The haunting new TV series to add to your list

A new TV series based on Margaret Atwood's book The Handmaid’s Tale is set to come out on April 26, and we're sure will be a mind-blowing watch. From Atwood’s brilliant mind comes the fictional Republic of Gilead, where fertility rates have declined so rapidly that women of childbearing age, called ‘handmaids,’ are forced to repopulate the human race.

While on the surface the show may seem completely separate from anything that would ever happen today, there are some haunting parallels.

Samira Wiley (Orange is the New Black), is set to play the supporting role of the enigmatic Moira. She told Esquire magazine, ‘The show reflects the social climate that we are living in, and, for me personally, the issues are specifically women and their bodies and who has control of that. Do we have control of it? Does someone else have control of it?’

The protagonist, Offred, has had her rights stripped of her in her job as a handmaid.  Offred will be played by the wonderful Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men, Top of the Lake), who will star alongside Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love).

‘I worked [on the show] the day after the election,’ Moss recalled. ‘Joseph had a line from the book where he says, ‘Better never means better for everyone… It always means worse, for some.’’

‘I got chills talking about it,’ Moss said. ‘It was very difficult to stand there and have him say that to me and play my reaction to that, which is obviously horror, and not feel something more than I think I would have felt otherwise. We are fascinated and horrified by the parallels.’ One thing we can’t help thinking of is a certain man whose name starts with T…

On the bright side, we are looking forward to Alexis Bledel’s performance as Offred’s companion, Ofglen. This kind of unsettling drama is so very different from the light comedy-drama Bledel is used to in her role as Rory in Gilmore Girls.

We are super excited to see how this show plays out, even if it will give us the chills. Commissioned by Hulu, it will comprise of 10 episodes, and we think we will probably binge watch them all in one go.

Image credit: indiewire.com