A Sense of Doubt blog post #2424 - Hilary Curtis (Mishael Morgan) returning to Young and the Restless?

A Sense of Doubt blog post #2424 - Hilary Curtis (Mishael Morgan) returning to Young and the Restless?


This is Mom's birthday. She would have been 85 years young.

But I am not featuring that content.

This is an old share with an update.

But it's appropriate for MOM as she is the reason I am a Y&R fan, and she would have liked this update.

https://tvtrendnow.com/hilary-curtis-returning-young-and-the-restless-mishael-morgan-baby

Caption : Mishael Morgan

Is there a chance that Hilary Curtis (Mishael Morgan) is returning to Young and the Restless? Mal Young has been fired from the show and Josh Griffith could writer Hilary back into the show. Hilary returning to Genoa City won't even surprise fans as they are used to such resurrections. Read on to know more on what happened to Hilary Curtis and if she's returning to Young and the Restless.

Hilary Curtis (Mishael Morgan) returning after Mal Young exit?

Mal Young's exit from the soap opera means there's a new direction and anything could happen. Hilary's love story with Devon Hamilton, played by Bryton James, was just beginning to heat up when she was killed off in a car accident caused by Lily Winters (Christel Khalil).

 

Caption : Mishael Morgan and Camryn Grimes at the Daytime Emmy Awards.

Devon has been struggling with her passing ever since and turned to drinking and partying to cope with his grief. If she were to return, Lily could also be released from prison and have a reunion with Cane and her kids.

One way to bring her back is to reveal that she faked her death for some reason; probably to get away after realizing that she has lost her baby. Nate Hastings (Brooks Darnell) could have helped her get away with it. It would be a hell of a plot twist but we're sure the fans would go crazy for it!

Why did Mishael Morgan leave Young and the Restless?

Caption : Mishael Morgan gave birth to her daughter on November 8, 2018.

Fans were heartbroken to see Mishael Morgan leave the show earlier this year. The actress left the show to give birth to her second child. She and her husband, Navid Ali, welcomed a baby girl on November 8, 2018. So, maybe she won't be returning to the show just yet.

However, around the time of her exit rumors circulated that many actresses quit Young and the Restless over abuse allegations behind the scenes. Sources reported that Mal Young was verbally abusive to the women on the set, often leaving them in tears.

Longtime Y&R actress Eileen Davidson also left the show around the same time Mishael left and Christel Khalil also demanded that she be dropped to a recurring status on the show. Could their departure have been the result of the allegations?

https://www.soapcentral.com/young-and-restless/news/2021/0422-mishael_morgan_returns_to_the_young_and_the_restless.php

Mishael Morgan returns to The Young and the Restless

by Kambra Clifford

Posted Thursday, April 22, 2021 3:28:34 PM

After taking a brief leave of absence due to an eye injury, The Young and the Restless' Mishael Morgan (Amanda Sinclair) is back filming at the CBS soap opera.

Morgan was temporarily sidelined due to an eye injury she sustained in March, which left Y&R with no choice but to briefly recast the role. Viewers will see soap alum Karla Mosley (ex-Maya Avant, The Bold and the Beautiful, ex-Christina Moore, Guiding Light) step into Amanda's shoes on Tuesday April 27, but her stay really will be short, considering Morgan is already back on set.

"First day back and It's like riding a bike!" Morgan posted on Instagram today.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by M I S H A E L M O R G A N (@mishaelmorgan)

Though Mosley's visit to Genoa City will be short, the talented actress is likely to pack a powerful punch during her time on the soap, especially because Morgan gave her personal tips on how to bring Amanda to life.

"I was able to connect with Mishael, who is such a goddess," Mosley enthused. "We had always been friendly whenever we saw each other around CBS, but we never had a real heart-to-heart sit-down. The only hesitation that I had about doing this is that I was stepping into such big shoes because Mishael is so beloved and such a wonderful human and actor. It was great that I could talk with her and say thank you for leaving me such a wonderful path to follow. I also told her, 'I'll be happy when you're healed and able to return.'"

Morgan also knows that Mosley will make Amanda fans proud. "I am so grateful this beautiful and talented woman stepped in for me on such short notice and allowed me time to heal," she tweeted after news broke that Mosley was stepping in. "I can't wait to be back, but It comforts me to know that Amanda is in such great hands."


