When The Handmaid’s Tale debuted on Hulu in April of 2017, the parallels between the misogynistic, religious conservatism of Gilead and the misogynistic, conservative politics of the new Trump administration were hard to ignore, so much so that the show almost immediately bled into the political rhetoric and protests of the time. Even though the project got a straight-to-series order well before the 2016 presidential election was decided, its arrival seemed perfectly timed to match the moment.The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1-5 Download
Four years later, the fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which begins Wednesday, also seems like it was designed to reflect the current American climate. Picking up where season three left off, with June (Elisabeth Moss) stuck in Gilead (again!) and a plane filled with 86 children and numerous women from Gilead landing in Canada, the new episodes explore the challenges of starting over after experiencing intense trauma. The question that acts as a common thread this season is this: When a person has focused for so long on escaping an oppressor, what do they do when they finally emerge and get to breathe real, liberating oxygen again? That quandary taps right into the “what now?” vibe of 2021, when the Trump era is (at least in theory) behind us and we’re starting to see signs of light at the end of our pandemic tunnel.
In seasons two and three, The Handmaid’s Tale got stuck in a bit of a hamster wheel in which June would face off with her adversaries — principally her former masters Serena and Fred Waterford (Yvonne Strahovski and Joseph Fiennes) and brutal handmaid minder Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) — over and over, almost get out of Gilead, and then be compelled to stay at the last minute. Thankfully, season four finally regains some momentum and forward motion. Based on the eight out of ten total episodes made available to critics, this is the best The Handmaid’s Tale has been since its first season.