The Handmaid's Tale (TV series)

The Handmaid's Tale is an American dystopian television series created by Bruce Miller, based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. The series was ordered by the streaming service Hulu as a straight-to-series order of ten episodes, for which production began in late 2016. The plot features a dystopia following a Second American Civil War wherein a theonomic, totalitarian society subjects fertile women, called "Handmaids", to child-bearing slavery.
The first three episodes of the series premiered on April 26, 2017; the subsequent episodes were released weekly, finishing on June 14. In July 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth season, which premiered on April 27, 2021. In September 2019, it was announced that Hulu and MGM were developing a sequel series, to be based on Atwood's 2019 novel The Testaments. In December 2020, ahead of the fourth season premiere, the series was renewed for a fifth season, which premiered on September 14, 2022. In September 2022, ahead of the fifth-season premiere, the series was renewed for a sixth and final season, which is set to premiere on April 8, 2025.
The Handmaid's Tale's first season won eight Primetime Emmy Awards from 13 nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series. It is the first show produced by Hulu to win a major award and the first series on a streaming service to win an Emmy for Outstanding Series. It also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Drama. Elisabeth Moss was also awarded the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series.
In a world where fertility rates have collapsed as a result of sexually transmitted diseases and environmental pollution, the totalitarian, theonomic government of Gilead has established its rule in the former United States in the aftermath of a civil war. Society is organized by power-hungry leaders along with a new, militarized, hierarchical régime of religious fanaticism and newly created social classes, in which women are brutally subjugated. By law, women in Gilead are forced to work in severely limited roles, including some as natal slaves, and they are not allowed to own property, have careers, handle money, or even read and write (apart from the Aunts).
Worldwide infertility has led to the enslavement of fertile women in Gilead determined by the new régime to be fallen women, citing an extremist interpretation of the Biblical account of Bilhah. These women often include those who have entered marriages following divorce (termed "adulteresses", as divorce is not recognized under Gileadian law), single or unmarried mothers, lesbians (homosexuals being termed "gender traitors"), non-Christians, adherents of Christian denominations other than the "Sons of Jacob", political dissidents, and academics.
These women, called Handmaids, are assigned to the homes of the ruling elite, where they must submit to ritualized rape (referred to as "the ceremony") by their male masters ("Commanders") in the presence of their wives with the intent of being impregnated and bearing children for them. Handmaids are given names created by the addition of the prefix Of- to the first name of the man who has them. When they are transferred, their names are changed.
Along with the Handmaids, much of society is now grouped into classes that dictate their freedoms and duties. Women are divided into a small range of social categories, each one signified by a plain dress in a specific color. A Handmaid’s outfit consists of a long red dress, a red cloak, heavy brown boots, and a white coif, with a larger white bonnet (known as "wings") to be worn outside, which conceals her from the public view and restricts her vision.
June Osborne, renamed Offred, is the Handmaid assigned to the home of the Gileadan Commander Fred Waterford and his wife Serena Joy, key players in the formation and rise of Gilead, who struggle with the realities of the society they helped create. During "the time before", June was married to Luke and had a daughter, Hannah.
At the beginning of the story, while attempting to flee Gilead with her husband and daughter, June was captured and forced to become a Handmaid because of the "adultery" she and her husband committed. June's daughter was taken and given to an upper-class family to raise, and her husband escaped into Canada. Much of the plot revolves around June's desire to be reunited with her husband and daughter and the internal evolution of her strength to its somewhat darker version.
In the second season, Oprah Winfrey has an uncredited appearance as a newsreader on a car radio.
Development of The Handmaid's Tale began with Ilene Chaiken at Showtime, but the network passed on the pilot, and Chaiken was hired as showrunner for Empire. MGM's Steve Stark was determined to find a female writer, but after difficulty he hired Bruce Miller for his enthusiasm. The strength of the script attracted star Elisabeth Moss and executive producer Warren Littlefield, which together created a straight-to-series order from Hulu, which was announced in April 2016. Based on the 1985 novel of the same name by Margaret Atwood, the series was created by Bruce Miller, who is also an executive producer with Daniel Wilson, Fran Sears, and Warren Littlefield. Atwood serves as consulting producer, giving feedback on some of the areas where the series expands upon or modernizes the book. She also played a small cameo role in the first episode. Moss is also a producer.
In June 2016, Reed Morano was announced as director of the series. Samira Wiley, Max Minghella, and Ann Dowd joined the cast in July 2016. Joseph Fiennes, Madeline Brewer, and Yvonne Strahovski were cast in August 2016, followed by O-T Fagbenle and Amanda Brugel in September 2016. In October 2016, Ever Carradine joined the cast, and Alexis Bledel was added in January 2017. Filming on the series took place in Toronto, Mississauga, Brantford, Hamilton, Burlington, Oakville, and Cambridge, Ontario, from September 2016 to February 2017. Hulu released the first full trailer of the TV series on YouTube, on March 23, 2017. The series premiered on April 26, 2017.