UPDATE (May 7, 2021): Fans of The Young and the Restless will be seeing Karla Mosley in the role of Amanda Sinclair throughout the course of May Sweeps. Though the character's original portrayer, Mishael Morgan, returned to the CBS soap opera in late April, her scenes won’t begin airing until Tuesday, June 1, reports Soap Opera Digest. This means that it’s highly possible that the bulk of Amanda's upcoming courtroom scenes in which the character defends Sutton (Jack Landron) will be played by Mosley rather than Morgan. Keep tuning in to Y&R to watch the drama unfold, and let us know how you feel about Mosley's work as Amanda in the Comments section below!

I am so grateful this beautiful and talented woman stepped in for me on such short notice and allowed me time to heal. I can’t wait to be back, but It comforts me to know that Amanda is in such great hands ❤️ @karlamosley @SoapDigest #yr @YR_CBS https://t.co/BHOOKBpQMW

— Mishael Morgan (@MishaelMorgan1) April 15, 2021

Blog Vacation 2021 Post #34

In this blog vacation, I am alternating between reprints, shares with little to no commentary, and THAT ONE THING, which is an image from the folder with a few thoughts scribbled along with it. I am alternating these three modes for twenty days, pre-publishing the posts, and not pushing any of them to social media.

LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.

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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2110.07  - 10:10

- Days ago = 2288 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1919 - Genre: High and Low Suspense

https://writingcooperative.com/genre-fiction-and-developing-countries-33cde7ef92a5

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1919 - Genre: High and Low Suspense

Here's some examination of writing process.

I am trying to keep Wednesday devoted to fiction writing. How am I doing so far? Last week, I featured

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1912 - How to KILL our darlings,

which is not the greatest writing thing I have ever featured but it's a start to re-invigorate this weekly theme.

I have been working on fiction since the shelter in home pandemic began. Actually, my return to fiction writing began over Christmas break as I have described previously:

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1780 - "God is an Iron" by Spider Robinson
also this one

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1782 - Writing 15 minutes a day and more with Chuck Wendig.
In Post #1780, I described searching for a story I remembered reading years and years ago even though all I remembered was the author's name and the opening scene. And with some dedicated Internet searching, I found the story.

I have been intrigued lately in a trend in genre fiction to "re-imagine" someone else's story, such as Victor LaValle's Ballad of Black Tom, which reimagines Lovecraft's "The Horror at Red Hook" by subverting it. The story won many awards:

One of NPR's Best Books of 2016, winner of the Shirley Jackson Award, the British Fantasy Award, the This is Horror Award for Novella of the Year, and a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Bram Stoker Awards.


I had been thinking of a kind of mash up of ideas, re-mixed, re-imagined, and shuffled so as to avoid being overtly derivative.

I found the Spider Robinson story as I wrote in Post #1780, which was "God is an Iron" and I cannot believe that I had forgotten that line. The other two are "It's Such a Beautiful Day" by Isaac Asimov and “The Professor’s Teddy Bear” by Theodore Sturgeon, though I was thinking of gleaning elements from

“Supertoys Last All Summer Long” by Brian Aldiss
basis of the film AI
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supertoys_Last_All_Summer_Long


FULL TEXT:

https://brianaldiss.co.uk/writing/story-collections/collections-r-z/supertoys-last-all-summer-long/


“I Always Do What Teddy Says” by Harry Harrison

This is an article about robot teddy bears

https://sci-techmaven.io/superposition/society/our-children-always-do-what-teddy-says-4N2gokVjzEuE2Fa1LIfNRg

I had been working to distill the ideas to their essence. I wanted the opening scene in "God is an Iron" with the dying wire head and all the shit and vomit along with the teleporters of "It's Such a Beautiful Day" and the robot teddy bear from the Sturgeon story. But I had not found the through line, the interconnector for all of it that gave it substance and meaning.

I was still working on the ideas when the pandemic began. hmmmm, a PANDEMIC. And suddenly, I had the story. ALL OF IT. I am sure I am one of a million aspiring writers working on some kind of pandemic story right now. Not super original, I know. Though I hope my take on it will be.

So far the only thing that has really survived is the teleporter from "It's Such a Beautiful Day." I might keep the wire-head thing but I re-imagined it significantly so it's not the same or the same scenario.

Also, I am inspired by TOR's publication of novellas like Binti by Nnedi Okorafor or All Systems Red
by Martha Wells, both of which won the HUGO for novella.

