Unfortunately, we live in a world where The Handmaid’s Tale is relevant again. The Hulu series began its adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name in 2017, and eight years later, the sixth and final season is premiering in just a few weeks, with a spinoff on the way.
But as timely as the story of Offred, a woman thrown into a dystopian religious dystopia, may be, it wasn’t written as a response to this era. It was written 40 years ago as a direct response to the rise of conservatism in the 1980s. In 1990, soon after the end of the Reagan years, the story got the contemporary adaptation it deserved. It may not have the production value of the Hulu series, but in hindsight, it’s better in countless ways.
