Home > The Handmaid's Tale > Season 1 « TV Series Page The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 (2017) SEASON: Season 1 Season 1 Season 2 Season 3 Season 4 Want to see Episode List Season 1 The Handmaid's Tale Critics Consensus Haunting and vivid, The Handmaid's Tale is an endlessly engrossing adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel that's anchored by a terrific central performance from Elisabeth Moss. 94% TOMATOMETER Critic Ratings: 124 91% Audience Score User Ratings: 3526 See score details Rate And Review Submit review Want to see Edit Submit review Super Reviewer Verified Super Reviewer Verified Edit Super Reviewer Rate this season Oof, that was Rotten. Meh, it passed the time. It’s good – I’d recommend it. Awesome! So Fresh: Absolute Must See! What did you think of this tv season? (optional) Submit Continue Super Reviewer Step 2 of 2 How did you buy your ticket? Let's get your review verified. Submit By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. You're almost there! Just confirm how you got your ticket. Super Reviewer Rate this season Oof, that was Rotten. Meh, it passed the time. It’s good – I’d recommend it. Awesome! So Fresh: Absolute Must See! What did you think of this tv season? (optional) Submit How did you buy your ticket? Submit By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Episodes 1 100% Offred Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred, one the few fertile women known as Handmaids in the oppressive Republic of Gilead, struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Commander and his resentful wife. More 2 100% Birth Day Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred and her fellow Handmaids assist with the delivery of Janine's baby, prompting Offred to recall her own daughter's birth. Offred draws closer to Ofglen while dreading a secret meeting with the Commander. More 3 83% Late Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred visits Janine's baby with Serena Joy and remembers the early days of the revolution before Gilead. Ofglen faces a difficult challenge. More 4 100% Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum Air date: May 3, 2017 Punished by Serena Joy, Offred begins to unravel and reflects on her time with Moira at the Red Center. A complication during the Ceremony threatens Offred's survival with the Commander and Serena Joy. More 5 92% Faithful Air date: May 10, 2017 Serena Joy makes Offred a surprising proposition. Offred remembers the unconventional beginnings of her relationship with her husband. More 6 100% A Woman's Place Air date: May 17, 2017 Mexican Ambassador visiting Gilead questions Offred about her life as a Handmaid. Serena Joy reflects on her marriage and the role she once played in Gilead's inception. More 7 75% The Other Side Air date: May 24, 2017 Remembering her family's treacherous escape attempt, a shocking revelation from life before Gilead provides a new perspective on Offred's life. More 8 70% Jezebels Air date: May 31, 2017 The Commander surprises Offred with a secret adventure in Gilead. Nick's troubled past leads to his recruitment by the Sons of Jacob. More 9 100% The Bridge Air date: Jun 7, 2017 Offred embarks on a dangerous mission for the resistance. Janine moves to a new posting. Serena Joy suspects the Commander's infidelity. More 10 89% Night Air date: Jun 14, 2017 Serena Joy confronts Offred and the Commander. Offred struggles with a complicated, life-changing revelation. The Handmaids face a brutal decision. More The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 Videos 0:30 The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 Trailer - My Name is Offred 1:30 The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 Featurette - The Story 1:41 The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 Trailer 2 View All Videos (3) The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 Photos View All Photos (124) Tv Season Info Set in the dystopian future, this series follows a fertile woman who is forced into sexual servitude due to the world's plunging birthrate. Based on a novel by Margaret Atwood. Genre: Drama Network: Hulu Premiere Date: Apr 26, 2017 Exec. Producers: Daniel Wilson, Warren Littlefield, Fran Sears, Ilene Chaiken, Bruce Miller, Reed Morano Cast Elisabeth Moss as Offred Joseph Fiennes as Commander Fred Waterford Yvonne Strahovski as Serena Joy Alexis Bledel as Ofglen O-T Fagbenle as Luke Samira Wiley as Moira Max Minghella as Nick Amanda Brugel as Rita Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia Madeline Brewer as