I was already toying with a novella-length story (about 80-120 pages) and then a pandemic story basically congealed in fully-formed protoplasm in my mind.

I am still writing the story both in the actual fiction prose of the narrative and the world building, which I may do in a historical analysis of Twenty-First Century pandemics, of which the one I am writing about, Xevid-33, is not the first but may be the last.

All this is preface for today's share, which is itself a share on another blog, written by author Harry Connolly and shared on Charles Stross' blog: Charlie's Diary. BTW, Charlie won a Hugo for his novella "Equoid" in 2014, which is set in his Laundry Files universe.

The article concerns genre writing: high and low thrillers. Connolly then goes on to explain how his thought experiment resulted in his novel: One Man: a City of Fallen Gods.

It's a short bit to read and makes some good points worth thinking about. Thanks for reading my blog, too (as Connolly thanks you below).

https://blackchicklit.com/genre-fic-vs-lit-fic/

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2020/01/too-many-thoughts-about-genre.html

Posted by Harry Connolly at 16:06 on January 7, 2020 

Too Many Thoughts About Genre

By Harry Connolly

In one of my previous guest stints on Charlie's blog, I wrote a post about low thrillers and high thrillers. If you don't want to click through and read the whole thing, here's the Twitter version: high thrillers deal with seats of power and show the inner workings of government agencies/other powerful organizations as they deal with large scale dangers like coups d'etat or bio-terrorism, while low thrillers deal with ordinary citizens facing smaller threats, like professional criminals or a serial killer.

Those distinctions were at the front of my mind when I sat down to write One Man: a City of Fallen Gods Novel. I wanted to try an experiment, to create a fantasy that felt huge, but had very small stakes. No Dark Lord. No invading demon army. No impending magical cataclysm.

I wanted to write a story about a nine-year-old girl who gets kidnapped by gangsters because of something stupid her mother did, and about her neighbor--a man bearing many old scars, not all of them visible--who tries to rescue her. That was it. The stakes are one life, an orphaned little girl in a city full of them. A girl with only one person left in the world who cares what happens to her. But, with magic. A fantasy version of a low thriller.

https://writerswrite.co.za/the-17-most-popular-genres-in-fiction-and-why-they-matter/

My agent was (understandably) a little leery about this. Fantasy readers like big stakes, she said. It's part of the appeal of the genre. And, since I take her advice seriously, I promised that the book would have big consequences: murders, gang wars, noble families scheming against each other, the whole bit. The stakes for our protagonists might be small, but the repercussions of his actions would not.

Now, I know some people reading this are thinking Low fantasy. He's talking about low fantasy right now. To me, low fantasy, which has a long history within the genre, has much more in common with a crime thriller than what I'm calling a low thriller. Low fantasy almost always has criminals as protagonists--thieves, assassins or drug dealers--and they're often proactive heroes instead of the usual reactive ones. Also, the stakes usually escalate by the midpoint or sooner, but never mind that. To me, they're closely related sub-genres, but they have distinctive tones.

The other little experiment I wanted to try was to take out the travelogue aspects of the genre. Except for a handful of flashback scenes, the action of the novel takes place within the confines of a single city, called Koh Salash. There are no mountains to cross, no "exotic" foreign cities, no mysterious forests filled with even more mysterious pseudo-allies. Instead, I took everything I thought would be cool in a fantasy novel and either crammed it into one place or turned it into enigmatic rumors of magic and danger in far-off places.

So, bourgeois vampire hobbit? There's a scene with one of those. Terrible weapons of inhuman craftsmanship? Throw a couple of those into the mix. Dead gods? Have the characters walk on their bones. Sleeping giants whose flesh, when cut and eaten, granted incredible healing powers? Let's make those central to the larger plot.

But the force that drives the story forward is just one damaged guy trying to save an orphaned little girl, and while the whole kingdom/world/universe is not at stake, he is desperate to succeed nonetheless.

https://www.editorialdepartment.com/a-history-of-the-great-divide-literature-vs-genre-fiction/

Here's a description of the book, taken from the back cover:

---

One Cursed City. Two Dead Gods. Ten Thousand Murderers and Thieves. One Orphaned Girl.

As a child, Kyrioc was groomed to be the head of one of the most powerful noble families in Koh-Salash, a city built inside the skeletons of two murdered gods. Kyrioc himself dreamed of becoming head of the High Watch, the highest political position in the land.

Those dreams have turned to dust.

