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[boycottthetestaments]

Max Minghella in Industry Season 4

Kal Penn in Industry Season 4.

Professionalism vs. Reduction ✨

I just want to take a moment to appreciate what Kal Penn said about Max Minghella — because the contrast is honestly striking.

When asked which cast member he worked most closely with, Kal responded:

“Most of my scenes are with the fantastic Max Minghella. I’ve long admired his work, and he’s a real gem of a human to get to know. His range as an actor is impressive, and you’ll really see it over the season arc.”

This is what professional respect sounds like.

This is what it looks like when an actor talks about a colleague’s craft, skill, range, and humanity.

And I can’t help but compare it to the way Max was talked about on The Handmaid’s Tale.

Because for years, instead of acknowledging his acting — his nuance, emotional intelligence, restraint, depth — we heard things like:

• “He’s just so darn pretty.” – Bradley Whitford, podcast

• OT Fagbenle repeatedly joking about Max’s looks or reducing Nick to aesthetics and being a good kisser. 🙄

• Writers and creators brushing off Nick’s emotional arc as “lusty” or calling him “mysterious” as code for we didn’t care to write him.

Max was constantly minimized, boxed in, and treated like eye candy — even as he quietly delivered some of the strongest acting in the entire series.

Kal Penn’s quote feels like a breath of fresh air because it acknowledges what we’ve known for years:

Max Minghella is a brilliant actor with an enormous range not a prop, not background decoration, not a pretty accessory to someone else’s story.

He’s finally in a project where the people around him see him clearly.

Where his talent is the focus.

Where he isn’t standing in the shadow of anyone.

And honestly?

It’s about time.

[sair1979]

How physical touch Builds what should have been an unbreakable bond in HMT

I will preface this by saying I struggled in writing this post, I’ve written and deleted whole swathes of text and then re-written it. I think this is because although I want to explore and investigate what drew me to this story, at the same time I am still so angry about what they did to Nick that I almost don’t want to speak about the power of the show. Because it feels wrong in a way to praise what was once so brilliant and ended up feeling so disgustingly soul destroying.

Nick: This character resonated with me so deeply, really spoke to my soul in a way I have never experienced before or since. I will begin this by declaring that for me this is not about looks, although I am not too proud to point out that Max is exquisite, but it goes much deeper than that. For me, I do not think that his beauty came first, it was more, for me at least, about how he interacts with June, how he touches her which chimed something in me before I even fully became aware of physical attractiveness.

Watching the early scenes involving Nick and June and breaking it down into elements, something I enjoyed about the show is how physical touch intensifies the bond between them. In the flashback shown to us in episode 8 of season 1, the death of the first Offred, Nick is shown to be visibly devastated, his eyes are filled with tears when the body is taken from the house to the van. Whilst Serena and Fred are blaming each other, Nick and Rita’s reactions are shown as marked contrast. After experiencing this trauma Nick becomes an Eye and the first order of business is to dispatch Commander Guthrie, who is the very Commander who came up with the idea of the Handmaids in the first place. With Nick telling June about breaking points and how you can’t stop it, so there’s no point in being brave – I believe the death of the first Offred is something of a breaking point for Nick and that is the point where he must start fighting and begin resisting the regime from within. So, when June arrives at the Waterford’s Nick resolves to make things a little easier for her, by trying to be her friend, by talking to her like a human being, just show some decency. I can only imagine how surprising this must have been for June, and the astonishment crosses her face when he speaks to her that first time on the driveway before she goes shopping to Loaves and Fishes in episode 1 with Emily.

Ice: The scene with the ice in episode 3 of the first season – I love the contrast of the freezing cold of the ice and the obvious desire smouldering in Nick. The way June says, “you’re dripping” and he has to look down at his hand to remind himself of the excuse he made to get into her room in the first place. He is dripping (maybe they both are) both literally but also an emotional puddle on the floor, a slave to his feelings which he can no longer bury. This scene is also the first where we there is physical touch between them, you can feel the enormous pull between them like the strongest magnet in the world. Their faces are mere inches apart and then we look down to see his hand cradling hers, passing over the cloth wrapped ice and his thumb just moves slowly to touch the inside of his wrist, I was melting just like the ice. It’s the catalyst for the fire that is burning between them which once ignited should never have been extinguished. There are many moments between them where we see the flames burning bright between them again, I will discuss a few that struck a chord, where we observe touch used to fan the flames.

