The Handmaid's Tale: Dear Offred (5x04)

I found some of the character beats in this episode really really interesting, and then other moments felt like a retread of what we've already seen several times. Let's talk about it!

Cons:

I really liked Janine in this episode, but I'm not sure what to make of Aunt Lydia at this point. It feels like so many of her moments this season have been reiterating a dynamic we've already seen play out again and again. Where is her character going to go from here?

I still wish we had a little more understanding of what other outsiders to Gilead were really thinking, in supporting the country. I think maybe the missing piece is how the falling birth rates are affecting society writ large. That's the big motivator here, that people are willing to accept Gilead's horrific model of family life because they're so desperate about having babies. There are those in Canada who are openly accepting and admiring of Serena, and then there are also other governments from around the world that are willing to consider accepting Gilead as a legitimate nation. I want to understand this more, I think it would strengthen Serena's legitimate claim to power in this situation.

The Handmaid's Tale: Border (5x03)

Oh man... Serena Joy, what the hell are you going to do now...

Cons:

I've always praised the depiction of Aunt Lydia, a somewhat grotesque depiction of the matronly older lady who claims to protect and love the young women in her charge, but also does irreparable harm to them. This episode, this whole plot beat about Esther's attempted suicide and murder of Janine, kind of confuses me, though. I didn't think Janine was actually going to die, but the anticlimax of both Janine and Esther making it through apparently just fine from that ordeal was a little odd under the circumstances. I'm just not sure that Lydia weeping over Janine's bedside taught us anything new about her. We've seen her grapple with her temper before, we've seen her humbled by her choices, and we see her twisted love for "her girls" all the time. I'm just not sure what to take away from this.

This isn't so much a complaint as it is a question, a hope for the future of the season... we've checked in a couple times now with the Canadian people who are pro-Gilead, there to encourage Serena, seeing her as a symbol. I'd love to get a little more in these people's heads. Is it just... Evangelical Christianity? Is there anything more going on there? Do these people uniformly believe that they would be among the Wives and Commanders of Gilead, and thus don't appreciate the true horror of what's happening along class and subjective morality lines? I just wish we knew a little more about why we've got folks on Serena's side, here. 

The Handmaid's Tale: Ballet (5x02)

Okie dokie, let's dive right in!

Cons:

I'd never accuse this show of being subtle with its imagery, but every once in a while they go a step beyond bold and into downright trite/insulting. Most of the parallels with June and Serena avoided this fate, but the part where June dressed all in white, and Serena all in black, as they each got ready in mirrors... that was a little much, I gotta say.

And another moment I was taken out of it a little, what exactly was the resonance of intercutting Serena at Fred's big funeral, with June watching someone dance at the ballet? Who is the metaphorical ballerina here? Why are we cutting between these two things? It just felt too heavy-handed and also muddled to me.

Pros:

We see that Aunt Lydia is getting a group of Handmaids ready for selection, including Esther, the former Wife. Janine gets to go along to her former Commander's house in order to show Esther off, and thus gets to see her daughter. But Esther has bigger plans for the rebellion; she steals some chocolates from the Commanders' house, and somehow poisons them... the episode ends with her and Janine both collapsing and coughing up blood. Gasp!

The Handmaid's Tale: Morning (5x01)

And we're back!

Cons:

My mom once pointed out to me that a good amount of the run time of any given episode of The Handmaid's Tale includes us just staring at June making super intense, angry faces directly into the camera. And while I think generally speaking Elisabeth Moss has the chops to pull it off, sometimes I feel like overabundance of close-ups and long silent emotional beats can get a little repetitive and exhausting.

I felt like there was a strange turn in the script which was June going home to Luke and Moira, then turning around and meeting her fellow co-conspirators at the diner. I wish she'd gone straight to the diner? It just felt awkward to me. And then all the other women seemed to think June was going to lead them on a killing spree. Was this something that June had promised them before, or were they deluded to think it was ever coming? Just felt like I was missing one beat to explain these women's motivations. I get why they want to go kill their abusers, but I didn't quite understand their anger with June.

What We Do in the Shadows: Sunrise, Sunset (4x10)

The finale already. This season zipped right by!

Cons:

I honestly felt pretty underwhelmed by this finale, I think because it was focused on the Colin plot, which was ultimately not super successful in my opinion. I get it, he's an angsty teenager now... and then he becomes a full adult and resumes being Colin Robinson, seemingly with no memory of his year being raised by Lazlo. I guess if I describe this scenario, it's kind of funny, but seeing it play out just didn't really make me smile all that much. I am happy to have adult Energy Vampire Colin Robinson back in our lives, though, he really is such a funny part of the show and I'm thinking I might enjoy him again in season five now that we're through the gauntlet.

The night club has officially failed, with Nadja's last terrible idea being to burn it to the ground to get the insurance money, only to discover she doesn't have insurance, and only her office, the room with her secret stash of embezzled money, has burned, the rest of the club untouched because of the blood sprinklers. There were some funny moments here that I'll get to, but again I felt a little underwhelmed.

Roswell, New Mexico: How's It Going to Be (4x13)

I can't believe it's over!! I'm so emotional, y'all.

Cons:

So like... here's the thing. I don't think this finale was "good", in a lot of ways. It's just that by and large, the ways in which it wasn't good were things I don't really care about, so it didn't bother me? The big one of course just being Clyde, the whole A-plot with him trying to get back to his planet. Did anyone else feel like the writing of this season literally wasn't sure what the stakes were supposed to be? Was the Alighting really just... this one evil alien dude going home and trying to be an evil dictator? I mean, sure, that wouldn't be great for Oasis, but it's sort of a paltry threat in the grand scheme of things, no? Were we really meant to think that Clyde was so menacing that his return to Oasis would spell disaster for a planet already apparently on the verge of death? It makes no sense, it was a weak-ass final villain for the show, I felt nothing about him, I'm glad Liz got to kill him I guess but I also just really don't care.

Structurally, this season had a lot of problems, and they definitely came to a head for me here in this finale, particularly in regards to the final plan to defeat Clyde, and how ultimately it was Liz's victory and trickery that lead him to his own doom. That's a cool idea in isolation, but when I think back over this season and what it was trying to set up, you've got Michael yearning for home, those moments when Clyde was showing him Oasis. You've got Bonnie's complicated and abusive relationship with Clyde. You've got Isobel's bond with Tezca, something that was way under-explored and felt pretty unmotivated to me, but still... and then in the end, Liz, who has no real personal thematic connection to Clyde, is the one who takes him out, just because he's the bad guy and she's the protagonist? Look, Jones also left something to be desired as a villain, but at least the final showdown with Liz in season three had emotional resonance to it, because the dude was literally a clone of her true love.