Presumed dead after a disastrous overseas quest, Kyrioc now lives in a downcity slum under a false name, hiding behind the bars of a pawnshop window. Riliska, a nine-year-old pickpocket who sells stolen trinkets to his shop, is the closest thing he has to a friend.

When a criminal gang kills Riliska's mother and kidnaps the little girl, Kyrioc goes hunting for her.

He doesn't care about the forbidden magic the gangs are fighting over--the severed ear of a glitterkind, a creature whose flesh contains astonishing healing powers. He doesn't care about the bloody, escalating gang violence. He doesn't care about the schemes of power-hungry nobles.

In a raging city on the verge of civil war, Kyrioc only wants to save his friend. He will risk anything for her, even awakening the powers that murdered the gods so long ago.

"One Man is a superbly realised story set in a rich and fascinating world. The horror grips, the fantasy delights and the characters remain vivid and real to the end." -- Justina Robson

---

Was this little experiment a good idea? Readers will have to be the judge of that, and early reviews have been kind. All I know is, if you'd asked me last year what book I was most proud of, I would have said Circle of Enemies, the last of the Twenty Palaces books that Del Rey released. Now I would point to One Man.

You can read sample chapters from the usual ebook vendors or on my website.

I hope you like the book, and if you do, I hope you tell your friends. Thanks for reading

https://www.how-to-write-a-book-now.com/what-is-genre.html

AND......................... this just here because it has to be somewhere and I wasn't done reading it.


https://www.wired.com/beyond-the-beyond/2020/05/farewell-beyond-beyond/


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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2005.20 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1782 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1648 - The Life Story of Nikki Reed-Newman

A Sense of Doubt blog post #1648 - The Life Story of Nikki Reed-Newman

I know I already had one post for the Young and the Restless this week, but I had actually saved this one before I created the one for Kristoff St. John, aka Neil Winters.

Unlike that post, this one does not contain a You Tube link for this episode -- because that's pirating -- but there are some other Nikki highlights stashed at the end that should remain viable and visible on You Tube.

Mainly, I saved this episode information of the recent Y&R in which Nikki looks back on her life for me as I chose not to keep it saved to my DVR.

Some notes near the end about the importance of this soap to my life.

There's a power to the episodic narrative. But what blows my mind is that this episodic narrative has been running daily for 46 years, and I have consumed most of it.

https://g.co/kgs/huoX1Q



2/20/2019

S46 E120 36:46
Melody Thomas Scott celebrates her 40th anniversary on THE YOUNG and THE RESTLESS, as Nikki Newman takes a stroll down memory lane. (TV-14 D) Air Date: Feb 20, 2019


This link goes to the C BS subscription site. It works for me. It will work for you if you have a subscription. If not, you can get a subscription.

https://www.cbs.com/shows/the_young_and_the_restless/video/r6SKFUtlCfK8XHrAV0mkEnE9_ZfQO_a5/the-young-and-the-restless-2-20-2019/

And BTW, at the beginning of the summer, I had 135 episodes of the Young and the Restless saved n my DVR. I am down to 49 episodes now. I plan to catch up before work gets busy and stay up to date. And before you think I am sitting around watching this soap and doing nothing else, that's not what happens. I run the videos as I work, as long as the work doesn't take too much of my attention. I fast forward through commercials and often through most of the show as there's a great deal of filler.

This show has always been a soundtrack to my life, the background, the companion. I watched this show so much with my Mom. Keeping up with it makes me feel closer to her.

It may seem silly to some, but it works for me.










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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1908.23 - 10:10

- Days ago = 1511 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #611 - Buffy the Vampire Love Letter Writer

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #611 - Buffy the Vampire Love Letter Writer

Hi Mom, I miss Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was definitely one of my favorite TV shows of all time. In fact, just to write these comments, I dialed up a You Tube video posted below that collects all seven of the Buffy opening credit sequences for the seasons (as they varied) just so I could revel in how much I love this show. I used to get up and dance frenetically to these credits when I watched the show.

I also discovered that my T-shirt post has broken videos, so I fixed that. I want to repost the Buffy T-shirt post, but I will save it because I want to keep this post relatively short (and back in time as BLASTR posted this on Friday and I am back dating it to Thursday).

Sarah's letter is great, though there major omissions (like Tony and Nicholas) but it was surely challenging to mention everyone.

I don't think I ever inflicted any Buffy on you, Mom, but if you're a reader, and you like supernatural stuff and strong women characters, then Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a show you should watch.