Firstly, in episode 5 of series 1, the scene where Serena forces June and Nick to have sex, in order that she can steal any resulting offspring created consequently. This is a complex and difficult scene, hard to watch, but at the same time also compelling as despite everything horrifying happening there’s still some emotional depth to it beyond the horror of it being forced. This is most demonstrated by June grasping Nick’s upper arm towards the end of the scene to signalise she wants the connection and that despite the vileness of the situation she wishes to continue their bond, that she understands that he is being forced too. It is the physical touch between them, which is both forbidden and illegal, but it is that which continues the fire burning.

Later in episode 5 June goes to Nick’s apartment to reclaim her body, note the narration about Emily looking invincible in the lead up to this which marks this as a moment of defiant power, a turning point in the story – the point at which she starts the change from a position of passivity in the regime to active resisting it - a physical breaking point if you will. June undresses them both before they touch in what, for me, is one of the sexiest scenes ever depicted on television (the Boston Globe scene is, of course, up there too). Nick’s hand awkwardly hovers in front of her as he wants to touch her body but allows her the control and lets her take the lead. When they do finally start touching it’s like hot lava bursting forth from the top of a volcano crater – cheesy cliché, I know, but it really does feel like that, with hands, mouths and bodies all over each other. There is so much raw beauty and power in this scene that I do not feel I can sufficiently illustrate it using words. Once this connection is forged in this moment it becomes the strongest thing in the show, it takes on a life of its own, and for me, it transcends over everything else the show delivered.

Just to show that this connection isn’t just present in season 1 in the 3rd series Nick has been given the promotion, which is really a punishment to a Commander and is being sent to the front in Chicago, he goes to say goodbye to June at the Lawrence house. June is angry and dismissive of Nick, but rather than defending himself or becoming angry back at her, he gives her space for her rage – gives a Nick nod ™ and leaves the room. But he doesn’t leave the house because he understands that June needs processing time for her feelings and also, he can’t leave her like this. In one of the most beautiful shots of the entire piece, one which never fails to move me on re-watching I’ve watched it a lot!), Nick waits outside the door, shown in profile leaning against the wall with his eyes closed until the door opens, he looks down to see her hand reaching to his, they grasps fingers and lead each other back into the room. It is left to the viewers' imagination what happens in the room next, but there is no room for doubt, it’s the burning fire again.

One thing I can thank The Handmaids Tale for is giving me a completely unreasonable and unfathomable obsession with Max Minghella’s hands – and I’m grateful for that – it gets me through the day…

There are far more other examples of this shown right the way through the entire run, and I could make this post extremely long by writing about them all, but that would be boring. The connection was still there even in the appalling season 6 (though it pains me to say it) and to just throw that connection, that love, in the bin as if it never existed in the first place is a real hard kick in the teeth. And then to go further and completely trash the character is both deplorable and disgusting in the worst possible way. It betrayed Max Minghella as the actor (he clearly had no idea the direction the character was going in prior to the last season), the main theme of the show, the entire narrative of the original book and us the viewer. It should have been Nick and June using their fire to burn down Gilead as Attwood originally intended in both books rather than the absolute disastrous way the show was resolved in the last season

[sair1979]

Terrible Endings – Game of Thrones versus The Handmaids Tale

Back in May 2019, a much hyped and anticipated finale of Games of Thrones screened across the globe. This was a show that was greatly discussed and pretty much universally applauded as ‘must-see’ viewing at the time, and I remember the excitement relating to the final season. Before the pandemic I was office based full-time and had a bunch of great work colleagues and we would spend probably far too much time discussing the series, what we thought of the characters, what we thought would happen in the end, lambasting me for liking Jamie (I’m an idiot, I know), deriding others for liking the characters they liked and just general good humoured banter.

I often struggle to connect with TV shows, and if I don’t get a connection and/or don’t feel like something is real, I can't get engrossed in it and very quickly lose interest. With GoT, I read the books just after I finished the first season and I was absolutely fascinated with the world building, the characters and the many, many threads of this story both in the show and the books.

