Review – The Handmaid’s Tale

Here’s a heavy-handed story about how awful life would be if the religious right actually gained firm control over society. First constant war and utter disregard for environmentalism poisons the planet and renders the majority of the population infertile. The few women who are still capable of conceiving become the sex surrogate slaves of couples in the power elite, following a ritual based on the procreation-oriented love triangle between Abraham, Sarah and Hagar. The production makes some solid points about the subjugation of women in Western religious practice, and parts of the drama are intriguing in a soap opera sort of way. However, the constant pessimism and pedantry tends to make the whole thing start to seem a little silly after awhile. Mildly amusing