Tag: 2020
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Under the Eye: “Witness”
Weird that we’ve come this far: As is par for the course, Atwood is being cancelled. At least from current thinking. On with the show! It is a dark sea of the unwashed standing before the altar of conformity. The camera stalks rows of shaved heads as they march to pews to watch the ominous…
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Under the Eye: “Heroic”
“It’s a God-awful small affairTo the girl with the mousy hairBut her mummy is yelling, “No!”And her daddy has told her to goBut her friend is nowhere to be seenNow she walks through her sunken dreamTo the seat with the clearest viewAnd she’s hooked to the silver screenBut the film is a saddening boreFor she’s…
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Under the Eye: “Unfit”
I wonder if this is Gilead right here. Three Aunts at a table with a Lazy Susan spinning around. Busy-bodies in con-fab naming names, and discussing “trouble” handmaids like Ofjoseph. This might be Gilead. Lydia sits in concert with other middle-aged women of her ilk with their files and their folders. Despite this “revelation,” this…
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Under the Eye: “Under His Eye”
“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today, but the core of science fiction — its essence — has become crucial to our salvation, if we are to be saved at all.” ― Isaac Asimov Everything engenders discussion, debate, and bitter argument these days. I…
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Under the Eye: “Household”
Every time somebody tells me that the Gilead-infested world of The Handmaid’s Tale is, in actuality, Donald Trump’s vision for America, another nail is hammered into the coffin of science fiction. They’re still saying it to this day! For there can be no science fiction when everything has some sort of cultural or political significance.…
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Under the Eye: “Unknown Caller”
Note: I’ve harped on this before, I know, but there were and are viewers who believe The Handmaid’s Tale represents an analogue of current Western culture; that somehow we’ve gone back to the dark ages, and we’ve brought back female subjugation in a big way. I’d just like to direct my readers to events unfolding…
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Under the Eye: “God Bless the Child”
“O sinners, let’s go downLet’s go down, come on downO sinners, let’s go downDown in the river to pray” Gilead processionals are like masterfully-executed geometric configurations. Though the world is a murky, relentless tomb, the blood red lines of handmaids are vibrant as they march alongside the walking dead Aunts to celebrate new live births.…
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Under the Eye: “Useful”
Here’s the thing about dead bodies hanging in a town circle. It’s not a good look for any community. That’s the last thing you want to put in your tourist brochures. Ladies, back me up on this. As we often open an episode of The Handmaid’s Tale on a cheery note, we have June, Ofwarren,…
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Under the Eye: “Mary and Martha”
This is Filmmaking 101. I am your instructor. My name is David Lawler, and I’m going to show you how to elicit sympathy in your visuals without actually eliciting sympathy from your characters. We start with slow tracking shots, a crane gingerly poised above the lead character’s head, swooping down to see part of her…
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Under the Eye: “Night”
Two minutes and forty seconds of “previously on The Handmaid’s Tale.” This is a 49 minute episode. If you’ve watched the show, you don’t need the back-story. If you haven’t watched the show, you wouldn’t start at the beginning of the third series. You would start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place…
Misadventures in Blissville 