DISCLAIMER – THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE HANDMAID’S TALE SEASON 6 EPISODES 5 AND 6.
One of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to TV shows is that you always have these weird moments where the characters seemingly forget where they are when they are having a ‘heart-to-heart’. This is not something new; it’s happened in shows and movies, and I guess it’s the writer’s way of converting the ‘humanity’ of it all.
I just think it’s stupid.
Yes, I said it, it’s stupid, and honestly, it needs doing away.
This past week, I’ve been binging The Handmaid’s Tale to catch up, there are a lot of ‘why would you do that!’ moments in the show, don’t get me wrong but the writing in general, even though they love to favour the shot of zooming in on June while she’s making ‘that face‘ to bookend basically any episode that has a cool ending feels a bit overplayed, I like to think that as an artist signing off their work, a calling card if you will. But it gets damn annoying having to see it when it has no business being there. “Serena and June in a train heading to god knows where = oh yeah, let’s put that smirk in because… REASONS”
And I know I sound like the old grump that yells at the kids to get off my lawn but come on guys, these are talented writers, unlike yours truly, that can carry a story.
But it’s hard to not complain when you have something like Episode 6, where June and Moira sneak into Jezebels to do an absolute covert mission, behind enemy lines, only for them to have a heart-to-heart in one of the most nonsensical locations, makes it feel lazy.
It’s as if the writers thought ‘Oh, you know, we need them to get caught, but not Janine, so let’s just have them argue. For a while just so that we can have a stupid guard show up and delay their exit… yeah that totally works’
It took a very powerful moment of both characters understanding each other’s pain to become ‘filler’ while they waited for the very predictable guard. It gave me the vibes of slasher movies where you yell and scream at the blonde to not go down the stairway or shouting at them ‘DON’T OPEN THE DOOR YOU MANIAC!’
It’s tired, it’s cliche, and I feel the writers are talented enough to move past it. In fact, the next show that has something like this, I’d love one character to go ‘Hey, we’re in deep trouble here, let’s get safe, then argue about who had it worse’.
But then again, there are other glaring issues in the series’ final season – but that’s a tale for another day.
Am I being too critical? Doesn’t this bother anyone else?
Blessed be the fruit. I guess.
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