When I first caught wind of The Testaments, it was a bag of mixed emotions. Part of me was excited that The Handmaid’s Tale would continue in some form, but the other part knew it couldn’t possibly hope to live up to the original. Then I got to the series finale of The Handmaid’s Tale, where they had the audacity not to reunite June with Hannah, and suddenly this sequel series became less of an option and more of a necessity.
What a casting boon it turned out to be when someone picked Chase Infinity to play Agnes MacKenzie, aka Hannah, in this spinoff, essentially anchoring the entire show. She was basically an undiscovered fresh face, though she had already done a little thing with Paul Thomas Anderson. The One Battle After Another star entered The Testaments not as a complete unknown, but with an Actor Awards nomination (formerly SAG), Golden Globe nomination, BAFTA nomination, and Critics Choice nomination already attached to her name. She was also named Breakthrough Performer by the National Board of Review. Honestly, simply being cast in a Paul Thomas Anderson film probably put her on the radar for this role, because I’m not sure her work in Presumed Innocent alone would have done it.
Chase joins a core group of mostly fresh faces including Lucy Halliday as Daisy, Mattea Conforti as Becca, Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite, and Isolde Ardies as Hilda. These five make up the central group of future brides. They are all part of Aunt Lydia’s (Ann Dowd) grooming school, where the daughters of Commanders and other important families are taught to become obedient wives. There is also a group called the Pearl Girls, who are clinically insane. No, seriously, they voluntarily choose Gilead. Pearl Girls come in from the outside world of their own accord to become vessels for babies and little else.
As much as Agnes is the lead, Daisy is equally important. We meet her as a Pearl Girl with a backstory that slowly unfolds. She actually comes from Canada, and after her parents are removed from the picture, she stumbles upon June, who gets her involved with Mayday. Yes, Elisabeth Moss guest stars to help get this thing rolling. Daisy eventually lands in the same orbit as Agnes, and Aunt Lydia pushes them closer together by asking Agnes to sponsor her and show her the ropes.
Over the course of the season, we learn more about the color system within Gilead. The pinks are the youngest girls. If you remember The Handmaid’s Tale, when we briefly saw Hannah, she was wearing pink because she was nowhere near puberty yet. At a certain age, pinks become plums, which is where Agnes, Becca, Hilda, and Shunammite begin. Once they get their period, they become Greens, officially entered into the marriage pool where eligible men begin courting them, with Commanders receiving obvious preference, especially the high-ranking ones.
There’s essentially a prom for underage girls, where men, some significantly older, circle them like they’re shopping for livestock. Eventually the Aunts narrow down the choices until only a tiny handful of men remain. The entire process plays out throughout the first season. This is simply life to these girls. Most of them know nothing else. Daisy is the exception. She is trying not to let the bastards grind her down, secretly carrying a transistor radio and picking up coded instructions tied to Mayday. She has a handler named Garth (Brad Alexander), who works for the MacKenzies and appears to be on track to become a Commander himself.
The series is filled with excellent smaller moments that shape the characters while quietly moving the larger story forward. For me, I can’t say The Testaments reaches or surpasses the first season of The Handmaid’s Tale, which won the Emmy for Drama Series, but I would say the season sustains a remarkably consistent level of quality. If The Handmaid’s Tale often operated in peaks and valleys, The Testaments feels like a long ascent up the mountain. Maybe it never reaches that singular peak, but it rarely dips into the valley either.
It is genuinely an achievement in casting, writing, and the world Margaret Atwood created that this universe can still feel this compelling. Chase Infinity brings a kind of systematic submissiveness to Agnes that slowly evolves as the character begins giving in to desires and wants she never allowed herself to acknowledge. I could absolutely see Infinity landing an Emmy nomination here.
I’d also argue Lucy Halliday deserves recognition for Daisy, though I doubt the awards bodies will pay much attention. She will probably get stuck in Supporting alongside Ann Dowd, who already won previously for her work as Aunt Lydia.
The series roared through narrators for each episode, with Agnes, Daisy, and Aunt Lydia as the core three. My favorite moments of the entire season were the Aunt Lydia flashback episode, which gave her an overdue connecting of the dots of how she got to where she is now, as well as the most chilling moments of the series. There are two scenes involving The Eyes, one in the Pearl Girl dorms, and one with one of the main five girls, that are terrifying, and really reinforce just how everyone is afraid of The Eyes, and what their future, or lack thereof, would be after. That’s not the only dark theme running through, as you have to constantly remind yourself these girls are underage. Sure, they are played by girls much older. Infinity is 25 playing a 15 year old. But every advance from an older man is inherently creepy, but they still find ways of putting a stamp on worst case scenario, so that there becomes a sliding scale of evil. It is quite brilliant.
I liked the audio description. It did a nice job distinguishing the clothes everyone wore, Agnes’s little trinket collection, intimate moments, stolen glances, but the narrator was oddly optimistic sounding at times, likely unintentionally. It is a pleasant voice, so in certain sequences, like the ones with the eyes, I needed a darker tone to sell the seriousness of the situation. It certainly can’t be called interpretive, but since this series is more darkness than light, it would have made more sense to choose someone whose voice reminds you this is not normal, than someone who lulls you into believing it is.
As of this writing, I’ve had the opportunity to at least vote for this once, so I can say it is worth voting for. The Testaments is a bold new chapter in Atwood’s hauntingly, and increasingly realistic dystopian future, backed with a powerhouse cast, terrific writing, and a sense of self that feels like it isn’t specifically walking where The Handmaid’s Tale ran.
Fresh: 8.7/10
