The Testaments

The result is an unexpectedly powerful coming-of-age tale that offers a fresh, essential return to a universe many viewers likely thought had nothing new to say.

It's engaging from beginning to end, features strong performances worthy of awards recognition, and brings a fresh spin to the coming-of-age genre.

Showing this [indoctrination] is far less exciting than the images of grown women being killed or stripped of their rights as presented in “The Handmaid’s Tale” (though “The Testaments” does offer a few very chilling flashbacks). But as social commentary, it’s difficult to beat the sight of young women, recognizable in so many ways as modern teens, complying with their own enslavement, out of ignorance and, as events proceed, the gut-wrenching fear of what the truth might mean.

There will be some who find the daily flow of news sufficiently monstrous, who don’t need fiction to hold a mirror up to society right now. But, for others, The Testaments will serve as an impressive follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, lightening the tone, upping the pace, but retaining its careful depiction of how a society can backslide into regression and repression.

You have to admire the sheer chutzpah that the producers have displayed in taking a respected sci-fi text and turning it into a sort of George Orwell version of High School Musical – a potentially disastrous gamble carried off with style and assurance.

Though it is slightly leavened by a little humour, but mostly by the innate hope offered by the age of the protagonists, The Testaments is, like its predecessor, a study in groupthink – in power, corruption and the ease with which ordinary people acquiesce to evil practices.

“The Testaments” moves by at an engaging pace, deftly jumping between its many intertwined subplots while thoughtfully exploring the nuanced relationships between its characters.

At times, when the tone veers into adolescent gossip, mean-girl rivalries, and mad crushes (including one tangled love triangle), it can feel like how the story might appear on a channel like Freeform. But at its best, which is to say its worst, the premise is as unsettling as ever.

Settled, thoughtful and at times engaging coming-of-age sequel.

Even with its flaws, The Testaments remains an undeniably addictive and satisfyingly dense work of television that certainly does not provide an escape from current events, but may allow for new insights into how a democracy can descend into fascism.

While we have some issues with how The Testaments is structured, given how depressing the world of Gilead continues to be, we are looking forward to seeing Agnes and Daisy starting to agitate for change as the show goes forward.

While many of the problems that afflicted The Handmaid’s Tale as it dragged on persist, and the need for consistency between the series introduces more, I was surprised at how well it all worked.

Tonally, it takes some time to find its feet in following the day-to-day lives of its young Gilead women while the subject matter remains necessary – yet troubling – to watch.