They are saying that historical past doesn’t repeat itself, however it typically rhymes. Hulu’s first Margaret Atwood adaptation, the award-winning “The Handmaid’s Tale,” turned a cultural phenomenon when it premiered in 2017, its exploration of utmost misogyny, authoritarianism, and the battle over girls’s reproductive rights an uncomfortably well timed companion to the primary Donald Trump administration. The present’s iconic crimson cloaks and white bonnets turned mainstays at protests and demonstrations, and plenty of of its most recognizable sayings (“Below His Eye,” “Blessed be the fruit”) crossed over into mainstream political commentary.
Positive, a lot of the hype across the present had fizzled by the point it concluded in 2025: six seasons of escalating torture porn with a worldwide pandemic within the center was quite a bit for even essentially the most invested viewer to abdomen. However it’s onerous to overstate what a needed piece of resistance leisure its earliest seasons have been.
Now, the streamer’s second Atwood collection, based mostly on the creator’s long-awaited “Handmaid’s” follow-up, “The Testaments,” arrives at a political and cultural second that bears some uncomfortably putting similarities to the one which greeted its predecessor. A yr right into a second Trump administration, the politics of each resistance and survival have modified drastically, so it’s solely pure that the world of Gilead and its evils would have equally advanced. However whereas “The Testaments” could strategy its material fairly otherwise—its protagonists are teen ladies, there’s a conspicuous lack of seen Handmaids, and far much less grisly violence—its themes are not any much less complicated and its story no much less needed.
Like “The Handmaid’s Story” earlier than it, “The Testaments” shouldn’t be what anybody would name a very strict adaptation of Atwood’s novel. However, whereas it could play a bit quick and free with a number of parts of the e book’s story, the spirit of the piece is strictly proper. Disturbingly related and brutal by turns, the collection is as incisive and insightful as its predecessor. Right here, the monstrousness of Gilead is dressed within the mushy silks of privilege and the quiet consolation of ignorance, and resistance is grounded as a lot in solidarity and friendship as it’s rage. The result’s an unexpectedly highly effective coming-of-age story that gives a contemporary, important return to a universe many viewers doubtless thought had nothing new to say.
THE TESTAMENTS
Whereas Atwood’s novel picks up 15 years after the occasions of “The Handmaid’s Story,” solely about 4 years or so have handed on the earth of the TV present. Purges have taken place within the wake of the Warfare of Massachusetts, and far of the historical past of what occurred has been formed, if not outright rewritten, by those that survived. Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd), a key participant in a lot of “The Handmaid’s Story,” who has, because the present places it, “been worshipped, vilified, and is now worshipped once more,” now runs a faculty for the daughters of Gilead’s elite. These younger girls, raised in luxurious and benefit, have little actual understanding of what life is actually like for the feminine servants in their very own households, not to mention the ladies exterior their nation’s repressive borders.
Aunt Lydia’s faculty is a type of authoritarian ending academy, the place younger girls are despatched to not higher themselves however to discover ways to perform the varied wifely duties anticipated of them as the long run spouses of Gilead’s most extremely ranked Commanders. Right here, studying isn’t as needed as embroidery, ideas like intercourse training are mainly nonexistent, and obedience is paramount. The scholars’ uniforms are shade coordinated: Pinks are the youngest ladies, Plums are older teenagers, and Greens are those that’ve develop into “eligible” and may marry that yr. (This transition happens if and provided that a Plum will get her interval, which is marked by a public confession and reward ceremony.)
The majority of the story revolves round Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti), the pious daughter of a robust Gilead chief. She’s by no means wished for something and has no expertise or consciousness of life earlier than or exterior of Gilead. On some degree, it’s virtually disturbing how typical she appears, chasing round after her associates on faculty discipline journeys, crushing on the good-looking younger man assigned to function her private safety, worrying over the match of a brand new skirt.
However issues start to vary when she’s requested to mentor Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a not too long ago arrived Pearl Woman—Aunt Lydia’s time period for a foreigner who has come to Gilead looking for to transform and decide to its lifestyle—from Canada, who has a painful historical past and secrets and techniques of her personal. As the 2 develop nearer, Daisy’s forthrightness leads Agnes to start to query the world round her in ways in which threaten to vary her life and future endlessly.
AMY SEIMETZ
One of the vital outstanding issues about “The Testaments” is that, for all its dystopian setting and authoritarian trappings, it’s really a reasonably relatable and compelling teen drama. Sure, it takes place in a nightmarish hellscape the place many of the ladies at its heart don’t know sufficient in regards to the world round them to acknowledge every thing that they’re lacking out on. (Like freedom and bodily autonomy.)
But, lots of its plot beats are nonetheless deeply acquainted: The women get jealous of each other’s successes, have crushes they shouldn’t, and stress about assembly the expectations of others. The truth is, they typically appear so regular that it’s genuinely stunning after they abruptly parrot the acquainted speaking factors of their authorities about issues like gender traitors and fallen girls. However over the course of the season’s ten episodes, they discover growing methods (each refined and never a lot) to lastly declare their very own energy.
Infiniti makes for a succesful lead, strolling a nice line between Gilead golden lady and conventional teen, partaking in small acts of riot, resenting the adults in her life (notably her unkind stepmother), and questioning the reality of the parentage she’s been saved from. (Like many in Gilead, she is technically the daughter of a Handmaid.) However it’s Halliday who steals the present, her Daisy a mass of contradictions and rage, who finds herself rather more connected to the ladies at Aunt Lydia’s than she ever anticipated to be.
The present has a robust ensemble really feel, and the friendships among the many ladies at its heart really feel lived-in and relatable, regardless of the horrific circumstances wherein they unfold. Mattea Conforti is a selected standout as Agnes’s Gilead BFF Becka, and Rowan Blanchard affords some surprisingly satisfying comedic moments as group gossip Shunammite.
“The Testaments” is many issues: A political cautionary story, a warning towards each complicity and complacency, a love letter to friendship, and a welcome reminder of the facility of teenage ladies to vary the world. If the teachings of “The Handmaid’s Story” revolved round a single girl’s capacity to battle for change, right here that work is reworked into a gaggle effort—and a needed reminder that even within the bleakest of occasions, we’re stronger than we’re aside.
All ten episodes screened for evaluation. Premieres April 8 on Hulu.
