Tag: Alexis Bledel
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Under the Eye: “Morning”
“The fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale begins with the deck stacked against it. Be prepared for more ridiculous soap opera stories, more psychotic Kubrickian gazes into nothingness, and more inappropriate needle drops.”
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Under the Eye: “Mayday”
Even in the best of times, we turn on each other. This is what we were born to do. We should always try to seek out the best of us, but we should remember there are snakes in the garden. The trouble is the snakes don’t always identify themselves. It would be easier if they…
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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…
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Under the Eye: “The Last Ceremony”
Previously on As Gilead Turns … If you want rape, this is the episode that has lots of rape! We’ve drifted away from the Ceremony, but now we’re back in full force. We start with Emily, who gets into “crash position” with an old Commander and his wife. He thrusts in slow-motion. He looks like…
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Under the Eye: “Women’s Work”
“Man works from sun to sun, but woman’s work is never done” I never found it to be in the story’s favor that Offred was chosen to be the Unreliable Narrator. It gives a writer license to ignore his or her own rules in establishing narrative. Margaret Atwood wanted The Handmaid’s Tale to be a…
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Under the Eye: “After”
Unintended consequences. Let’s let that one sink through just a little until it creates a bruise. Unintended consequences. 31 handmaids died in Ofglen the Second’s attack. 26 Commanders died as well, but 31 handmaids died. I admit I don’t fully grasp the physics of explosions, but Ofglen the Second did manage to bury herself deep…
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Under the Eye: “Seeds”
Maybe June’s lost what’s left of her mind, I don’t know, but it’s the middle of the night, she wakes up, grabs the pile of clandestine letters she received in the package from Mayday and starts burning them in the sink. When Nick confronts her, she tells him she’s not supposed to leave her room…
Misadventures in Blissville 