I've been thinking recently how the wives' playacting of labor mirrors the way so many people (both men and women) feel entitled to instruct pregnant women on The Correct Way To Be Pregnant, and judge pregnant women and mothers for literally anything and everything they do. And of course it underlines yet again how…

One more little bit of horror from this episode: when the Martha is hanged, it's not from a gallows with a drop that would break her neck and kill her quickly. They just lift the noose up so she'll strangle slowly. Because why bother killing her humanely?

It can't be worse than last year's parade of one million Madonna In A Kimono looks.

Adaptations are tricky, and I'm generally one of those "The book was better" types, but I can say with confidence that this is one of the better adaptations of anything, full stop. It's absolutely worth watching if you love the book.

Gilead is a very ritualized society - the Ceremony, the prayers at salvagings (in the book; we haven't seen this on the show yet), etc… I don't think the trials are meant to be propaganda for the public or for dissidents, necessarily - they're rituals that reinforce the dogma to believers. Kind of like reciting the…

Excellent piece on race in the book vs. show on The Undefeated: https://theundefeated.com/f…

Just reading this recap I felt my chest getting tight and had to take a couple of deep, slow breaths.

The birth scene - and the Handmaids comforting Janine - brought to mind that bitter line from the book about "We wanted a women's society" (or something to that effect; I can't recall the exact quote).

She was phenomenal in that episode - I was reduced to making incoherent whimpering noises through my tears.

Yeah that sequence is not physically gruesome but it is emotionally gruesome. Bledel does her best work by far.

I don't know why studios aren't throwing money at this RIGHT NOW.

I mean, there are significant black characters (Luke and Moira in particular) but you're right that the majority of the big parts are filled by white actors which is not the best look. And unless they're making huge changes, we see Moira again in the present as well as in flashbacks.

I haven't reread recently but if I recall correctly, in the book people of color have been deported to "agricultural homelands" (in the Midwest, one assumes) so they aren't represented in Gilead society at all. And to properly tell that story the show would need to give us the perspective of those POC, of course -…

Well so far my ratio of Minutes Of Show Watched to Minutes Spent Crying and/or Shaking is approaching 1:1. (And that's a testament to the power and quality of this show!) So I'm gonna have to take a sanity break and possibly consume an unhealthy amount of chocolate before diving in to episode 2. Should we set up some…

In a piece on Buzzfeed Bruce Miller said they are not including the white supremacy that's also addressed in the novel, both because a) it felt like too much to load the series up with, and b) "'I don't think there's any difference in appearance between making a TV show about racists to making a racist TV show,'…

While I wish she'd get a grip already, I'm fascinated by how much compartmentalization and magical thinking Peyton must be doing. She's basically living out a "but it's ok because" bad boy fantasy with Blaine - the danger of who he used to be (/maybe still is?) is there for the subconscious thrill, and if she doesn't…

Or a male employee of Fox News

Yeah, this ep had some fun directorial asides - the last chunk of brain sticking in the bowl during the meal prep made me giggle.

OTOH I'm looking forward to next season's Women's Gymnastics: Vault Finals challenge. With bonus Kerri Strug runway theme!

This is RuPaul's Group Therapy Race - we encourage you to vomit your feelings! (But nothing else.) (Too soon?)