THE HANDMAID'S TALE Continues

Article first published as TV Review: THE HANDMAID'S TALE Season 2 on Seat42F.

Hulu’s THE HANDMAID’S TALE is back for a second season this week. The streaming service released two episodes last Wednesday, with additional installments spooling out weekly over the coming months. The tale of women in a strongly religious, male-dominated society continues, and we immediately get to see different corners of the world than previously shown. Viewers finally witness what life is like at the dreaded colonies first-hand, as well as get a glimpse at an underground railroad-type situation for ladies fleeing their forced fate. Somehow, none of the shock value has worn off, as things get darker still.

June Osborne, a.k.a. Offred (Elisabeth Moss), is left in a precarious position last season, having led a peaceful protest against Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) to save Janine’s (Madeline Brewer) life. Aunt Lydia promised consequences, and they unfold right at the start of episode one. While the actual threat is obviously just that, merely a threat, as fertile women are too precious a resource in this reality to waste, it’s easy to see how the victims of it would be terrified, believing it real. They’ve been treated so poorly and terrorized so much, they can be forgiven for not thinking the situation through logically.

June herself, however, is spared as soon as her pregnancy becomes known. This gets into a psychological game, as June is immune from some, but not all punishment, and she is still vulnerable to being shamed in front of the others. Or is she? We know June has a strong fortitude, and her battle of wills with Aunt Lydia, much of it non-verbal, is gripping in this initial hour. June has additional scenes throughout both installments where Moss shines with physical performance and facial expression.

Episode two divides its time between some former newspaper offices, where horrible acts were carried out, and one of the colonies, where Emily (Alexis Bledel) has been sent for hard labor. I’m not sure what I pictured the colonies as being like, but the bleak, desolate, radiation-filled landscape is not exactly it. This feels even sadder, more isolated, than I imagined, and life is extremely hard there. A subplot involving a new arrival at the colony (Marisa Tomei, The Big Short) is moving and shocking, but also feels a little bit satisfying, which is needed every now and then in the series.

One thing that is different about THE HANDMAID’S TALE from other shows is that it saves all its credits for the end, so you’ll never know which characters will be showing up. This works very well in this particular program, as it allows a larger element of surprise. The end credits also only list the stars of that particular hour, so Alexis Bledel’s name isn’t in the premiere, leaving you to wonder how much she’ll be involved in the season. Similarly, Yvonne Strahovski and Joseph Fiennes aren’t in the second hour, so their names aren’t present. Will they be back? Who knows? There is a freedom for the story to go anywhere without being beholden to past places and characters when even the central cast isn’t listed in this manner.

THE HANDMAID’S TALE continues its customary flashbacks in both parts. Normally, this is a conceit in a television show I would grow tired of pretty quickly. And there are times in these initial offerings where it’s easy to become impatient, wanting to get back to the main timeline. However, Emily’s bit in episode two is particularly moving, and both episodes help fill in exactly how this oppressive regime was able to take power, thankfully shown indirectly. It’s helpful for understanding the situation, and also as a warning not to allow current political forces to move in the same direction. It’s uncomfortably easy to imagine how it might.

THE HANDMAID’S TALE remains powerful, timely, and intensely compelling. Watch it exclusively on Hulu.

THE HANDMAID'S TALE Creepily Relevant

Article first published as TV Review: THE HANDMAID'S TALE on Seat42F.

Hulu has had a few good dramas over the past year or two, but I am hard pressed to think of one as well made and as engaging as THE HANDMAID’S TALE, which premieres this week exclusively on the streaming service. Based on the 1985 book of the same name by Margaret Atwood, and already adapted into a movie almost three decades ago, the story takes place in a dystopian future in which the rapidly decreasing number of fertile women are pressed into slavery to help those in power reproduce.

THE HANDMAID’S TALE feels especially prevalent right now. Despite all the strides made in gender equality since the novel was published, America recently elected a president who brags about sexual assault and at least partially ran on a sexist platform. We’ve also never been closer to a destabilizing war in most of our lifetimes, with an erratic, ignorant leader in the Oval Office. One can’t help but wonder if there’s some probability of the events of the series coming true as political situations unfold. Now, that may sound far-fetched to some, and I do not seek to turn off anyone by making this too political. But the possible parallels are too striking to ignore, and Trump’s election only makes this series more important.

