Michael Ugarte

The Hulu series and the film do not capture Atwood’s genius in framing the entire tale within an academic conference for historians in a year well beyond the events portrayed in the plot. The historians think these events are curious implying that we as as species have corrected them, a lesson that history can repeat itself if we allow it to do so. I see this as a positive statement about the remote future. The adaptations made no attempt to incorporate this. M Atwood herself has said that the films are different works altogether: yes, scary and horrific but they lack the unsettling irony of her novel.