give up information on Mayday).
43	* BrokenBase: Nick and June's relationship (and by extension, the Nick-June-Luke LoveTriangle) splits the fanbase neatly in half between those who love it and those who hate it. Those who love it think the two have good chemistry and an interesting story, and think that their relationship provides some much-needed levity in an extremely grim show. Those who hate it either don't think the two are an interesting couple and/or simply don't like that there's a romance arc in the show period, and find that it's too out-of-place for a show about rebelling against a dystopian society.
44	* CatharsisFactor:
45	** Commander Putnam [[spoiler:getting his arm cut off as a punishment for "the sin of lust", at his own wife's urging.]] Sure, it's because of pissing off Naomi, not because of mistreating Janine, but it's still satisfying to see that even the Commanders sometimes have to pay for the atrocities they commit. Especially after seeing how Waterford and some other Commanders engaging in similar acts, who treated the accusation almost as a joke, go from the SmugSnake mode to OhCrap upon seeing that the consequences are real.
46	*** In Season 5, it gets even better—for the audience, but definitely not for Putnam.
47	** After two [[TooBleakStoppedCaring remorselessly bleak and depressing seasons]], the ending of "First Blood", where [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack the second Ofglen, Lillie]] [[KarmicDeath blows the upper echelon of Gilead to smithereens]] in a [[TakingYouWithMe suicide bombing]] is ''ridiculously'' satisfying. Especially ironic because it's [[LaserGuidedKarma the exact same way those same bastards]] killed off the leaders of the previous American government in a violent coup.]]
48	** Almost the entirety of ''[[Recap/TheHandmaidsTaleS2E9SmartPower Smart Power]]''. While ''[[Recap/TheHandmaidsTaleS1E6AWomansPlace A Woman's Place]]'' had the Mexican delegation almost willfully ignorant of how bad Gilead was treating its women, Canada barely conceals its contempt towards Gilead. It's especially satisfying seeing Fred being angrily confronted by Luke and Moira, and Serena Joy's episode-long realization of BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor; particularly the representative of the American government in exile curtly reminding her that she committed treason by taking part in Gilead's coup.
49	** After two entire seasons of her being a smug, preening KarmaHoudini of the foulest kind, [[spoiler: [[TheDogBitesBack Emily violently stabbing Aunt Lydia and kicking her down the stairs]] is so satisfying it's hard not to stand up and cheer, especially when Lydia was [[KickTheDog mocking Emily about her cliterdectomy]] (and Lilly's TongueTrauma) moments earlier.]]
50	** [[spoiler:After two seasons of Emily suffering and believing she'll never escape Gilead, the third season premiere shows her making it to Canada with June's baby, and being ''finally'' being treated with kindness and respect by people in power. The scene where she claims asylum is one of the most powerful tearjerkers in the show, partially because it's such a long time coming.]]
51	** [[spoiler: June's call out to Serena Joy beneath the beheaded Lincoln Memorial caps off any sympathy June has for Serena Joy, as well as admitting that maybe letting the baby keep Serena's forced name Nichole turned out to not be a good idea.]]
52	** The aptly titled “Liars” has two big ones: [[spoiler:June breaks out of her usual catatonia while being raped and kills High Commander Winslow with the Marthas fully willing to cover it up, and Serena’s baffling HeelFaceRevolvingDoor all season is revealed to have all been a facade to get Fred onto Canadian soil where he can be arrested.]]
53	** At the end of Season 4, [[spoiler:June arranges a spectacularly fitting comeuppance for Fred, getting to experience the same fear she did as he's chased through the woods by a legion of women who've escaped from Gilead, who collectively beat him to death just as the law he himself helped create says.]]
54	** In the Season 5 episode "Safe", [[spoiler:Janine's BerserkButton is pressed when Naomi addresses her as "Ofjoseph". After everything Janine has been through in five seasons, it's good to see Janine tell the clueless Naomi that she's the worst person Janine's met]].
55	* CrossesTheLineTwice:
56	** [[spoiler:Emily ending her joyride by backing into a soldier and leaving him injured in the street: disturbing if still cathartic. Her then running over his prone body ''again'' and causing his head to explode like a ripe melon to everyone's disgust: hilarious.]]
57	** Serena having an [[CringeComedy agonizingly awkward]] brunch with June where she brings over several other handmaids in a hideously misguided attempt to cheer June up. The absolute crowning moment is when Serena asks "So what do you talk about on your little walks?", not realizing that June's walking partner, [[spoiler: Lillie]], has ''[[BlackComedyBurst had her tongue cut out.]]''