Taking THE HANDMAID’S TALE at face value, it’s a chilling portrait of one woman who is old enough to remember a time before this system, having had a husband and child, and now has to put up with the subjugation, seeing no way out, even though her entire being screams that this is wrong. It’s a plight that viewers may not quite be able to relate to, at least not at the raw level depicted, but one we can comprehend and be freaked out by.

Elisabeth Moss, the excellent actress from such critically acclaimed hits as Mad Men, The West Wing, and Top of the Lake, once again chooses her projects wisely, taking the lead role of Offred, the Handmaid belonging to Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes, American Horror Story: Asylum, Flashforward). Desperate to escape to look for her daughter, mourning those she has lost, Offred isn’t even allowed to keep her name as she is trained under the strict rule of Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd, The Leftovers) and raped while lying in the lap of Waterford’s jealous wife, Serena (Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck, 24: Live Another Day). She isn’t even allowed to leave the Waterford’s house without being accompanied by another Handmaid, Ofglen (Alexis Bledel, Gilmore Girls).

Offred’s predicament is absolutely heart breaking. As we see what she has gone through and what she has lost, we cannot help but feel for her. Moss makes us cry, and lets us experience the terror her character is living. When she gets angry and acts out violently, we understand why and instantly forgive her. Any tiny hint that things might change for her is cheered, but those are few and far between.

While Moss is the most obvious person to give credit to, I would be remiss if I didn’t praise the rest of the cast as well. Dowd, Fiennes, and Strahovski are creepy and complex, adding to the dreary atmosphere. Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black) is terrific as Offred’s friend from her past, and Bledel keeps us guessing as to whether we can trust Ofglen or not, a huge if in the current circumstances. There is no weak link in this cast, which is large enough to include several more regulars.

Everything from the production design to the score to the pacing to the direction reinforces the central warning message of THE HANDMAID’S TALE. There appears to be a singular vision, and each element contributes to a high-quality whole. Depressing and disturbing as the show can be, it’s also magnetic and engrossing. The pilot alone has stuck with me and occupied my thoughts for days, and I feel compelled to finish the other hours as they are released.

Several hours of THE HANDMAID’S TALE will be available to Hulu subscribers this Wednesday, April 26^th, with the rest of the season doled out weekly thereafter.

Blu-ray Review: ‘American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season’

Article first published as Blu-ray Review: ‘American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season’ on Blogcritics.

Calling this release American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season is a little confusing. FX’s American Horror Story is not a continuing series, but several stand-alone, 13-episode miniseries, a new one of which is presented each fall. Thus, while Asylum is, indeed, The Complete Second Season of American Horror Story, the installments on this disc tell a complete tale, featuring characters and plot that are not connected to the first or third seasons, even if some of the cast is the same.

Asylum begins in the present day, with a sex-crazed couple (Maroon 5′s Adam Levine and Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Witches of East End) exploring the run-down and abandoned Briarcliff. It’ll be quite awhile before Asylum really delves into the present again, fully explaining what happens to the pair, as well as moving past those events, but it does eventually get around to it.

Most of Asylum takes place in 1964 and 1965. Briarcliff is a mental hospital for the criminally insane, run by strict, judgmental Sister Jude (Jessica Lange, American Horror Story: Coven). Jude lusts over Monsignor Timothy O’Hara (Joseph Fiennes, Camelot) and bullies the younger, meek Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe, American Horror Story). She also hates the twisted Dr. Arthur Arden (James Cromwell, Six Feet Under), and is cruel to her charges.

Into this environment, brave Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), a closet lesbian and daring journalist, marches forth to expose Jude’s wrongdoings. It doesn’t take long for her to realize just how out of her depth she actually is, and Dr. Thredson (Zachary Qunito, Star Trek: Into Darkness) proves both friend and foe. But Lana does find some friends within Briarcliff’s walls.

