TOMATOMETER
Critic Consensus: Levity is found in the form of perfectly suited -- and surprisingly humorous -- song choices that help "Birth Day" overcome the hopelessness of Gilead.
Episode Info
Cast
as Offred
as Commander Fred Waterford
as Serena Joy
as Moira
as Luke
as Ofglen
as Nick
as Janine
as Rita
as Aunt Lydia
Birth Day Photos
Critic reviews for Birth Day
The moment plays equally devastating and funny, but that's why I love the show's use of humor and music: if you don't have a gallows humor you don't have anything.
The real pleasure of this episode was seeing Joseph Fiennes sink his teeth into a meaty role.
Sometimes you're in the horror movie; sometimes, nobody wins.
No, I actually mean that: The producers used the song from The Breakfast Club and it's perfect.
While I'd love to envision Moira and Ofglen and any other Gilead escapee possibly rallying help up north, you just know they're probably enduring something painful somewhere awful.
Atwood has often said that she didn't write fantasy in The Handmaid's Tale-everything that happens in this story happens, or has happened, or is happening, to women in the real world. This is a horror story about slut-shaming.
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