Hulu’s ‘The Testaments’ Spins Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Into a YA Series

Tony Sokol

Hulu’s “The Testaments” begins four years after the finale of “The Handmaid’s Tale.” In spite of June Osborne’s (Elisabeth Moss) ambiguous spark of the Mayday resistance, not much has changed in Gilead, which rules most of the United States after a violent far-right military coup imposed a cultural stone age. The totalitarian theocracy’s hierarchy is still in place. The power is consolidated. The 2019 book sequel continues Margaret Atwood’s 1985 cautionary novel to brutal conclusions. The series shifts the focus to a YA point of view. The generation born, raised, and indoctrinated into the national order come of age looking for answers when questions are forbidden. 

The 10-episode first season splits the point of view between three players. Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti) is 16. She is a Plum, a rich and privileged daughter of a high-ranking commander in the ruling regime who has not yet gotten her period, a divine and celebrated passage in the new republic. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), who has had statues erected to her since “The Handmaid’s Tale,” runs the revered Aunt Lydia School. Students are not taught to read, write, study science, math, or history, or develop independent thought. Accepted instructions include scripture, embroidery, needlepoint, cooking, and “domestic management.” Aunt Vidala (Mabel Li) appears to specialize in posture, correcting every slouch with a sharp crack from a corrective crop. Aunt Estee (Eva Foote) and Aunt Gabbana (Zarrin Darnell-Martin) prepare students for the marriage market. Aunt Lydia arranges the matches based on social standing. She assigns Agnes the honor of acclimating a newly-arrived refugee from Toronto, Canada named Daisy (Lucy Halliday), who brings the crucial, outside perspective.

Daisy is a Pearl Girl, rescued recruits who can’t be trusted because they’ve been broken, trained, and burning with the fire of the new convert itching to curry favor by informing on other students. Punishment is cruel, made more agonizing by how each student grimaces in pure righteous hatred, drooling at the chance to declare guilt and assign shame to any rulebreaker. The onscreen brutality is overshadowed by the reactions of the crowd, reminiscent of the propaganda release in George Orwell’s “1984.” The constant threat of unseen duplicity colors every long shot, because the images remain after the sessions finish. 

“The Testaments” maintains an incrementally increasing sense of paranoia, backed up by immediate violent responses to even the slightest lapse of due vigilance. Everyone is always watching, especially “the Eyes,” a private police force with uncanny surveillance access. Gilead is consistently depicted with an oppressive atmosphere, even in broad daylight. The communities of Gilead retain their exterior. 

At school, Agnes and her friends Hulda (Isolde Ardies), Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard), and Becka (Mattea Conforti) are also Plums, enthusiastically programmed to accept an inevitable destiny. Upon “blossoming,” Plums graduate to Greens, where they ride the fast track to mandatory marriage, when they are adorned with a teal blue, and the end of the road as individuals. Memory of “The Handmaid’s Tale” presents this as an unstoppable assembly line, devoid of all choice. By law, husbands command absolute dominance and can never be questioned. As the Save Act openly treads on similar concerns, the individual is inclined to identify with Agnes and Daisy.

Series creator Bruce Miller circles the young women being groomed for arranged marriage. The preparations can be downright scary. Rituals, complete with shrouded and robed classmates surrounding the uninitiated, are performed after midnight kidnappings. The series effectively exposes the presumed privileges of the pious and powerful. Newly blossomed women endure invasive medical probes, and sexually forward dental examinations, like Agnes’s overly familiar xray adjustment from Becka’s dad Dr. Grove. As Gilead teaches, men’s actions are women’s fault, there is no redress, only confession. 

Infiniti swallows the pain with every revelation. Infiniti is completely believable as Agnes’s illusions dissolve slowly, rather than shatter into an explosion of inauthentic rage. The young cast reign in their performances, balancing the draw of the commercial sheen. Shunammite’s zealous competition makes for good comedy, which may not be a popular attribute to nab a top commander’s wife, but Blanchard’s cutting put-downs offset Halliday’s shocked disbelief. Becka’s fear of impending marriage consumes every sideways glance. All characters repress their feelings for fear of discovery. 

The Marthas provide different functions. They keep the false front of the household spotless, maintain covert loyalties, and color the claustrophobic nature of social situations. Agnes easily confides in Rosa (Kira Guloien), an injured helper who served the family long before the stepmother, Paula (Amy Seimetz), took over supervision. Paula employs uniquely dismissive labor relations with the help. After explaining how Zilla’s (Blessing Adedijo) tongue was ripped out for possible blasphemy, Paula offhandedly remarks how quiet the household’s become. Paula also hints at mercy killings as an answer to incompetence. Yet Seimetz brings nearly vulnerable moments obscured between ascribed religious mottos. Everyone has a history, and it appears Paula wants to open up to Agnes. Though it may still contain ulterior motives, as does everything in Gilead.

“Testaments” continues “The Handmaid’s Tale,” without distinguishing itself on its own merits. Hulu’s dystopian vision imposes a juvenile “Hunger Games”/”The Maze Runner” feel to the adaptation. Teen drama tension works best when moments of play, such as the frolicking innocence of a park, are framed by the harsher images of the surrounding reality. The students run happily around a tree while surrounded by armed forces of Gilead. “The Testaments” is disturbing, but without subtlety. Like episodic TV, it offers no true surprise turns, except the teased return of a “The Handmaid’s Tale” mainstay. The progression is imminently watchable, but will not challenge expectations.

“The Testaments” begins streaming April 8 with new episodes premiering Wednesdays on Hulu.