On May 3, 2017, The Handmaid's Tale was renewed for a second season which premiered on April 25, 2018. Moss told the news media that the subsequent episodes would cover further developments in the story, filling in some of the unanswered questions and continuing the narrative already "finished" in the book. The second season consists of 13 episodes and began filming in the fall of 2017. Alexis Bledel returned as a series regular. Showrunner Bruce Miller stated that he envisioned 10 seasons of the show, stating, "Well, you know, honestly, when I started, I tried to game out in my head what would ten seasons be like? If you hit a home run, you want energy to go around the bases, you want enough story to keep going, if you can hook the audience to care about these people enough that they're actually crying at the finale." Season 2 was filmed in Ontario, primarily in Toronto, but some scenes were shot in Hamilton and Cambridge.
On May 2, 2018, Hulu renewed the series for a third season, which premiered on June 5, 2019. Season 3 started production in Toronto in October 2018. Scenes for season 3 were also filmed in Cambridge and Hamilton, Ontario as well as in Washington, D.C. Season 3 saw the show's long-serving Director of Photography, Colin Watkinson, make his directorial debut with the episode "Unknown Caller". Cambridge, Ontario was nominated by the Location Managers Guild International for "Outstanding Film Office" for their work on this season. This was the first time that a Canadian Film Office was nominated for this honor.
On July 26, 2019, the series was renewed for a fourth season. Season 4, consisting of 10 episodes, began production in March 2020, with Elisabeth Moss filming her directorial debut, but work had to be halted after only a few weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, Hulu announced that the fourth season would premiere in 2021. Production on season 4 resumed in September 2020 and wrapped on February 25, 2021, with Moss having directed three episodes.
On December 10, 2020, ahead of the fourth season premiere, Hulu renewed the series for a fifth season. Season 5 started production in Toronto in February 2022 and continued through July 2022. In May 2022, Alexis Bledel departed the series ahead of the fifth season, and stated, "After much thought, I felt I had to step away from The Handmaid's Tale".
On September 8, 2022, ahead of the fifth-season premiere, Hulu renewed the series for a sixth and final season. In March 2023, it was reported that Miller had stepped down as showrunner of The Handmaid's Tale, in order to focus on adapting The Testaments for television. Eric Tuchman and Yahlin Chang were named co-showrunners for the sixth and final season, though it was also announced that Miller would remain involved and would write two episodes for the season. Production was originally set to begin in 2023, but was delayed due to the Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Filming of the final season began in September 2024 and ended in early February 2025.
The first three episodes of the series premiered on April 26, 2017. The subsequent seven episodes were released on a weekly basis. In Canada, the series is broadcast weekly by CTV Drama Channel and the streaming service Crave; the first two episodes premiered on April 30, 2017. In Scandinavia, the series is available on HBO Nordic. In the United Kingdom, the series premiered on May 28, 2017, on Channel 4.
In New Zealand, the series was released on the subscription video on demand service Lightbox on June 8, 2017. After satellite service provider Sky acquired Lightbox and merged it into its streaming service Neon on July 7, 2020, Neon acquired the distribution rights to the series in New Zealand.
In Australia, the series premiered on the TV channel SBS's video streaming service SBS on Demand, on July 6, 2017. The series also released on the subscription video on demand service Stan on December 12, 2018.
In Ireland, the series premiered on February 5, 2018, on RTÉ2, with a showing of the first two episodes. RTÉ also became the first broadcaster in Europe to debut Season 2, Season 3 and Season 4 following its broadcast in the US and Canada. In Brazil and Latin America, the series premiered on March 7, 2018, on Paramount Channel.
In India, the series premiered on February 5, 2018, on AXN and ran for the first two seasons before moving to Amazon Prime Video for Season 3, which made all three seasons available for viewing on January 31, 2020.
In Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the series premiered on September 15, 2018, on HBO Asia through HBO Go (now Max).
The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD on March 13, 2018, the second season on December 4, 2018, and the third season on November 19, 2019, by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. The fourth season was released on DVD only (no Blu-ray) on April 5, 2022, by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
The Handmaid's Tale was ranked as the 25th and 38th best TV series of the 21st century by The Guardian and BBC, respectively. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the overall series has an approval rating of 83%. While on Metacritic, another aggregator website, it has an average score of 81 out of 100.
On Rotten Tomatoes, 94% of 260 reviews are positive for the first season, with an average rating of 8.65/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Haunting and vivid, The Handmaid's Tale is an endlessly engrossing adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel that's anchored by a terrific central performance from Elisabeth Moss." On Metacritic, the season has a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter called it "probably the spring's best new show". Jen Chaney of Vulture gave it a highly positive review, and wrote that it is "A faithful adaptation of the book that also brings new layers to Atwood's totalitarian, sexist world of forced surrogate motherhood" and that "this series is meticulously paced, brutal, visually stunning, and so suspenseful from moment to moment that only at the end of each hour will you feel fully at liberty to exhale".
