The Handmaid's Tale

:

Season 2
  • Network: HULU
  • Series Premiere Date: Apr 26, 2017
Season #: 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.4

Generally favorable reviews- based on 193 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 148 out of 193
  2. Mixed: 13 out of 193
  3. Negative: 32 out of 193
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User Reviews

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  1. OlivierPiel
    Apr 25, 2018
    0
    Not only are the premises of this show preposterous but its tactics are obscene. The first scene shows maids brought to the gallows . Anyone with half a brain knows they won't be executed for the simple and obvious reason that the maids are priceless commodities. Killing them would be the same as committing mass-suicide on a country-wide scale. Imagine the Romans murdering the SabinesNot only are the premises of this show preposterous but its tactics are obscene. The first scene shows maids brought to the gallows . Anyone with half a brain knows they won't be executed for the simple and obvious reason that the maids are priceless commodities. Killing them would be the same as committing mass-suicide on a country-wide scale. Imagine the Romans murdering the Sabines instead of raping them. That would defeat the purpose, wouldn't it!
    It is obscene because it tries to be a metaphor for the plight of "womanhood", trying to create a parallel with the suffering of real minorities that were indeed rounded up in stadiums and executed later on (Armenians, Jews, Bosnians etc...). I wonder how a Bosnian or a Rwandan that has survived such an ordeal would feel watching that kind of scene. It is obscene because it uses cheap depiction of violence to further its point of view. As such, it is nothing more than a form of pornography, same as those gratuitous massacre and sex scenes in Game of Thrones.

    In short, this "feminist" show is ham-fisted, shallow and shameless just like hippies burning bras in the 70's.
    Sadly, the American populace has shown us it hasn't evolved much since then. It has probably regressed actually.

    PS: Ironic that a scientologist is the lead of a feminist show! But Hollywood and myopic feminists are hypocritical enough until the next PC scandal

    PPS: Rectify, oh, rectify...that was a truly great work of art. TV as an art form has really died with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon. Mediocrity reigns supreme...    … Expand
  2. Ilyasmiles
    Aug 2, 2018
    0
    Lots of logic mistakes. Characters become really crazy and have no motivations.
  3. james-cordoban
    Jul 6, 2018
    3
    Season 1 was worth watching. In season 2 the characters loose their credibility and the story just trickles away. Almost everything is over dramatic (scenery, light, music, colors) and nearly everything triggers a flashback showing family, harmony and better life. You miss nothing if you finish with the end of season 1.
  4. Honest-Yan
    Jul 24, 2018
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Season Two follows the story of a woman called June who really enjoys living in Gilead, in spite of the majority of the cast trying to get her to leave. She keeps saying that she doesn't like being there but when presented with an opportunity to leave she always chooses not to take it. She is the opposite of a prisoner.
    I was left at the end of Season One looking forward to seeing some retaliation against the extreme patriarchal theocracy and wondering how June would escape. I left Season Two wondering why the whole cast are behaving in the most irrational and unrealistic ways. I was angry and frustrated at watching June stalling her escape to fill air time, and then, for no logical reason, trying to be re-captured multiple times. It pretty much ends up with the majority of the cast conspiring, in ways that often contradicts their characters, to risk their lives to rescue June, (but not themselves for no reason), and June trying her hardest not to be rescued. Instead she feels the need to stop to write rebellious graffiti, stack some tin cans neatly or stare at some clothes, have a chat with someone or daydream. She is eventually given the most clear cut opportunity to get out and, even though for the whole of Season One she had been trying to get out, she decides not to leave because 'no reason given'. Also, I already know that there will be no consequences for any of these actions and Season Three will carry on, redoing the same beats as Season One, but with some added themes of race and sexuality because it is in fashion. Seeing as only minor cast members are killed or have parts amputated, June is perfectly safe in Gilead. She must have grown to like it there, she has now volunteered to be there. Terrible, terrible writing. I am left not caring at all about what happens to June because she is both blessed with plot serving immortality and invulnerability and also acts solely to prolong the series duration in the most illogical and unlikely ways.    … Expand
  5. Lpenn
    Jun 20, 2018
    3
    Handmaid's Season 2 has the ability to over-promise and under-deliver unlike I've ever seen. Flawless execution on that front. Save yourself time and assume the end of season 1 was the end of the series.
  6. Erald
    Apr 26, 2018
    0
    After the initial premise this show simply has no sense at all. The story of the novel ended with the events of the first season. What exactly are they going to explore now?
  7. Cyanurea
    Jul 5, 2018
    3
    Season 1 was flawed but essentially solid. Season 2 is loud stupid senseless drama with a pretty budget. Overdone shock-value gore attempts to convince you of the dystopia's brutality while key characters miraculously survive their dramatic stupidity, repeatedly. The characters become mouthpieces for writers' beliefs, often at ends with the reality of their individual situation, and loseSeason 1 was flawed but essentially solid. Season 2 is loud stupid senseless drama with a pretty budget. Overdone shock-value gore attempts to convince you of the dystopia's brutality while key characters miraculously survive their dramatic stupidity, repeatedly. The characters become mouthpieces for writers' beliefs, often at ends with the reality of their individual situation, and lose much of their inner life. I couldn't suspend my disbelief.… Expand
  8. Bruciato
    Nov 15, 2018
    3
    As seen in other work for tv/cinema, gender identity politics make its entrance in this kinda thing. It's annoying, biased, driven with agenda. It was difficult to keep it out but I don't think there was any effort. Apart from this, it's all really boring, slow and makes very little sense. Get ready for a 6 seasons long tv serie making money on the first season.
  9. nj06
    Sep 26, 2019
    2
    Serious drop off after Season 1. Tropes of low quality TV started to make their appearance: new illogical short lived characters, convoluted changes in behavior of main characters, soap opera style alliances and frenemies, etc. About half way through I decide that I had enough of being jerked around by incompetent writing and I quit.
  10. Gabunviper
    Jan 7, 2020
    2
    After a good Season one Season two is just Boeing and the writing is terrible. Very sorry für this at First good Show :(
  11. samy1117
    Aug 1, 2020
    0
    Show must have ended with Season 1. Now they are just milking the character June. No real movement in the script. Just June has become kind of a liability for this show. Monotonous acting. Manipulative which are hard to digest.

Awards & Rankings

13
#13 Best TV Season of 2018
42
#42 Most Discussed TV Season of 2018
35
#35 Most Shared TV Season of 2018

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
86

Universal acclaim - based on 28 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 28
  3. Negative: 0 out of 28
  1. TV Guide Magazine
    Reviewed by: Matt Roush
    Apr 26, 2018
    80
    Silence speaks volumes as June withstands the psychological abuse of the fearsome Aunnt Lydis (ann Dowd) and endures domestic tension. [30 Apr - 13 May 2018, p.13]
  2. Slate
    Reviewed by: Willa Paskin
    Apr 25, 2018
    80
    The Handmaid’s Tale is powerful and propulsive. After the first three episodes, when the horrors become more predictable, it’s even pretty watchable. And, even so, it should have ended after the first season.
    Read full review
  3. Yahoo TV
    Reviewed by: Ken Tucker
    Apr 25, 2018
    80
    Dowd’s performance is absolutely essential to keeping this show from tipping over into excessive self-seriousness. You’ll notice that whenever Handmaid’s Tale shifts away from Lydia and Offred, and back to the Canadian border and the subplot involving Offred’s husband, Luke (O.T. Fagbenle), and Moira (Samira Wiley), the show becomes deadly drab and dull.
    Read full review
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