Chief among them is Kit Walker (Evan Peters, American Horror Story), a man framed for killing his wife, Alma (Britne Oldford, Skins), who soon takes up with murderess Grace (Lizzie Brochere, R.I.S. Police scientifique). Kit and Lana’s lives are not completely intertwined, with the two traveling very different paths for awhile, but they interact quite a bit over the run.

Asylum is full of twists and turns, with plenty of surprises popping up when they are least expected. Among the more strange developments are human experiment subjects, alien abductions, artwork made from dead people, a truly creepy patient named Pepper (Naomi Grossman), and a son violently reunited with his mother. It’s not as overtly scary as the first season, but its dark tone and sick minds definitely make it disturbing, with a very unexpected last couple of hours, which take the show far beyond the walls of the hospital.

Why the miniseries works so well, though, is mainly the character development. It’s hard to think of one character who ends up anything like the person they started as. I won’t get into specifics, because you really should watch these episodes for yourself, but bad guys can be good and good guys can be soured into villains. There’s a lot of grey area in the middle, and it can be argued whether a few of the main players ended up on the side of right or wrong. What is certain is that each is changed by the experiences we bear witness to, which makes the story that much deeper and richer. And, as in the first season, guest stars pop in and out in memorable turns.

There are a quartet of featurettes and some deleted scenes on this three-disc set. One of the extras is called “What is American Horror Story: Asylum?” which will hopefully clear up the confusion I mentioned in the introductory paragraph. “The Creatures” is fascinating because the makeup and effects of AHS:A really are top notch, though it could remove a little of the fear factor if viewed before the series.

Blu-ray is definitely recommended for Asylum. There are lots of blacks and shadows, Briarcliff being a dreary place. You’ll want to catch those layers and detail as much as you can, though some are obscured purposely for effect. The score is also excellent, with undertones that reinforce the style of the piece, and a certain song played repeatedly will start to make you feel a  bit like the inmates. The blu-ray experience here adds a lot, both visual and auditory, and the result is beautiful, in a macabre manner.

You may have noticed a lack of complaints in this review. That’s because, while I do consider Asylum weaker than the first go ’round, it’s still a very strong presentation, with remarkable acting and production, and they did a pretty good job on this release. American Horror Story: Asylum – The Complete Second Season is available now.

The "Madness Ends" for American Horror Story: Asylum

Article first published as TV Review: American Horror Story: Asylum - "Madness Ends" on Blogcritics.

FX's American Horror Story: Aslyum brings its thirteen episode limited run to an end this week with "Madness Ends." With most of the main characters dead or out of Briarcliff, the primary setting, weeks ago, "Madness Ends" feels like an extended epilogue, combined with the previous installment or two. But it all ties together by the close.

My early complaints about the second series of American Horror Story stem from the lack of character development. While the first season has a family as its heart, people we care about, the second season tends to be more about disturbing visuals and events. There are characters, to be sure, but things are happening to them, rather than seeing them take control of their destiny.

This sorts itself out as the season goes on. Once we can get past the disgust of the place, and the extremely evil souls that flourish within, then we can begin to root for Lana (Sarah Paulson) and Kit (Evan Peters), the victims / heroes of the story. This mirrors their own journey, having to get used to the place, and then find their courage, before they can attempt to change their circumstances.

In last week's episode, which is also set mainly post-Briarcliff, Lana and Kit are not in good places. Kit's misfortune comes by circumstance, while Lana just makes bad choices, but it's not a good way to leave their characters. Thus, we definitely need "Madness Ends" to not only redeem the two, but tie up loose ends so that a semi-happy ending might be found.

First, Kit, since he's the slightly smaller of the two stories. Kit is a good, good man. He manages to forgive Sister Jude (Jessica Lange) for locking him up unfairly and treating him so cruelly. But, while for most, finding forgiveness in their heart would be enough, Kit goes a step further and rescues Jude, both from the asylum, and from herself.

It's an incredibly touching story, to see Kit and his children (Brady Allen and Sade Kimora Young) welcome Jude into their home, caring for her, and bringing her out of her shell, restoring her in all of her glory, maybe more glory than she's ever had before. It goes well above and beyond what is expected of people, and they do truly save her, allowing Jude to become kind and have a family, living out her last days in comfort. By the time Death (Frances Conroy) arrives for the last time, Jude is finally ready to go.

