As we come closer to the end of the decade, shows like
Game of Thrones will be coming to a close and other shows like AMC's
The Walking Dead should end before the network runs it into the ground. However just as the revival on both the big and small screen shows no sign of slowing down, new dramas that just happen to be associated with genre entertainment are rising to the forefront. My favorite genre television shows are now in first place, the Hulu original series
The Handmaid's Tale and in second place,
The Expanse, which just wrapped up it's third season on SYFY and will continue with a fourth season and hopefully more on Amazon Prime Video. Both are based on popular books though the similarities end there. Margret Atwood's acclaimed novel has expanded beautifully on television and Elizabeth Moss, who Stars and Produces has created a character from the novel that is far more developed with nuances that the feature film version from the 1990s simply cannot compete with though that is not because the film is bad in any way because it is not. It is just that in this "golden age" of television, the very nature of scripted serialized television can do a lot of things that a feature film simply cannot. So I hope this Fall
The Handmaid's Tale sweeps at the Emmys and I hope it does the same at the Golden Globes next winter because the show deserves it and more.
This season has managed to expand the world and show the viewer things that illustrate how Giliad did not happen over night. It was gradual with punctuated instances that have effected our characters in ways no one could have foreseen. Now we know that there is still a remnant of the United States in existence. We know what the colonies are like because we have seen them and we see Giliad brutalizes everyone sooner or later.
Yet there is hope and that is what the finale drives home along with the balance between seemingly bad things and good things being an undercurrent theme this entire season. The finale left me wanting more in a way I never considered and completely subverted my expectations again.
I do wonder how Giliad is able to stay stable as a government? What natural resources they have outside of Handmaids, which are too precious to trade in any practical quantity because without them, Gilead is finished. So how does a religious dictatorship to oppressive to all of it's citizens survive on it's own? Hopefully we will learn in season three.
I wish I could go into greater detail, but I truly think the less one knows, the better. The second season finale of The Handmaid's Tale will premiere exclusively on Hulu ready to stream on July, 11, 2018.
(C) Copyright 2018 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
