Handmaid's Rebellion

While crystal balls don’t actually work, it’s hard to believe the makers of “The Handmaid’s Tale” didn’t look into one and see a glimpse of our current, way too dystopian future when they decided to adapt Margaret Atwood’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” for television this year, of all years. Dystopian fiction has always had a place in our society. But how we view it often depends on our current political climate. “The Hunger Games” series were published first as novels and then produced as films entirely during the Obama presidency. So people saw them less as a glimpse of our near-to-not so distant future than as a cautionary tale and a critique of the vast wealth inequalities and what could happen if they remained unchecked. But now, in the looming age of Trump, Atwood’s imagined world of a totalitarian theocracy that strips women of rights seems almost too on the nose. But, hey, you can’t blame them for having excellent timing. But you can thank them for including lesbian characters in the series played by Alexis Bledel and Samira Wiley, joining our Offred played by Elisabeth Moss. My only complaint, we have to wait until April 26 to sign on to the feminist resistance.

p.s. With any luck, I will be recapping this show for you. So keep you fingers crossed and keep rubbing that crystal ball.