Is anyone watching this, or has watched it? My wife and I watch many things, across the genre spectrum... Our apparent favorites are dark, dystopian, melodramas.

There will be slight spoilers...

We watch shows and movies for the underlying narrative, the between-the-lines stuff - and the more uncomfortable we are with it, the better. I actually never thought about it this way before, but apparently that's us because we get creeped out by one show, talk about it a bit, then dive into another... And it's usually progressively darker than others, sometimes on par, and rarely but not never less dark and depressing.

Anyway, with all that said... Like many shows and movies that are trying to reach and connect with an audience, The Handmaid's Tale weaves bits of relatable content - if there's too much fiction, it will just be another fantasy that no one will watch because they can't relate. And on the other hand, if there's too much reality no one will want to watch because that's actually what they're trying to escape from by zoning out watching a show.

One of the reasons I started watching this show is because one of the hosts over at the Daily Wire told viewers not to watch it..

The overt plot is clearly about one group of women being forced into surrogate pregnancies for another group of women with much more, shall we say? Privilege.. In the show they do at least correctly identify it as rape, however... Surrogacy in the so-called "real world" is on the rise and both groups of women are seen as heroes - even though, the near total loss of body autonomy is present in both cases. Interestingly, my wife listened to several podcasts today that were about surrogacy, and threw at me that a large proportion of surrogates are Catholic or Mormon women... Military wives is another pool they apparently dip into. Huh, interesting.

We're only into season three at the moment. We've been taking the disks grin the library as to not financially support MGM or Hulu. So, I'm realistically unable to give a full review, however, I can say with certainty, that there is a major part of real-world melodrama that leaks into the show, and it is clearly meant as, stated in the title, predictive programming and narrative support.

A main source of backstory in this show is gayness. In Gilead, these people are called "gender traitors" and most of the time they're killed outright, unless they're a woman who is fertile, then she will most likely become a Handmaid. Before you latch on to that slur and start throwing it at the gayness in your life, keep reading.

The show makes gayness such a main aspect of the narrative that there's no way to see anything other than the classic "US vs. THEM" tactic that is ever-present in the so-called real world. It should then go without saying that Gilead (the new name for what once was the USA) is vehemently anti-gay, and demonstrably ran by middle-aged white men filled with religious fervor. They are clearly the enemy.

Here's where it gets fucky, as there is dramatic attempt to try and connect that religious fervor to our world. In short, they try to make the Gilead people, especially the leadership, out to be like Christian conservatives. To me, this attempt fails, because I was brought up within Christianity, and I've read The Gulag Archipelago. I am also old enough to know wtf was going on behind the Iron Curtain before they broke down the Wall in 1989.

To me, the Gilead people, especially the leadership, are more representative of Bolsheviks and of Orthodox Jews, in particular the Hasidic sect - which is classically well known for repressing women and binding them into very narrow, defined roles. As well, the Old Testament seems to be the main focus, and typically NT and Jesus references only come from flashbacks to before Gilead, and by people outside of Gilead.. They did make the obelisk that is the Washington Monument into a giant cross, but without ever mentioning Jesus or His crucifixion - it seemed out of place to me for the show, but it does fit right into reinforcing their real-world narrative about conservative Christians.

The Bolshevik stuff is obvious, too, but I think it helps to have reference from Gulag Archipelago to recognize it... Certainly "Rules for thee, but not for me" is a major aspect of the show's plot, very Bolshevik.. Gilead's religion is meant purely for population control and social order. Something that would get a person shot in Gulag Archipelago, like being heard talking about something/someone, would get a person hanged in The Handmaid's Tale. The problem is however, that knowing how dumbed down people are today and how open and receptive they are to influence, and how numb they are to history with a clear lack of discernment, they're going to just think, "Conservative, right-wing, extremists are just like the evil, twisted fucks in Gilead." ...which is certainly untrue, and anyone with reason and references would see it.

I posted this, not as encouragement to watch the show, but as a means to demonstrate how conservatives are portrayed, albeit incorrectly, in shows, and how false narratives get spread so quickly. The They out there know exactly what they're doing and are very good at it. I think the best thing someone can do for themselves is to first, stop underestimating the Left.. These people are drawing from centuries worth of experience with population control and toppling nations, I'm obviously referring to the invisible hand that is really controlling things (This is somewhat demonstrated by the commanders in the show - Before Gilead they were nobodies, or so everyone thought) Secondly, get started with something in your life that makes you less reliant on an existing system of control for your survival... Learn how to grind flour and make sourdough bread, as an example, so at least you have something to eat while the world around you is collapsing.