The Handmaid's Tale as a Television Series
- Riki
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The Handmaid's Tale as a Television Series
And to anyone that's both read and watched "The Handmaid's Tale," how do they compare?
In my experience, the novels are always much better than the film adaptations, but I'd really like a second opinion.
Thanks in advance~!
- Pursephone
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As far as I can say, while avoiding spoilers, is that the series follows the book... adequately. People who need an exact replica of the book to be translated on screen will be disappointed. That being said, I personally think it has been one of the better(if not best) book to screen adaptation. The key scenes are there, some times in an order that it wasn't in the book, sometimes toned down from how brutal the book can get. The Offred on screen quotes actual lines from the book frequently. The series adds on to characters that in the book are rather throw away. In fact, the series takes liberties to add things to the story that, I think, answer some questions that Atwood purposefully left unanswered in the book. If that isn't something that you typically like you probably won't like the show. I'm looking forward to rewatching the series because the book left me wanting at the end, in both a satisfied and dissatisfied way.
This part is speculation, but the second season probably will have little to do with the book.
In the end I say: read the book for sure before the series, because it's a good book. Then maybe give the series a try if you aren't a screen adaption purist and you liked the book.
- lindsaysherlock
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I have read and am up to date on the series. They are built similarly but the characters ages and sequence is a little off. Seirina, (sorry if miss-spelled) is supposed to be a little passed her fifties but is shown as a woman just getting to her forties. (Same with Mr.Waterford.) A cane and limp ailing her every movement as she looks slightly down a June.
There is a very mixed up sequential order; I am kind of lost between the book and the series. Some sections in the series are not even mentioned in the book. And a certain handmaid, in the book, has had two more lost children than in the series.
Good book over all but the TV series wins the beans on this one.
- chupke07
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- starkpages
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For some reason, some women in Gilead have become barren. To have children, they force other women to sleep with their husbands and then take these children for themselves.
These poor breeder women are called Handmaids, because the Bible has a story about how a barren woman made her slave handmaids sleep with her husband and then take their children. The real maidservants are called "Marthas" after Martha from the new covenant.
However, there was nothing in the book about how this terrible Gilead appeared in North America. It is also not clear why some women have become barren. Does the TV series have the answers to these questions?
- Charlie19
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I know "The Handmaids Tale" was the first book...what was the second book?? Was it the one that just came out? Or had it come out before the series aired.
I felt like the series did really capture the "feeling" the book was trying to give off. The demeanor of the characters as well as the environments in which they lived was really brought to life, in my opinion. Id recommend both. Book first, always.