1,972 posts
|
Post by sf on Sept 11, 2019 15:34:38 GMT
Was anyone else at the Lyttelton last night? Or indeed in the cinema? Great fun - and AUNT LYDIA was there! Amazing actor - she went from being far more relaxed and slighter in real life to the scary, dumpy harridan just by raising her head and staring down her nose. In a split second. And she scared the c*ap out of Sally Hawkins, Lily James and all of us on that side of the auditorium when she did it. More on my blog about the whole thing if anyone wants to read. I wasn't there, but I'm reading the book... and I imagine Anne Dowd is keeping her fingers and toes crossed that the sequel is adapted for television too, because there's one hell of a role for her if it is. |
|
|
|
Post by dontdreamit on Sept 23, 2019 16:45:40 GMT
Finished the book. Figured out the entire plot by page 19. Also it has now pretty much stuffed the TV series, depriving it of almost all the drama regarding June and her daughters, and also Aunt Lydia. Maybe there is space to just explore what happens to the Commanders and how Gilead falls, but otherwise, well, we now know how it all works out. [b ] It’s almost as if she saw the direction the tv show was going in and decided that she could write it better. Which t be fair she probably did! |
|
1,972 posts
|
Post by sf on Sept 25, 2019 10:08:50 GMT
Finished the book. Figured out the entire plot by page 19. Also it has now pretty much stuffed the TV series, depriving it of almost all the drama regarding June and her daughters, and also Aunt Lydia. Maybe there is space to just explore what happens to the Commanders and how Gilead falls, but otherwise, well, we now know how it all works out.
Yes and no. Aunt Lydia aside, we mostly don't know exactly how the characters who appeared in The Handmaid's Tale ended up where they are by the end of The Testaments, and there's a lot of ground to explore there. There are also a lot of major characters in the TV series - Moira, Emily, the Waterfords - who aren't referenced in The Testaments at all, and it's clear that in the decade-and-a-half between the end of the most recent season of the TV series and the start of The Testaments the Gilead regime has become (even) more corrupt, and that the regime's grip on power becomes less secure.
The Testaments also opens up space to explore what life is like in those parts of Gilead that are away from the major centres of power - we see some of that in the last quarter of the novel, and it opens up some interesting possibilities.
|
|
1,972 posts
|
Post by sf on Sept 25, 2019 10:56:19 GMT
Oh, but the tension and driver of the show was June getting both her children out of Gilead. We now know that all three of them make it out and are re-united, living happily ever after. Lydia kills herself, Gilead falls.
Sure, the TV series can explore all sorts of things, but the basic tale of what happened to Offred and Gilead is now over. Everything on TV now - for me anyway - is going to just be milling around in that universe.
For me, with no disrespect intended to Elisabeth Moss's extraordinary performance, the most interesting parts of the TV show, more and more, are the scenes where the focus isn't on June.
|
|
2,389 posts
|
Post by peggs on Sept 25, 2019 15:23:19 GMT
Really should have avoided your well labelled spoilers monkey, alas I have no self control. Of course you may now have gifted me time.
|
|
