What Does ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Stand for in 2022?

When the first season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale premiered in the spring of 2017 to critical acclaim, pundits, critics, and journalists interpreted this dystopian tale through a frighteningly current lens. The show, based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel of the same name, follows June Osborne as she is forced into childbearing labor by an America consumed by religious extremism. Premiering a few weeks after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, the show was backdropped by Trump’s presidency. The show’s villains were often compared to corrupt members of Trump’s cabinet, and even the show’s lead actress, Elisabeth Moss, and showrunner Bruce Miller were vocal on their belief that The Handmaid’s Tale was crucial to resisting the current political moment. The show quickly found its cultural niche as a narrative of feminist resistance. Yet even as much as it abhorred the Trump presidency, the show heavily leaned on the Trump administration and particularly its hard line on abortion for inspiration and relevance.

The Handmaid’s Tale allowed us insight into how America was reacting to a president accused of assault in office and how a conservative president was reigniting the debate over abortion rights. Often during Trump’s presidency, actors on The Handmaid’s Tale would comment on abortion rights and current laws; it also became commonplace for women to protest outside government buildings in the red and white costumes the titular characters wore. 

When Trump left office, it became clear that The Handmaid’s Tale never really developed an identity with its audience outside of artistic resistance to an unpopular presidency. The show was critically acclaimed in its first two seasons, but less so in its third and fourth. Rotten Tomatoes called the show “spinning its wheels,” and The Hollywood Reporter called it “frustratingly repetitive” in its later seasons. Where its first season was chock–full of provocative storylines, the most recent seasons have been stuck in cycles of trauma with its main character. The fourth season, the first to premiere with Trump out of office, has an especially glacial pace, which continued into its fifth season, which premiered this September. If The Handmaid’s Tale is no longer resisting a political movement, then what is its point? 

When The Handmaid’s Tale first premiered, it filmed its female characters with an empathetic eye and deeply considered their interiority; the show featured stark and unforgiving dystopian landscapes and had the gleam of introducing a classic novel to a new generation. The last season has backed away from June’s psychology and now focuses entirely on her bloody revenge missions, showing us spectacle instead of substance. 

Season five begins hours after the finale of season four, where June has just murdered the man who abused her throughout the first season. Her friends and family are scared of her, the country she fled to as a refugee doesn’t trust her, and the widow of the man she killed, Serena, wants her dead. This new season…