Screen Test

The Handmaid's Tale: Feminist dystopia and a bland hero

The Handmaid's Tale depicts a world that treats women as state property, while Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan is a standard political thriller

John Krasinski plays a Marine turned intelligence analyst in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes star in The Handmaid's Tale.
John Krasinski plays a Marine turned intelligence analyst in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes star in The Handmaid's Tale. PHOTO: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO PHOTO: HULU
John Krasinski plays a Marine turned intelligence analyst in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes star in The Handmaid's Tale.
John Krasinski plays a Marine turned intelligence analyst in Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan. Elisabeth Moss and Joseph Fiennes star in The Handmaid's Tale. PHOTO: AMAZON PRIME VIDEO PHOTO: HULU
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So deluged are we with dystopias, that most doom-and-gloom shows on screen now seem rote.

But then, one comes along so unsettlingly perceptive - about the future and present - that it rattles you to the core.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on September 06, 2018, with the headline The Handmaid's Tale: Feminist dystopia and a bland hero. Subscribe