58	** Joseph Lawrence toes the edge for much of his screen time, finally leaping over as he seems to be delivering Emily to be executed while rocking out to [[Music/AnnieLennox "Walking on Broken Glass"]].
59	** Eleanor comes across Mrs. Putnam, and can't stop bringing up Janine almost killing their baby in the most tactless way possible, including cheerfully saying right to the baby "We thought you were going to die!"
60	* DesignatedHero: June in season 3. Killing Commander Winslow and [[spoiler:helping children escape Gilead]] was awesome, but otherwise she did very little despite being heralded by many as a major inspiration.
61
62	* DiagnosedByTheAudience: Lydia is shown to be capable of showing genuine kindness to the Handmaids in a way that not even the other aunts do, but can also torture them ruthlessly without any remorse. Her ability to flip between a truly caring person and a complete sadist implies she may have Borderline Personality Disorder or some other mental condition. [[spoiler: However, after her attack from Emily, Lydia seems to start genuinely changing for the better, especially when she literally drops to her knees and begs God to punish her instead of Janine whenever Janine is on the edge of death. If Lydia did truly have BDP or something along those lines, then it would not have gone away simply because Emily attacked her. This leaves Lydia's mental state ultimately unclear.]]
63	* DracoInLeatherPants: Season 3 and Season 4 began to show a darker development in June's character, as her time in Gilead is not only making her more cynical, but also more ruthless. While in some cases it was either pragmatic (letting Mrs. Lawrence die to ensure she wouldn't tell anyone about the escape plan) or justifiable (letting Esther butcher one of her rapists), the show has also shown that June has become cold-blooded and even a bit insane. This was especially evident in Season 4, in which June forces herself on Luke despite his protests--an act that in-episode has her compared to Serena for her willingness to hurt others. Despite this, many fans choose to ignore these low points in favor of depicting June as an all-around golden hero.
64	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
65	** Moira, Emily, and Janine are all very well-loved by the fandom. Especially impressive in Janine's case, since her original book incarnation wasn't very popular at all.
66	** Joseph Lawrence very quickly got a lot of attention, with Bradley Whitford's fascinatingly weird performance heralded as being a welcome breakout from the show's usual one-note male characters, and providing a great person for Emily to bounce off of as the question grows of just whose side he's really on.
67	** Jaeden, the minor double agent Guardian from Season 5, quickly endeared himself to fans on Reddit due to his kind nature, pleasant personality, and good looks.
68	* FanNickname:
69	** Some commenters on Website/YouTube has taken to referring to Aunt Lydia Clements as "Aunt Chlamydia".
70	** Christopher Meloni plays Commander Winslow. Meloni's most recognizable role is Detective Stabler from ''Law & Order: Special Victims Unit'', so the character is often called "Commander Stabler".
71	* FirstInstallmentWins: The first season is regarded as excellent television whirl opinions are more divided on others.
72	* HilariousInHindsight: By Season 3 [[Series/TheWestWing Zoey Bartlett and Josh Lyman]] are more or less leading a rebellion against a Fascist regime, which probably has a lot of people saying “That seems about right.”
73	* IKnewIt: Ever since the book was published, fans had speculated that one of the names in the list from the first chapter was Offred's real name, with June the most popular guess. The series went with this, with the implicit approval of Margaret Atwood.
74	* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt: Season 4 spends several episodes trying to build suspense about whether Janine was killed in the bombing of Chicago, while many fans never bought that such a major character would just be randomly KilledOffscreen.
75	* LoveToHate: Aunt Lydia is despicable, but absolutely owns every scene she's in. While it was satisfying to see Emily attack her at the end of season 2 it's hard not to be glad that she's back in season 3.
76	* MemeticLoser: Despite never actually appearing onscreen, Commander Glen has spectacularly bad luck with his Handmaids: the first Ofglen is a resistance fighter and the second [[spoiler:blows up the government]].
77	* MisaimedMerchandising:
78	** Of the downright bizarre variety: as Season 2 ended, Lot 18 introduced three wine brands named after characters from the show. Even worse, the names used for June and Emily's brands are Offred and Ofglen rather than their real names, just like if some tie-in product for ''Series/Roots2016'' used the name "Toby." There was such a massive backlash that the line was cancelled literally ''one day'' later.
79	** One company tried to market "sexy" Halloween costumes of the handmaid's robes. Note that the whole basis of the show is that the handmaids are treated as walking incubators ritually raped to be impregnated. Heck, in ''the show itself'' some women forced to work as prostitutes in Jezebel's are depicted wearing skimpy versions of Handmaid outfits.