Janine Show More Cast News & Interviews for The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 13 TV Shows You Should Binge-Watch This June 12 TV Shows You Should Binge-Watch This April New On DVD in March: Thor: Ragnarok, Lady Bird, Jumanji and More View All The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 News Episodes 1 100% Offred Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred, one the few fertile women known as Handmaids in the oppressive Republic of Gilead, struggles to survive as a reproductive surrogate for a powerful Commander and his resentful wife. More 2 100% Birth Day Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred and her fellow Handmaids assist with the delivery of Janine's baby, prompting Offred to recall her own daughter's birth. Offred draws closer to Ofglen while dreading a secret meeting with the Commander. More 3 83% Late Air date: Apr 26, 2017 Offred visits Janine's baby with Serena Joy and remembers the early days of the revolution before Gilead. Ofglen faces a difficult challenge. More 4 100% Nolite Te Bastardes Carborundorum Air date: May 3, 2017 Punished by Serena Joy, Offred begins to unravel and reflects on her time with Moira at the Red Center. A complication during the Ceremony threatens Offred's survival with the Commander and Serena Joy. More 5 92% Faithful Air date: May 10, 2017 Serena Joy makes Offred a surprising proposition. Offred remembers the unconventional beginnings of her relationship with her husband. More 6 100% A Woman's Place Air date: May 17, 2017 Mexican Ambassador visiting Gilead questions Offred about her life as a Handmaid. Serena Joy reflects on her marriage and the role she once played in Gilead's inception. More 7 75% The Other Side Air date: May 24, 2017 Remembering her family's treacherous escape attempt, a shocking revelation from life before Gilead provides a new perspective on Offred's life. More 8 70% Jezebels Air date: May 31, 2017 The Commander surprises Offred with a secret adventure in Gilead. Nick's troubled past leads to his recruitment by the Sons of Jacob. More 9 100% The Bridge Air date: Jun 7, 2017 Offred embarks on a dangerous mission for the resistance. Janine moves to a new posting. Serena Joy suspects the Commander's infidelity. More 10 89% Night Air date: Jun 14, 2017 Serena Joy confronts Offred and the Commander. Offred struggles with a complicated, life-changing revelation. The Handmaids face a brutal decision. More Critic Reviews for The Handmaid's Tale Season 1 All Critics (124) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (120) | Rotten (4) The Handmaid's Tale is a haunting confluence of tenses. It's also one of the best shows of the year so far, at times hard to watch but impossible to ignore. Apr 13, 2017 | Rating: A | Full Review… Liz Shannon Miller indieWire Top Critic The Handmaid's Tale raises Hulu's standing as a source of original drama content. And it raises the bar for what TV can accomplish, even in the middle of the medium's current golden era. Apr 24, 2017 | Full Review… Julie Hinds Detroit Free Press Top Critic Viewers and readers may understandably see The Handmaid's Tale as cautionary. Apr 21, 2017 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review… Gail Pennington St. Louis Post-Dispatch Top Critic For all the horror of the show, I did not find watching it to be an entirely hopeless experience. Apr 21, 2017 | Full Review… Willa Paskin Slate Top Critic Moss' character is at the center of it all, whether in flashbacks or at the mercy of her captors. Her performance is both touching and fierce, with basic sanity at stake in a world where one false move can close the door on everything. Apr 26, 2017 | Rating: B+ | Full Review… Ed Bark Uncle Barky Top Critic Hulu's excellent adaptation of Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, is a horror show unveiled in slow motion. Apr 26, 2017 | Full Review… Eric Deggans NPR Top Critic 'The Handmaid's Tale' has understood the tone and message of the original novel, perfectly replacing pure reflection for emotion. [Full review in Spanish] Aug 14, 2019 | Full Review… John Tones Espinof This television show could not be more timely. And luckily, it's also brilliant and terrifying. Dec 28, 2017 | Full Review… Shelagh Rowan-Legg ScreenAnarchy The show's refusal to engage with race renders it incapable of tackling the racialized ways an authoritative regime would interact with the bodies of black and brown women. Mar 9, 2019 | Full Review… Cate Young Cosmopolitan Don't get me wrong, what you watch is horrifying and grotesque at