What a story of redemption! Jude is run through the gamut, beginning the season as a victim, getting a deep back story, and then being the most tortured soul on the program. She comes full circle as a doting grandmother figure, and Lange has got to be enjoying playing such a wonderful, fully realized character.

As for Kit himself, this great generosity of spirit must be what the aliens see in him. While some may complain about the extra-terrestrial subplot, and the lack of real explanation, I feel like they come to help us, meaning mankind, move into the next stage of evolution. They pick the best man they can find, and help him on his way. The good die young, and Kit is spent by age forty, so they take him somewhere for his reward. It's all a very spiritual and uplifting arc.

Now, onto Lana. Much of "Madness Ends" takes place nearly five decades after the rest of the story, with Lana as an old, well-respected journalist and writer, about to receive a Kennedy Center Honors ceremony. She builds the life that she wants, but she still doesn't seem quite happy, haunted by those dark days that she suffered, and the wrong decisions she made in the aftermath.

But that doesn't mean Lana is a pushover, or ready to die. When her grown up son, Johnny (Dylan McDermott), comes to kill her, she is prepared. She talks him down, feigning love for her child, and then coldly shoots him, finishing the job she should have completed years ago.

I think some of old Lana's guilt definitely comes from letting her son live. Despite the lies that she tells Johnny, completely in character with the fibs in her work, she already knows who he is and what he has been doing. She knows that she should have gone through with the abortion, and that her attempts to give him a better life failed. What's more, she herself inadvertently sabotages Johnny's chance at happiness because she can't resist checking in on him as a child.

Lana may live, the triumphant hero in some eyes, but she will never be happy like Kit. I half expected her to turn the gun on herself after murdering her son, as while she has accepted some of her misery, I feel like this could be what pushes her over the edge. Or perhaps the days she spends with Kit's family aren't enough to crack that hard shell she builds up immediately after Briarcliff, and she is too far gone for this latest tragedy to affect her too severely.

The capstone, seeing Lana and Jude together at the beginning again, watching Johnny go to the places his parents were at and continue his father's work, and even finding out what happens to Cardinal Howard (Joseph Fiennes), also destroyed by guilt and Lana, all serve to really bind the story together in a fitting conclusion. Some things are regrettable, like what happens to the women that Kit initially loves, but, in the end, American Horror Story: Asylum tells a complete and gripping tale, one not likely to be soon forgotten.

My only slight complaint about the hour is that ending old Lana where she does, sitting on a couch near her son's body, feels slightly unfinished. This isn't fully erased for me by the flashback scene, and I wanted just a touch more there.

But other than that, "Madness Ends" is a fantastic episode in a really good miniseries.

I'd also like to mention, even though it didn't really fit in the flow of this review, that the parts of the story involving Lana's expose and her interview are extremely well done. The grainy camera style back then and the expert make-up in the now are both superb, and make "Madness Ends" one of my favorite episode of the year.

American Horror Story will return for a third season, with a new cast of characters, and returning performers including Lange, Paulson, and Peters, next fall on FX.

Want to read some of my fiction? It's on my website, JeromeWetzel.com! Also, for the latest updates and article links, as well as commentary on episodes I don't fully review, please follow me on Twitter!

American Horror Story checks into an Asylum

Grade: 94%

Some who have heard the premise of AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASYLUM might be surprised when the story begins in present day. Leo (Maroon 5′s Adam Levine) and Teresa (Jenna Dewan-Tatum, The Playboy Club) are a fear-addicted couple on their honey moon, intent on having sex in the scariest of places. Their travels bring them to Briarcliff, a former mental hospital. While there, something attacks Leo, making their good times turn to bad.

This glimpse into the present day, while one hell of an opening scene, is not just that. Some scary movies may have a stand-alone tease before getting to the main story, but the fact that Leo and Teresa are visited later in the episode, “Welcome to Briarcliff,” points to a different agenda. Like season one, time is fluid, and what has happened influences what will happen and vice versa. The two are not main characters, but it is very likely we will see them again.