80	* MoralEventHorizon: Commander Waterford and Serena Joy crossed it, if not by participating in the uprising with Gilead, then through [[spoiler:their brutal rape of June in [[Recap/TheHandmaidsTaleS2E10TheLastCeremony "The Last Ceremony"]] under the guise of inducing labor.]]
81	%% * {{Narm}}: The steadily increasing number of scenes contrived around having a close-up of June giving a DeathGlare directly to the camera.
82	* NarmCharm: The slow-motion walk of Offred and the other Handmaids at the end of "Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum" as Offred internally declares, "We are handmaids". Self-affirming while also cheesy.
83	* NightmareRetardant: In "Household", once you get over the shock of learning that all Handmaids and Marthas in Washington DC have their mouths (apparently permanently) stapled shut, it quickly stops being horrifying and becomes incredibly daft. How are they able to eat and drink? What happens if they get sick and their breathing is impaired, or they start vomiting? Why would the Commanders run the risk of Handmaids getting infections from the mouth-piercings, or developing problems with their teeth, especially since these are the few women in Gilead who are still fertile? If they want to silence women, why don't they just cut their tongues out, as we've seen earlier in the show?
84	* OneSceneWonder:
85	** Creator/MarisaTomei as Mrs. O'Conner, a Wife who was sent to the Colonies for having an affair and strikes up an unlikely friendship with Emily, [[spoiler:at least until it turns out Emily was actually setting her up for a long, painful death.]]
86	** Creator/OprahWinfrey, possibly playing herself, appears on a radio broadcast from the real America assuring the world it still exists and is fighting back, making June newly energized to fight herself.
87	** Canada's Associate Minister of Immigration stood out for blatantly informing the Waterfords he was gay and showing them how the Canadians really felt about Gilead.
88	** The FauxAffablyEvil interrogator in "The Crossing," who in just one episode sketches a fully developed character who truly believes in Gilead's cause and thinks of himself as being as nice as possible.
89	* RonTheDeathEater: Nick and Luke are both subject to this treatment among those who ship them with June, especially after Season 4, in which June reunites with Luke at last but still obviously carries a torch for Nick. Nick is at times treated as someone as evil and powerful as Fred, especially for his former affiliation with the Sons of Jacob--this is despite him being an undercover insurgent since the first season, and a member of Mayday. While he's certainly not as much of a victim of Gilead as June, Nick is still very much under the threat of death at any time, and just like June was forced to conceive Holly under Serena's threat. Luke meanwhile is often portrayed as uncaring and unable to accept that June has changed in Gilead, when one of their subplots in Season 4 is that June isn't communicating to him properly enough to support her. Many claim that he's also too possessive of Holly and needs to "back off", as he's not her true father--not only ignoring that he's been selflessly raising her with Moira, but also ignoring that even if Nick is an ally, Luke does not have much reason to trust him in light of being one of Fred's right-hand-men.
90	* SeasonalRot: Season 3 was a bit of a let down for many fans, due to some potentially interesting story lines being forgotten or wrapped up in a very unsatisfying way. There was also a lot of “Gilead is a horrible place” story lines that have already been done thoroughly in seasons one and two, a general lack of any direction,[[note]]Especially criticized is that June's big epiphany late in the season that she should get the country's children to safety is where ''she already was'' at the start of the season, and had just been dicking around until her development went in a complete circle.[[/note]] and viewer backlash to the rumour that Hulu hopes to keep the series going for at least ten seasons. Many feel that this is a story that can't possibly be stretched out for that long, has run its course and needs to start wrapping up.
91	* ShipToShipCombat: The war between Nick x June shippers and Luke x June shippers has been growing steadily since the first season, but reached its fever pitch in Season 4, when June finally makes it out of Gilead and reunites with Luke. Both sides can get into furious debates on who June should be with: the man who gave her some solace in Gilead, or her husband who has been fighting to get her back. Nick and Luke have both suffered heavily from RonTheDeathEater treatment from both sides. Certainly not helping matters is that Nick x June is already a [[BrokenBase base-breaking matter]] as-is, and that, alongside June obviously still holding feelings for Nick after reuniting with Luke, only adds more fuel to the fandom-consuming fire. Both sides can get into incredibly vitriolic fights about which ship is more "problematic" than the other: Nick and June's being one that began with a forced rape and developing into solace in one another, and Luke and June's being a marriage very obviously crumbling and no longer healthy for either of them.
92	* SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: Even die hard ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' fans have been critical of Creator/AlexisBledel's portrayal of Rory Gilmore and her acting in general. Her performance as Emily in ''Series/TheHandmaidsTale'' however has been universally praised.
93	* SpecialEffectFailure: In the Season 3 premiere, it's hilariously obvious that Emily is carrying a doll when she emerges from the river into Canada.
