No! Not the show! I mean, if you have to, just fast forward to the Eva Green bits.

" a strained fantasy flick with pseudo-medieval production design that suggests a very special episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys…"

In related-Reign news, I spied Tony Regbo playing am English nobleman rather than a French one, married to a alpha-HBIC (or about to be) brunette.

Understood and agreed!

That's a fair criticism, but I think sheltered or misled isn't strong enough a term for being brainwashed and abused for nearly two decades.

I could have sworn I read about an offhand comment she made about being raised by her father.

I appreciate that Nancy wasn't there to collude with Mrs. Quigley. I was worried in the preview for this episode.

Everytime Serena calls Offred 'girl' infuriates me, especially with the lack of age difference.

I'll admit, this is the first time I've been able to put distance between myself as a book fan and the changes in the show - I've never been able to do that before. I can't even cut Game of Thrones slack. So for this, I felt mostly curious by the changes. But I noticed the socialization and that stuck out like a sore…

Well, yeah. But someone might make it out! Someone!

They may also be doing multiple games per night.

First!

Again, he's mentally seventy+, and people are arguing that they haven't put the time in to make it feel like an organic development. She's fresh from a deathcult where she didn't even know that non-violent interaction was possible. Aside from 1/2 to 2/3 of one episode, he's been in a position of power over her. She's…

I agree that if you view it in that context, it could work, but I do think people who see it as problematic because of a perceived bungling in execution have valid points as well.

Because killing loads of orcs is in line with her training. Killing her mother is a step. Quite a few people don't think that the show has spent the time to show her growing as a character, and immediately putting that character into a (sexual) romance.

I don't disagree that we're shown a lifetime of training, but she's late teens early twenties at best. And no functional education beyond "hate things, kill Jack, praise Aku" - so I don't think the show justified her development since then to show an adult with with fully functional reasoning abilities.

I can tolerate and enjoy the romance if I don't think/forget everything that came before Ashi's bath. Then it plays like a competent if equally naive warrior meeting another competent​ naive warrior joining forces and discovering mutual attraction.

Uh, a real personal connection that never happened with anyone else for fifty years/four prior seasons?

Thank you for making sense. The idea of a romantic partnership is bad or out of place per se, but this relationship feels grossly inappropriate given previous context.

Maybe take a moment to process them, given that she has no concept of relationships except teacher, student, target, and god?