TV: The Handmaid's Tale: 1x01 - Offred

I found myself sitting through the first episode of Hulu's The Handmaid's Tale on Sunday afternoon, and in an unexpected confluence of the stars, the following Wednesday I stumbled on a Yale Courses lecture on YouTube about Queer Theory and Gender Performativity which reminded me of my affection for the theories of one Judith Butler. It's an interesting bit of timing that one thing happened and then the other, but definitely fitting as my thoughts upon listening to the lecture immediately had me circling how ideas of gender and sex have been appropriated and re-written in The Handmaid's Tale, and how survival in this universe requires unflagging commitment to performing an identity that has absolutely nothing to do with the individual and everything to do with a prescribed archetype created for the benefit of the top 1% of the population. In other words, it's like real life!

Elizabeth Moss is gold in the performance and the running interior monologue throughout the episode beautifully depicts the duality of June as Offred (reality vs function), offering entre into the world and creating immediate empathy or the character. It also provided quite a bit of backstory quickly and efficiently, highlighted Offred's peril, and ratcheted up the tension while maintaining the calm, orderly yet sinister veneer that Gilead is working so hard to maintain. Without that I never would have made it through the hour and trust me when I say that there were moments when I was ready to call it a day. My commitment to watching THMT flagged considerably at times and I was convinced that I wasn't going to be able to watch this series, except that a wealth of friends advised me that it's worth watching. The advice, offered consistently by everyone: don't try and binge it.
( My name is Offred. I had another name, but it's forbidden now. So many things are forbidden now. )