94	* {{Squick}}:
95	** Some of what the Commanders partake in can enter [[FetishRetardant this territory]], like when we see a fellow in an elevator, licking a Handmaid's [[AnArmAndALeg hand stump]]. Rule34, indeed.
96	** Season 2 actually lets us see the much talked about Colonies, where prisoners are subjected to dangerous radiation levels. This includes a closeup of a woman tearing off her diseased fingernail.
97	** June blindly searches a medical bin for a scalpel, and first gets a needle shoved hard into her fingertip. We're treated to a close-up shot of her pulling it out.
98	** Commander Putnam asks to be left alone with Esther in Episode 5.02 "Ballet". He feeds her a chocolate with the same airplane move you would use to cajole a toddler to eat. It is revolting enough by itself. [[FridgeHorror When you remember that Esther is a teenager and will be his Handmaid...]]
99	* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Several of them
100	** Moira: in the book, Moira completely breaks and embraces the hedonistic life at Jezabels and rather than adapt this to give an exploration of this aspect of Gilead, the show has Moira 100% defiant, escaping after only a couple of episodes and ending up in Canada.
101	** Ofglen II: the idea of someone with a horrible life finding being a Handmaid an upgrade could have led to some major storyline fodder, especially with her and Offred. The plot doesn't get followed up on and the character rendered mute/killed off in season two.
102	** Ofglen I for that matter: she's promptly caught at the end of the second episode then caught again two episodes later. We never see the extent of her ties to Mayday or her killing a Guardian at a Salvaging that may have been a double agent for Mayday. Nor her suicide as she decides to take her life than risk being captured by the Eyes.
103	** The post-racial society aspect of Gilead also doesn't get explored on the show, as the producers opted to purge the racist element of Gilead to address the novel's "plot hole" of viable, fertile women of color being shunned by a dictatorship born off of the desire to increase the rate of births. Although it's debatable whether or not the purged racial elements were a plot hole from the books or just a realistic case of EvilIsPetty. Though Aunt Lydia does advise at one point "[This Commander and Wife] don't want a Handmaid of color," implying there is a more latent racist aspect in Gilead.
104	** June's rescued Marthas in Season 3. One of the most gut-wrenching scenes in the premier was her having to choose 5 women out of hundreds to live and be part of the Resistance. She picks five that would make a bang-up resistance cell on their own. And we are never introduced to four of them in subsequent episodes... (one eventually resurfaces to provide June with some valuable plot armor after her actions at Jezebel's)
105	** Similarly, The Resistance/Civil War aspect itself could be a goldmine for riveting storylines. But it's mostly left in the background with very little details of what's happening or had happened in the past leading up to the present situation.
106	* TooBleakStoppedCaring: The story takes place in a dystopian nation where women are forced into sexual slavery, treated like inanimate objects, and routinely tortured if not outright killed for stepping out of line--all while so many people just let it happen if they're not the ones doing it. The show is unrelenting in just how cruel Gilead can be, with June and other characters suffering at least one new horror in each episode. Any time a HopeSpot comes, it is quickly and brutally extinguished. Despite the series showing the efforts of places like Canada to save those in Gilead and the growing rebellion of the Handmaids, it can be ''extremely'' difficult to stomach, and even after three seasons, things have ''hardly'' improved.
107	* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic:
108	** For all of the show's efforts to make Serena sympathetic, some fans still find her irredeemable. The fact that she seems to be a HeelFaceRevolvingDoor and tends to quickly forget any lesson she's learned about Gilead or her husband, doesn't help.
109	** June herself, for her PlotArmor that allows her to live while several other characters die because of her, to the point where it's lampshaded in a season three episode, "Heroic." As one character states, "everyone who helps her ends up on The Wall." It doesn't help that [[spoiler: [[https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/film-tv/a28680228/the-handmaids-tale-june-revelation/ June is confirmed to live according to showrunner Bruce Miller]].]]
110	* WinBackTheCrowd: Season 4 got easily the show's best reviews since the first season, with an exponential increase in the story's forward momentum after the previous two mostly just ran around in circles.
111	* WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack:
112	** Again, Serena. She has a constant reminder of what her husband is in the form of her mutilated finger... and still it seems like it takes a DanceOfRomance for her to become googly-eyed about him.
113	** Spelled out in-universe, when Mark Tuello is baffled why Serena would consider living with Fred as husband and wife after they're freed.
114	* TheWoobie: Being a Handmaid or a Jezebel in Gilead is a guarantee to make it into this category. Being a Martha or an Econo person is only marginally better: you won't get raped, but your life is worthless to the authorities.

Context YMMV / TheHandmaidsTale