A titanic showdown looms
After last season’s stumble, this dystopian drama feels like it is moving towards some ultimate triumph – or tragedy, writes James Croot.
As the fifth season of The Handmaid’s Tale opens (now streaming on Neon), June Osborne (Elisabeth Moss) literally has blood on her hands.
Her elaborate plan to intercept her former master and tormentor Commander Fred Waterford (Joseph Fiennes) after he had been swapped for 22 women as part of a prisoner exchange between the United States and Gilead government worked perfectly. Trapping him in noman’s land near the Canadian border, she and her angry mob had cornered him – and meted out justice.
‘‘I killed him,’’ she dreamily triumphs, while oblivious to any further questioning from her husband Luke
(O T Fagbenle). Later, while tucking into a pancake breakfast, she detachedly announces that, ‘‘everything tastes better when Fred’s dead’’.
But while others begin plotting who to take down next, June starts to have visions – and remorse about the events of the night before. Despite Luke’s protests, she makes a full confession to the Toronto police. When they won’t press charges, because the act took place outside their jurisdiction, she feels even more bereft.
‘‘There just can’t be no punishment,’’ she wails.
‘‘That’s between you and your deity,’’ comes the reply.
There is one person eager for June to face the music. Waterford’s wife Serena (Yvonne Strahovski) is on the warpath, particularly incensed by receiving not only his ring but also his ring finger as evidence of his demise.
Moved to a more secure location by authorities – for the protection of her and her unborn child – she’s determined that Waterford should be buried in Gilead. ‘‘Any civilised country would have the decency to allow it,’’ she rages.
While acquiescing to investigate her request, US government operative Mark Tuello (Sam Jaeger) also warns June of impending trouble.
‘‘Serena is scared – and scared is very dangerous, Ms Osborne. Gilead are also scared. A handmaid killing a master – I don’t think they are going to let that stand.’’
Directed by Moss herself, this first instalment of the new batch of 10 episodes puts all the pieces in place for an intriguing run ahead.
Everything seems set for a showdown between the two main female protagonists.
For a show that was starting to go nowhere fast, essentially in circles between Gilead and Canada, it finally feels like it might be progressing towards some ultimate triumph – or tragedy.
It would be nice though to have a sense of how many seasons screenwriter Bruce Miller has left to fill, having long left Margaret Atwood’s source material’s rather ambiguous ending far behind.
As always, it’s Strahovski and Moss’ sterling work that helps sell the drama, the latter’s June looking and acting increasingly worldweary, jaded and cynical, as her fight to end Gilead rumbles on – and escalates.
Season 5 of The Handmaid’s Tale is now streaming on Neon.
Shining Vale
(9pm, Thursdays, Soho)
Broadcast premiere for Friends and Cougar Town star Courteney Cox’s latest return to TV. This is an eight-part horror comedy about a family who move to a small town and a house in which terrible atrocities have previously taken place. Once the author of a hit ‘‘female empowerment’’ novel, Cox’s Pat Phelps quickly becomes convinced she’s either depressed or possessed by her new surroundings. Greg Kinnear and Rob Morrow also appear.
Brokeback Mountain
(7.30pm, Friday, Bravo)
Heath Ledger, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anne Hathaway and Michelle Williams star in Ang Lee’s haunting, heartbreaking, Oscar-winning 2005 drama about a forbidden and secretive relationship between two cowboys. ‘‘This film is determined to involve us in the naturalness and even inevitability of its epic, complicated love story,’’ wrote The Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan.