You Look Great! But You Have Nothing To Say

Plus: Taffy Brodesser-Akner's novel, Toy Story 4 and what's making us happy [NPR] by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when [Netflix made grand claims]( about an Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston movie. And it was the week when [we got a new U.S. Poet Laureate](. Let's get to it. Opening Argument It took a while for me to decide to watch the new season of The Handmaid’s Tale. I’d been burned before by a season finale in which June, who had been trying to escape Gilead for two seasons, decided not to go. The show had already developed a tendency toward repetition, having played out a couple of cycles of despair followed by desperate risks followed by hope followed by … a return to despair. But when June decided she couldn’t leave without her older daughter (but she could send her baby daughter off with an escaping friend, hoping for the best), I became impatient, [for reasons I wrote about at some length](. The good news about the third season is that the show has not lost its visual flair. Episode 6, which will be available Wednesday, June 26, features a visit by June and the Waterfords to a different part of Gilead. There, they encounter handmaids living under somewhat different conditions from June’s, and the presentation of those differences is among the most unforgettable visual art that this series — marked from the beginning by its stark red cloaks and white bonnets — has offered. The episode, from the Irish director Dearbhla Walsh and director of photography Stuart Biddlecombe, is a reminder of the power of those cloaks, those bonnets, those women in rows. But boy, are they trying my patience with this story. [scene from previous season of 'The Handmaid's Tale'] George Kraychyk/Hulu Not satisfied to leave June in Gilead trying to rescue her older daughter Hannah, the show has immediately created the risk that her baby daughter — the one she sent off to Canada, to safety, with a friend — will also be sent back to Gilead. Serena, the privileged woman who has abused and helped to rape June and steal her child, looked to be coming to her senses after having her own finger cut off at the end of last season for wanting girls to be allowed to read. But by the end of episode 5, she had betrayed June and once again become cruel and cold. It is as if a rule dictates stasis — that nothing can change at all, ever, except in order to be returned to the way it was. Certainly, you can write a story that way. But not forever — not round and round and round, or we eventually catch on. And as frustrating as Serena’s switch from antagonist to possible ally back to antagonist was, it never made any sense for June to trust her anyway. The woman who abused her, hit her, confined and sexually assaulted her, forced her to become pregnant and then wrenched away her baby: This was someone June would feel kindly toward? The story has become repetitive and nonsensical for reasons that reinforce each other. It makes no sense that the commander played by Bradley Whitford, who helped June’s friend Emily to escape Gilead last season at great risk to himself, is suddenly icy and mean and not very different from other commanders now that June has been sent to him. It feels like plot driving character; he has to be mean, because if he were kind to June, the story wouldn’t work. So now he’s mean. There are times when the visuals repeat in ways that reinforce the stalled story: the show’s fixation on shots of Elisabeth Moss’ face in close-up, her eyes staring resolutely at the camera, has gone from novel direction to signature flourish to self-parody: They cannot be doing this yet again? But for the most part, the direction and the look of the show are on target. They just diverge farther and farther from the fact that the story is out of gas. It can be a useful exercise to separate pure filmmaking from pure story, and sometimes it takes a wide gap in effectiveness for that separation to be apparent. --------------------------------------------------------------- We Recommend The New York Times published a fascinating interview with a whole bunch of different people about the future of movies. [Well worth a read.]( Now available to you is Fleishman Is in Trouble, the first novel by journalist Taffy Brodesser-Akner. You’ve heard us on the show recommending Taffy’s magazine writing from time to time, and now you can read [her novel](. I’m here to tell you, it’s a corker. American Princess, the Lifetime comedy series about a woman who flees her wedding day and winds up joining a Renaissance fair, may not be everybody’s cup of tea. But a few episodes in, it’s weird and different and funny and — my favorite thing — specific in its comedy about the lives of people who are only Ren-fair people part of the time. New episodes air on Sunday nights, and you can catch up on demand. Movies hop around streaming services so much these days that it’s hard to keep track, but there was a little ripple of attention last week when The Devil Wears Prada arrived on Hulu. If you like Meryl Streep (and really, who doesn’t?) and you are prepared to throw rotten fruit at a bad boyfriend who’s portrayed like a good boyfriend (seriously: he is the worst), get your jammies on and settle in. --------------------------------------------------------------- What We Did This Week [Meryl Streep in 'Big Little Lies'] Jennifer Clasen/HBO Our Wednesday show brought Sam Sanders and Barrie Hardymon, two of our favorites, into the studio to talk to me and Glen about Big Little Lies returning for a second season. How’s it working? Did we need it? And most importantly, how much do we love Meryl Streep? [We talk about it all.]( Our Friday show found us talking about Toy Story 4. What about Woody? What about Forky? What about existential dread? [We hashed it out]( with our friend Mallory Yu. Just a quick note: Glen will be writing the newsletter for a few weeks while I go do some other fun business — more about that at the end of Friday’s Toy Story 4 show. --------------------------------------------------------------- What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: - Stephen: [NPR Music playlists]( - Glen: [Los Espookys]( on HBO - Mallory: [The Terror]( on Hulu. (Oh, and [a dog video]( which led to the email I received from our producer this week that said, “Updated with link for the dog video.”) - Linda: [Succession]( on HBO --------------------------------------------------------------- What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: [pchh@npr.org](mailto:pchh@npr.org?subject=Newsletter%20Feedback) Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can [sign up here](. Looking for more great content? 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