One has to wonder how a powerful army in the world's superpower that once upon a time managed to help defeat the might of the German army in Nazi Germany couldn't stop a bunch of religious morons from taking over the Whitehouse. A possible answer is that they were given a huge back hander to collaborate. But isn't how dictatorships operate? Isn't how these thugs manage to stay in power?
Reading between the lines, that's what Author Margret Attwood imagines in her novel the handmaid's tale which has been adapted into this excellent TV series. Set in Gilead, the fictitious new name for America, Attwood has created a terrifying religious dictatorship where there is less freedom than in North Korea, where lower class women are enslaved to be raped in order to provide children for the infertile upper class. A society where the light of god shines through every window, as if to say God is everywhere and watching you, that you should be nice to everyone, even if they beat and rape you, even if they work you till your I are ill and fit to drop and even then they still work you and beat you , a society reminiscent of medieval times when kings ruled ( perhaps not so despotic )and killed in the name of god and actually believed they were chosen by god to rule. Where thugs in military type uniforms patrol within an inch of everyone's lives.
I've not read the novel so I am only assuming that the transition from book to screen is a good one. Season one being adapted from the book, and season two being off book, this is a very good portrayal of what could happen if society doesn't make a stand and fight back against thuggish dictators. I always refer to despotic dictators as thugs because that's all they are, all of them, just disgusting criminals calling themselves great leaders, leaders that nobody wants, except for the people being paid barrels of money to keep them in power.
I know its only a TV show and I'm guessing an analogy of real dictatorships, but I hope the writers come up with an ending that gets these thugs out and restores freedom to America, because if they don't, then I shall be very tempted to write such an ending myself.
Review of The Handmaid's Tale