On Rotten Tomatoes, 89% of 341 critics have given the season a positive review, and an average rating of 8.35/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Beautifully shot but dishearteningly relevant, The Handmaid's Tale centers its sophomore season tightly around its compelling cast of characters, making room for broader social commentary through more intimate lenses." Metacritic assigned the season a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Some critics perceived the second season's depictions of violence as excessive. The Atlantic's Sophie Gilbert wrote: "There came a point during the first episode where, for me, it became too much." Lisa Miller of The Cut wrote: "I have pressed mute and fast forward so often this season, I am forced to wonder: 'Why am I watching this'? It all feels so gratuitous, like a beating that never ends." The Daily Telegraph's Rebecca Reid admitted she had an anxiety attack watching an episode of the show.
For the third season, Rotten Tomatoes reports that 82% of 302 reviews are positive, and the average rating is 6.9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Handmaid's Tale's third season reins in its horrors and inspires hope that revolution really is possible – if only the story would stop spinning its wheels and get to it already." Metacritic compiled 14 critic reviews and an average score of 68 out of 100, signifying "generally favorable reviews".
Kelly Lawler of USA Today gave it a positive review, scoring it three out of four stars. She claimed it is an improvement over the second season, "that rights many – though definitely not all – of Season 2's wrongs." Overall, she wrote, "The new season is more propulsive and watchable, although it doesn't quite reach the heights of that first moving season. But Handmaid's regains its footing by setting off on a new path".
Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter wrote a generally positive review, praising Elisabeth Moss's performance and the cinematography, but criticized the plot "that has become frustratingly repetitive". Overall, he wrote, "Still occasionally powerful, but rarely as provocative".
On Rotten Tomatoes, the fourth season earned positive reviews from 70% of 46 critics, with an average rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Elisabeth Moss is better than ever, but scattershot plotting and an overbearing sense of doom may prove too grim for some viewers to really enjoy The Handmaid's Tale's fourth season." According to Metacritic, which collected 18 reviews and calculated an average score of 62, the season received "generally positive reviews".
Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly gave it a "C+" grade and wrote that the series "delivers on some long-delayed promises, but ultimately it's too little, too late." Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe wrote, "the dystopian drama has exceeded the natural lifespan of its story, as it plows forward with nothing new to say, tinkling cymbals and sounding brass." In a more positive review from Jen Chaney of Vulture, she wrote, "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."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the fifth season earned positive reviews from 80% of 31 critics, with an average rating of 7.55/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The Handmaid's Tale has lost its urgency after spreading its once-arresting premise thin in a season focused on vengeance's consequences, but the women of Gilead are still played with compelling exactitude." On Metacritic, it received an average score of 63 out of 100, based on 7 reviews, indicating "generally positive reviews".
Critics were given the first eight episodes of the season to review. Writing for IGN, Tara Bennett gave it a "good" score of 7 out of 10 and wrote in her verdict: "The Handmaid's Tale remains the canary in the coalmine of TV shows [...]. Elisabeth Moss continues to give a livewire performance as former handmaid/now Canadian refugee June Osborne. [...] But overall, the series continues to suffer with very measured storylines that can't seem to recapture the kinetic energy of the first two seasons." Abby Cavenaugh of Collider graded it with a "B-" and said, "Season 5 is full of scarce highs and really low lows, lots of heavy-hitting drama, and emotional scenes. Some of the biggest events of this season lead to some pretty uncomfortable viewing, but viewers who stick with it will be rewarded with some huge moments that will have repercussions for the final season."
On Rotten Tomatoes, the sixth season earned positive reviews from 100% of 12 critics, with an average rating of 8.3/10.
Writing for TheWrap, Lauren Thoman stated: "The Handmaid’s Tale Season 6 delivers on the promises it’s been making since the beginning, for better and for worse. Buckle up for a furious and frenzied ride. Nolite te bastardes carborundorum."
There was much debate on whether parallels could be drawn between the series (and by extension, the book it is based on) and American society during the Presidency of Donald Trump. Comparisons were also made to the practices implemented by the Islamic State, such as throwing homosexuals from rooftops, as well as the policies of the Christian reconstructionist movement of the 1970s and 1980s that sought to expel women from the workforce.
Several protests around the world, especially related to women's rights, have made use of the red handmaid uniforms from the TV series.
In 2018, online retailer Yandy.com sparked controversy by marketing a sexualized version of the handmaid costume for Halloween. The retailer subsequently pulled the costume in response to widespread criticism.
In 2017, The Handmaid's Tale made history as the first streaming series to win the Outstanding Drama Series Emmy. However, in 2021, despite receiving 21 nominations, it did not secure any wins, setting a record for Emmy losses.