The final season in general and the finale in particular was awful. A real let-down, it felt rushed, poorly thought out, badly scripted, and thoroughly shambolic. Storylines we thought were going somewhere were cut off mid-arc, leaving the viewer completely unsatisfied. In the last episode we had Tyrion Lannister rattling off a long speech about how it was apparently totally expected that Bran Stark would be king of the Iron Throne because he had always told such great stories – I’m sorry, what? What stories? Because I was watching, and I don’t remember these stories that you are now telling me are the whole reason why he is King. All of these things can also be applied to the final season of Handmaid's which was equally shambolic, poorly thought-out, and a betrayal of the trust the viewers had placed in the show for so many years. GoT also had a pair of showrunners who ultimately destroyed what had been so carefully curated over the course of the years in which these shows ran. And, whilst yes, I was cross about the ending of Thrones, I also remember finding it amusing, it was so universally bad that it actually fell through the cellar of bad and came out the other side as comedy. Clearly, I have a habit of baking the loser in these shows (I also liked Jon, who was screwed and Dani, same), I thought what GoT did to Jamies character, although I can see some logic behind it, was cruel, especially since it really felt we were headed for a redemption arc and all the signs were there and the stars seemed to be aligning for that, but no, we had him running back to Cersei and then dying a horrible death under the ruins of the Red Keep – the execution of that scene was so poor it was actually laughable.

At the time, I do not remember seeing or hearing much from anyone offering a different view point, as far as I can recall, the vast majority of people were pi*sed about it. However, and this is a key point, there didn’t seem to be any gaslighting going on telling us that we were wrong and it was actually amazing. The ending of most of the characters was dealt with poorly, unless you were a Bran fan, of course, and I am not convinced the little dweeb had many fans, sorry Bran. Also, the actors came out and agreed with the fans that it was a sh*tshow. It actually stalled quite a few careers and ‘tainted’ some of the actors for years. For example, I think it’s only now that people are starting to take Kit Harington seriously again.

As Game of Thrones was set in an ‘other world’ setting, it meant that you couldn’t really judge anything you saw against real-world settings. Whilst Handmaids has a much more realistic setting in that you actually feel like this could happen here. The show, in its early seasons, did an excellent job in making Gilead feel real, like we understood the rules of this place and the harsh realities presented felt real, well, that was until series 6 when apparently the rules no longer existed and furthermore they didn’t from the start – Nick and June could have apparently run off to Hawaii at any point, they were not trapped at all, that’s just peachy, however, that’s not what they showed.

As the wonderful Prose without Thorns said on TikTok in respect of the love between Nick and June: ‘They were the rose which grew out of the cruel concrete of Gilead’, well imagine the writers ripped up that rose, burnt it in front of your face, smeared the ashes on your cheeks and then told you it never existed in the first place – that’s what Handmaids did to it’s true fans, the people who paid attention, those that really watched it. It took our belief in love and hope and threw it in a big burning bin. But not only that, it went further and told us what they had shown and built for 5. 5 seasons was not real, and we are stupid for thinking that it was. Ignoring the fact that they showed it in their show, which they made. The more I look at this, the more I see, and it’s only serves as evidence that I am not blind or stupid. The disrespect is palpable.

Worse still is the lack of respect for the original messaging found in the book and, in doing so trashing the author as a consequence. I find it hard to believe that a show that started off being so respectful of its source material chose to take the story in the direction they did.

The whole point being that I thought we had reached rock bottom with the ending of Thrones only for Handmaids to come along and prove me totally wrong. Handmaids has re-written the bad ending for me and in the process left me hurt, damaged, and unable to put my trust into anything else.

[sair1979]

What could/should they have done with Series 6 of The Handmaids Tale?

As I hope was previously established in my post last week, many of us were upset/angry/devastated by the ending of Series 6 of The Handmaids Tale. In my quest to try to feel better about this (likely futile) or at least an attempt to reconcile my feelings about it, I have found myself pondering over what sort of ending I would have actually been satisfied with?

I’ve read comments on other posts, words to the effect of - just imagine it finished at the end of season 4 - and whilst I agree and can get behind this suggestion, I find it hard to totally ignore the existence of series 5 & 6.

Whilst, I think in a lot of ways the writers had written themselves into a corner by mid-season 6, I can’t stop seem to stop myself musing over what could have been done at the point of the pseudo ‘betrayal’ (not a betrayal and only ever another attempt to again protect June, with the actual ramifications totally unclear at the point the plan is given up) what could have been done which we would have got behind as fans of the show?

So, if we can believe (humour me) June’s incredibly ill-considered stance on the ‘un’ betrayal, this would need to be before she comes to her senses as seemingly here she is suffering from some sort of temporary insanity/blindness and she breaks things off with Nick – this is the point, for me, when it becomes a nonsense – why on earth would Nick go full Gilead?

