Handmaid unravels around one person
How the dystopian drama lurches unpredictably but keeps going on the strength of its star
AS THE HANDMAID’S TALE returns for season four, its creator is reluctant to predict when the dystopian drama will be ready for its final act.
“Every time I come upon a season, I don’t have any idea what we’re going to do,” Bruce Miller says. “And every time I get to the end of the season, I’m thrilled with what we’ve done . . . and I feel like I could go on and on forever.”
That's if Elisabeth Moss sticks with the series based on Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, says Miller. He lavished praise on Moss as a fellow executive producer and a newly minted director for the series, as well as its star.
“I think I can keep going as long as I can rope Lizzie into it,” Miller says.
Asked at another point during a virtual Q&A with TV critics if he considered killing Moss' character, June, last season, his reply was a swift “no”.
“The show is called The Handmaid’s Tale, ” he says. “It's about her."
Miller says he’s fascinated by what unfolds in Atwood's 2019 companion novel, The Testaments, set 15 years later. Whether it's going to be “part of our future, that’s a bigger question”.
Hulu acquired rights to the book with a sequel series in mind.
The Handmaid's Tale is already renewed for another season, but the 10-episode arc doesn’t hold back on playing out story lines, Miller says. “We’re delivering,” he said. “We were trying to make progress. You know, it was time for [expletive] to happen.”
Warren Littlefield, also an executive producer for the show, said this season is about “patience rewarded”.
After planting seeds for several years “about this uprising and hotspot in Chicago” that the repressive Gilead regime is unable to control, Littlefield says, the action moves there from what had been “our central universe” near Boston.
In the approaching season, rebel leader June takes risks and faces new challenges, which could also be said of Moss. She directed three episodes under trying pandemic-safety conditions.
“I just felt I was up to the task after a few years of watching and learning and working with some really incredible directors,” says Moss, who won a best drama actress Emmy in 2017 for The