times. Yet the way in which Watkinson and White shoot the brutality, you can't help but be amazed. Oct 10, 2018 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review… Alan French AwardsCircuit.com The show's exquisitely staged imaginings of these scenarios are set in a fictional near future, but they are anchored in a profound understanding of the darkest corners of human nature. Sep 12, 2018 | Rating: 5/5 | Full Review… Alison de Souza The Straits Times (Singapore) The Handmaid's Tale is difficult to watch... But it is masterfully put together, terrifyingly scored, and devastatingly acted by its central characters. Sep 11, 2018 | Full Review… Marianne Eloise Dazed and Confused View All Critic Reviews (124) Audience Reviews for The Handmaid's Tale: Season 1 May 20, 2020 This show is about a dystopia where certain women (known as handmaid's) are made to be forced surrogates/ sex slaves. I only made it to episode 4 so take everything I'm saying with a pinch of salt. I started watching this show after just finishing the novel. I already didn't think the novel was that great and thus I think this may have affected my enjoyment of the show. I didn't like this and I think it's mainly because it never hooked me, on an individual level most things are good. Acting is fine, cinematography is fine, music etc. but it just felt gratutious. All the torture felt so over-the-top compared to the book and I just ended up finding it boring - there's only so many ways you can show characters having horrible things done to them before they blur together. A lot of the characters just ended up feeling 2D caricatures of villians too. Basicallly, I just found myself bored when watching it. I tried to give it a chance but I gotta say that overall it's kinda wack Simeon J May 13, 2020 A top-tier adaptation of Margaret Atwood's 1985 novel, Season 1 of The Handmaid's Tale is also an exemplary piece of television in its own right. Beautiful cinematography and an eerie score create the perfect atmosphere for this dystopian future. The show features excellent performances by Elisabeth Moss, Yvonne Strahovski, and Alexis Bledel. It is rare to see such a strong cast of complex female characters in dystopian dramas like this one. The show is certainly most in its element as a drama, focused on the difficulty of survival in terrible circumstances. It is not a plot-driven show, and scenes where the writers try to be overly dramatic or shocking lean toward clunky. Most additions and changes from the original novel fit in well with the universe, though occasionally they feel unnecessary. All the same, it is easily among one of the best television series of the 2010s, and deserves to go down a classic. Sasha J May 04, 2020 The fact that this show does not have a 100 rating shocks me to my core. From the acting to the camera work and costume design this show is brilliance. Never has a show been able to tackle such topics with such great impact, all while being able to sneak in the occasional laugh, right before being scarred by a gruesome scene, of course. Maya L May 03, 2020 It was a good first season, sadly it wont keep up. FRANCO R Apr 16, 2020 في مستقبل خيالي تتمكن ديكتاتورية دينية من السيطرة على الولايات المتحدة، لتقوم بعملية قلب للمفاهيم والقيم، يحكي المسلسل حياة سيدة تم استعبادها في المجتمع الجديد (جلياد) وكيف تمكنت مع مجموعة من الإماء من عمل تنظيم سري استطاع هدم النظام الجديد من الداخل. ويصور المسلسل بدقة كيف ستبدو الحياة/القيم/المفاهيم في ظل ديكتاتورية دينية (ثيوقراطية - نَصيّة)؟ Shady A Apr 14, 2020 Quite literally the best piece of television to air. From the cinematics, the writing, the acting, the plot, the system. All of it. Ice W Apr 14, 2020 The first season is just great. It holds a sharp balance of suspense, plot evolution and character presentation. Needless to say that the cinematography and the art direction are just flawless. Mar 29, 2020 i love this show. it kind of reminds me of divergent or the hunger games jaida a Mar 27, 2020 A slow burner, but the most terrifying and effective dystopian story I've encountered. The contemporary setting is the most disturbing part, and how utterly convincing it all is. Perfectly acted, heavy and intense but phenomenal. Gabriel Z Mar 22, 2020 Based on Margaret Atwood's novel, The Handmaid's Tale will take us to a dystopian and devastating world, with themes such as the treatment of women and social criticism, that Elisabeth Moss makes an emotional and great performance like Offred, and let us live an experience that will never be forgotten. 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