Thus, AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASLYUM establishes right off the bat that it is going to be as good and complex as the first season. The actors are fantastic, the setting is rich and detailed (and even more creepy), and the story is just as interwoven with itself as ever. Little tidbits are teased out, with many things remaining a mystery. The characters are written in such a way that feel authentic, and yet, remain unpredictable. Viewers cannot possibly see where this is going from one episode alone, but the first installment is so tantalizing, they should want to keep coming back.

The main plot, as advertised, happens in 1964, when Briarcliff is still a functioning facility. The institution is run by Monsignor Timothy O’Hara (Joseph Fiennes, Camelot, FlashForward). His favorite nun, Sister Jude (Jessica Lange, American Horror Story), is quick to judge and likes to whip people, considering sin a horrible thing, but not hypocritically above engaging in it herself. She has plans for Briarcliff, and O’Hara has plans for her. She just wishes that they included sex.

Jude is definitely the most interesting, right out of the gate. Played with a strange accent that doesn’t quite define itself, she has an iron fist, and even her compassionate acts come across as trying to force what her narrow mind thinks of as god’s will, rather than to help people. She wants to cleanse the place, making it her own. It would not be surprising if she gets her way, at least for a time, but it won’t help the patients interned there any more than playing the same cheery song on loop, which she insists happen in the common room, does now.

Jude is challenged by Dr. Arden (James Cromwell, The Artist, Six Feet Under), a man of science. Or so he says. His “advanced” techniques include removing brains from still living patients, and he doesn’t use anesthetic because it messes with his tests. As cruel as Jude can be, and make no mistake about it, Jude is cruel, Arden, with whom she clashes, does not present a better option.

And then there’s poor Sister Eunice (Lily Rabe, also AHS), who is torn between Jude and Arden. A pathetic soul, she may just turn out to be a hero of the piece. At least, that’s my initial guess. Or she may remain too weak to do anything of note.

There’s also another doctor played by Zachary Quinto, the lone main character billed who does not appear in the season premiere. I wonder what role he’ll play in this dynamic?

The hospital’s entire world is threatened by a reporter named Lana (Sarah Paulson, AHS again), who wants to know what is really going on in Briarcliff. Jude tries to shut her out, but Lana is determined, which leads her into serious trouble. Unfortunately for her, Jude is not at all above resorting to blackmail to protect her work, and Lana, being a homosexual in 1964, is ripe for the picking.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASLYUM deals with bigotry in an interesting way. Jude, the only obvious hater from the start, is, of course, a detestable character. But it’s interesting there is both a lesbian (Paulson and Clea DuVall, Carnivale) and a interracial couple in this episode, given the time period. It’s not that this sort of thing didn’t exist back then, it’s just that both are living as openly as can be expected, given the societal norms, and both are part of this story, which has only a limited view of the world. Credit Murphy and Falchuk for their continued themes of inclusion in the unlikeliest of circumstances.

The black and white pairing are Kit (Evan Peters, AHS) and Alma (Britne Oldford, Skins). When Alma is found dead, skinned alive, Kit is assumed to be the serial killer behind it, and it placed in Briarcliff. Yet, Kit thinks he was abducted by aliens that night, an occurrence backed up when Dr. Arden examines him. So it Kit real, or crazy? And is Dr. Arden’s involvement in the story imagined, or does it actually happen? My instincts tell me that Kit is not the killer, because that was Peters’ character’s secret in the first season. And having aliens actually be a part of this story doesn’t seem likely. But you never know.

It’s this blurring of reality that is bound to make AMERICAN HORROR STORY ASYLUM great. In a mental hospital, who’s to say what is real or not? It is a place stocked with crazies (including Lizzie Brochere, R.I.S. Police scientifique, and Chloe Sevigny, Big Love), and depending on the perspective of the scene, things might be seen that don’t really happen. Add to that, visual fantasies and an actual monster, and this is a very strange, terrifying place.

Let’s be honest. What viewers really want to get out of this series is a good scare in a vivid world. Like season one, maybe even more so, the latest installment delivers this in spades, and with a large, talented cast that will provide plenty of tangents to keep the plot moving at an acceptable intensity. If you liked the first season, season two should not disappoint.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY premieres Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET on FX.