So it's with gritted teeth that a long-suffering audience returns to the God-awful world of Gilead five seasons on for what we are promised – praise be – is the final season. Reminder: this is a world where in a fit of evangelical pro-natalism, America has been rearranged by gender, with the few remaining fertile women being designated handmaids and dressed in red robes and white blinkers, subjected to ritual rape, pregnancy and childbirth. Vessels, not humans.
Over five seasons, our protagonist and titular handmaid June (Elisabeth Moss) has played the victim-turned-rebel-warrior of the regime and, happily for people who are thirsty for more bloodshed, she remains hellbent on bringing down Gilead in season six. Plot twists and foiled escape attempts plus reckless killing or maiming of key characters has made for gripping if depressing drama. Strategic use of high stakes music has drummed feeling into you even once you’re numb from the violence.
