The Handmaid's Tale praised as it makes UK TV debut

It has been a long time coming but America’s critically-acclaimed TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s bestselling novel, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’, finally reached our television screens last night, and boy was it worth the wait.

The Channel 4 drama was highly praised by viewers as it made its British TV debut, with many even warning that the dystopian future depicted in the show isn’t quite as unlikely as it might seem at first glance.

For those unfamiliar, The Handmaid’s Tale stars Elisabeth Moss as Offred, a handmaid assigned to the home of Gileadan Commander Fred Waterford [Joseph Fiennes] and his infertile wife Serena Joy [Yvonne Strahovski].

Offred is tasked with being impregnated by Fred so that she can carry his and Serena’s child, at the same time being subjected to strict rules and scrutiny, with one foot out of place often leading to a handmaid’s execution.

The show is set in a dystopian future that has seen a Christian fundamentalist government take over America, organising all citizens into a militarized, hierarchical regime of Bible-inspired social and religious fanaticism, with women losing all of their civil rights – even being banned from reading.

Environmental contamination has left most women infertile, meaning that the few remaining fertile women are assigned to the homes of ruling elite in order to bear their children.

As well as the horrors of what is going on around Offred, the show features heartbreaking flashbacks to her normal life before the new government took over, where she was happily married with a young daughter – who she hasn’t seen since authorities caught them attempting to cross the border into Canada, separating them and forcing Offred into life as a handmaid.

Needless to say, viewers were left gripped by the shocking TV drama, and many fans of Atwood’s original novel also praised the show for how true it had stayed to the book:

The Handmaid’s Tale continues on Channel 4 this Sunday at 9pm.