FROM - http://www.blastr.com/2017-3-10/buffy-the-vampire-slayer-sarah-michelle-gellar-love-letter-fans

We've been reveling in all things Buffy the Vampire Slayer this week, and now the Slayer herself is getting in on the fun.

In honor of the show's 20th anniversary, Sarah Michelle Gellar has penned a love letter to the series and fans, looking back at the iconic show and the impact it had on her life and career. Gellar posted the note to Instagram, and it's a sweet take on the series. Gellar thanks the cast and crew, as well as those involved in actually getting the long-shot series off the ground in the first place.

Sadly, she does not settle the age-old debate of Angel vs. Spike. Maybe in another 20 years?

Gellar even pulls out one of the all-time best Buffy quotes to boot: "If the apocalypse comes, beep me." Here's hoping Joss Whedon gets a wild hair and still has her number saved.

Check out the letter below.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 613 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1703.09 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #424 - Handmaid's Tale on Hulu

Margaret Atwood

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #424 - Handmaid's Tale on Hulu

Hey Mom, Great news!! A TV show of The Handmaid's Tale.

You may remember this. I was supposed to be reading Toni Morrison's Tar Baby for a class, but I picked up Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale instead. I could not put it down. LITERALLY. I walked around the house with it. I finished it in about 36 hours, as I took a break to sleep, and I read slowly.

The movie was unremarkable, but I am excited for the HULU TV show.

I am thrilled. An ongoing series of one of my favorite books of all time? And as an ongoing dose of episodic fiction? Oh, do not sing those love songs to me unless your'e serious!

This is the book that confirmed Atwood as my favorite writer. I had read Surfacing but that's it. I have two of her books unread as I did not want to read them all have nothing to look forward to. I guess, it's three now that she has a new one out and it's on my stack.

I know you never read Atwood, Mom. But if you're a reader and haven't, I recommend her highly. Star with this one, and then try Alias Grace or Cat's Eye.

The content I am sharing comes from the following two links.

http://www.tor.com/2016/08/24/joseph-fiennes-joins-hulus-the-handmaids-tale-as-the-commander/


http://www.indiewire.com/article/hulu-handmaids-tale-elisabeth-moss-margaret-atwood-book-feminism-20160430

Hulu Making ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ 

With Elisabeth Moss May Prove Its (Feminist) Balls

Hulu Making 'The Handmaid's Tale' With Elisabeth Moss May Prove Its (Feminist) Balls

Liz Shannon Miller

Apr 30, 2016 1:18 pm

 @lizlet

 
 
 
 

Hulu’s original series don’t just dabble in tricky topics — the streaming service’s
shows are firmly rooted on the edge. The comedy “Deadbeat” fully owns its
4/20 aroma. Drama “The Path” invests deeply in exploring religion and faith.
And if the upcoming “The Handmaid’s Tale” manages to echo its source
material, the series should be a searingly feminist work.

READ MORE: Elisabeth Moss Cast In Hulu 
Adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Hulu gave a straight-to-series order on Friday to a show based on
Margaret Atwood’s brilliant 1985 novel. The show, adapted by Bruce Miller
(who, after writing for the CW’s “The 100,” is pretty familiar with
dystopian societies and complicated female protagonists) will star
“Mad Men” alumni Elisabeth Moss.

If you’re not familiar already with “The Handmaid’s Tale,” it’s time to fix that. 
In the book, Atwood depicts a dystopian society in which infertility is an 
epidemic, and women now live under brutal patriarchal rule inspired by 
specific passages from the Bible.

The government has assigned Offred (to be played by Moss) to be a childless
high-ranking couple’s vessel for a baby. But the character still remembers the
free world into which she was born, and the daughter from whom she’s been
separated. Offred’s desire to be reunited with her family conflicts with her very
real desire to stay alive in this dangerous time, making her a uniquely
sympathetic protagonist.

Offred isn’t a revolutionary willing to give up her life for the cause. She’s willing
to make the compromises necessary to stay alive, forcing us to confront the
fact that most of us wouldn’t make the brave choice in the face of death.
Most of us would choose to keep breathing.

It’s the sort of internal conflict that should make for fascinating dramatic fuel,
especially given Hulu’s approach to the project. This isn’t Hulu’s first book
adaptation — the J.J. Abrams-produced “11.22.63,” based on the book by
Stephen King, premiered earlier this year. But while “11.22.63” was
billed as a miniseries with a closed ending, this is meant to
be an ongoing series.

