The Handmaid's Tale: don't watch it

Since I have a Hulu subscription, I decided to give this a shot. I barely made it through the first episode. This series, while well acted (insofar as that first episode is concerned), is profoundly depressing and ultimately, there's no real message, moral, or point.

So I wondered why it's so popular. Then it hit me--this is a Republican wet dream! Brutal theocracy. Dictatorship. Women reduced to the status of slaves. Rape as a Biblical ceremony. This is the world that every Republican dreams of living in! (And I don't mean just male Republicans.)

This is probably prophetic more than simply dystopian fiction. When the RepubliQ seizes back the country--and you know they will--this is what life will be like: an existential horror. But the men in power will be awarded women to rape! Remind you of anyone? (Hint: orange.)

Its actually a pretty good show.   

Aunt Lydia might be the best villain since Darth Vader.

I just couldn't get past the first episode, when a young woman has an eye put out for talking back and the protagonist is ritually raped while the rapist's wife pins down her arms. I saw enough clips from future episodes to determine that that protagonist would also have an eye gouged out.

Since this is an ongoing series, it doesn't seem like there's any final resolution or happy ending, at least not yet. I think the idea is that the Republicans who run Gilead will come to realize what a horror they've created and the whole mess will fall apart. In the book, the heroine's fate is left vague, but there is an epilogue set over 100 years in the future that implies she survived to tell her story and that Gilead collapsed.

I really don't want to see what still has a very good chance of actually happening.