Given how hard “The Handmaid’s Tale” can be to watch, it’s amazing how beautiful it is. Her Aunt Lydia is a fascinating amalgam of contradictions — glimpses of sympathy and true belief amid blatant hypocrisy, sadism and condescension. The decisive moment of the Season 1 finale was the handmaids’ refusal to stone Janine: an act of mercy and a passive exercise of power. Crucial to this season, it seems, will be the question: What are the limits of mercy? The writers last season understandably wanted to incorporate the book’s narrative voice, and the monologues still make good grace notes.

Source: New York Times April 25, 2018 20:15 UTC