“The Handmaid’s Tale” is actually well-built for this, because while it does have
an ending, it’s relatively open-ended. And while the series is (as the title might
suggest) one woman’s story, it takes place within a much larger universe —
one aimed directly at attacking the oppression of women on a micro
and macro level.

Ever since the book’s publication, “Handmaid” has often been held up as a
cautionary tale, a reminder that women should never grow complacent
about their reproductive rights. It’s not that people literally think the book’s
exact scenario would occur, should Roe v. Wade be overturned (or if ongoing
efforts to erode a woman’s access to abortions and birth control eventually
reach a critical mass). The nightmare scenario presented by
“The Handmaid’s Tale” is far more wide-ranging, depicting a world
where women have been stripped of every basic right.

But by taking that “what if” to the furthest possible conclusion, Atwood
captures something quite singular about the importance of abortion and
birth control as women’s rights issues, which is why the connection is often
made.

Though Atwood’s points go beyond feminism to a reflection of hard truths
about humanity. “There is more than one kind of freedom… Freedom to
and freedom from. In the days of anarchy, it was freedom to. Now you are
being given freedom from. Don’t underrate it,” one of the collaborating Aunts
tells her handmaids-in-training in the novel. She presents the loss of choice
as a welcome escape, as opposed to an act that dehumanizes one-half of
the world’s population — and it’s an argument that one could,
conceivably, imagine to be convincing.

This is just one of the fascinating concepts that Atwood finds a way to articulate
as a writer. Her genius ultimately lies in making political issues personal and
human. Even if Moss’s character is written out at the end of the first season for
whatever reason, the show could theoretically continue on. But it’s also not hard
to imagine Offred’s struggle driving several seasons worth of storytelling.
Especially if Hulu allows the show to explore the ideological underpinnings that
make a 31-year-old book still feel terrifyingly relevant.

Despite despite being in the game as long as Netflix and Amazon, Hulu has yet
to succeed in creating original shows that grab awards and attention. But
courting controversy is a way to solve the latter, and if the execution of
“Handmaid’s Tale” proves compelling, it’s hard to imagine that awards won’t be
on the table. “Handmaid’s Tale” won’t premiere until 2017, but this is the exact
sort of ballsy move necessary to stand out in the television world.

Consider this one at the top of our most anticipated list.

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THIS ARTICLE IS RELATED TO: Television and tagged Elisabeth Moss, Hulu,
Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale

• ON OUR RADAR

Joseph Fiennes Joins Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale as The Commander

Natalie Zutter

Wed Aug 24, 2016 12:31pm Post a comment Favorite This

Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale is getting its cast together before it commences production this fall. Deadline reports that Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Camelot, American Horror Story) will play Commander Fred Waterford—the Fred in Offred, the name of the eponymous handmaid played by Elisabeth Moss.

As a Commander and founding father of the totalitarian Republic of Gilead, Fred both benefits from the fundamentalist system that puts women into various castes serving the state and men, and also bears the pressures of defending Gilead from spies and turncoats. He’s a surprisingly sympathetic character in Atwood’s novel, as—despite himself—he engages Offred in forbidden conversation outside of the fertility rituals that are supposed to be her sole purpose. Fiennes is a keen casting choice for a man who is both distant to a woman who is his property yet also plays illicit games of Scrabble with her.

Hulu has also cast Max Minghella (The Social Network) as Nick, the Commander’s driver, who is also drawn to Offred, albeit in more dangerous ways; and Ann Dowd (Leftovers) as Aunt Lydia, who trains and indoctrinates Offred and her best friend Moira at the Red Center before they are assimilated into Gilead society.

The major cast is almost entirely set; the last big role left to be filled is Serena Joy, Fred’s wife and Offred’s tormentor. The Handmaid’s Tale will premiere on Hulu sometime in 2017.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = 426 days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1609.03 - 10:10

NOTE on time: When I post late, I had been posting at 7:10 a.m. because Google is on Pacific Time, and so this is really 10:10 EDT. However, it still shows up on the blog in Pacific time. So, I am going to start posting at 10:10 a.m. Pacific time, intending this to be 10:10 Eastern time. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom. But I am not going back and changing all the 7:10 a.m. times. But I will run this note for a while. Mom, you know that I am posting at 10:10 a.m. often because this is the time of your death.