I get that Nick has something of the mystique about him, but every time he shows his hand, it only ever shows something good/honourable – usually to save June, see also above. So, let’s say he doesn’t do that and instead decides to make a desperate attempt to rescue Hannah, I think this idea could work because of the already established relationship/connection between Rose and the Mackenzie’s introduced in season 5. If the writers were desperate to kill him off, even though this goes against book canon, they still could have done that in making the attempt unsuccessful,he gets caught and gets put on the wall.

Total fantasy ending: taking this idea further, they could have still done the public execution this but with Nick instead of June, with June sweeping on to save him for a change at the last minute and just cut to black. They could have done some stuff about June coming to her senses and realising that she has not been betrayed by Nick, but actually owes everything, every, single, thing to Nick – he’s literally the only reason why she is still alive at this point.

Anyway, how do you think it should have ended? What would you have been happy/satisfied with as an alternative ending to series 6?

[sair1979]

Don’t really know why I am writing this, apart from some vain hope that it might be a little cathartic considering I am still well into a ‘slump’ from this.  I assume no one will be the least bit interested, but in any case, here it is…

My experience with the Handmaids Tale prior to 2017 –  I’d briefly covered some extracts from the book back when I was in English class in school during the early1990’s, I am pretty sure I was in first year* (age 11 or 12) seniors (although this seems a bit of an adult title for that level of schooling – I don’t pick the syllabus), I do recall reading ahead of what we had been tasked in the lesson to read because I enjoyed the story.  I had also seen the 1990’s Natasha Richardson film at some point following this, I think I remember enjoying the film but wasn’t totally entranced by the story or anything like that.  So, when I heard about the series, I was relatively familiar with the source material.

In 2017 I started watching the first series, I do remember noticing Nick from the start and thinking who’s the guy with the eyebrows, I looked him up on IMDB and recall seeing his name and wondering whether he was related to the famous director – found out later, of course, he is.  Although I was enjoying the story, it did not get its full hooks into me until the scene in episode 6, the scheme where June and Nick are standing outside the parlour when the Mexican Ambassador is visiting the Waterford’s.  Let’s all just go back there just for a minute, to soak this up again as it’s quite literally wonderful, mind blowing, beautiful television, Nick asks June “How’s your day going?” and she gives a knowing smile back at him, then he says that very ‘un-Nick’ thing of “you look pretty”, I think this just slips out but, it shows how debased and under her spell he already is, he can’t hold back his feelings.  She says “thanks,” then considers and goes on “I wore it just for you” and he comes straight back with ‘the line’, the one which fully hooked me, “You shouldn’t wear anything for me” – that did it for me, that was the one, then we have the hand touching and the breathing and the closed eyes – this is a masterpiece.  I immediately went back and watched the first 5 episodes again, I was sold, and I’ve not seen anything quite as intense presented on television before or since.

I’m not generally a ‘shipper’ (is that even the right word?), I am far too old (see above) and sensible to rattle on about love connections, however something about these 2 just had me transfixed.  The chemistry, the magnetism was just off the charts – surely, they could see what they had here, why did they ultimately destroy this and choose to paint a different picture?  All the storyboards were already there, ready to be utilised to create a different ending, one that did not destroy the love or the character, they could have still had shock value without severing the connection and smearing the character into the dirt.

I have always found the show a difficult watch, at times it’s taken me months to get through a complete series and although it was clearly brilliant groundbreaking stuff (disregarding the last series completely) I can’t say I fully enjoyed it, as it’s dark, harrowing and unforgiving, I need to be in the mood to watch it, certainly far from light viewing, you also need to really pay attention to the nuances and this is not something you can watch lightly or without giving it your full focus.  Also, I must confess (ashamed of this) I spent lots of time between series’ in a panic that they would inexplicably kill Nick off at some point and I knew I would find that difficult, I recall saying to a friend at the time between series 2 and 3: “if they kill Nick, we riot!”, she thought I was insane, but did not hold it against me as far as I know.

I really feel the showrunners may have underestimated the strength of the relationship presented in the first series and in an attempt to make Nick seem more inaccessible to June they placed a series of deliberate obstacles between them, first Luke being alive, then Eden, then the Commander punishment, then the Chicago Campaign, then Rose, then her being astoundingly immediately pregnant – it all felt like that to me at least.  However, rather than the obstacles diminishing the love between them, as may have been the intention (it may not have been) in my view it strengthened it and it appeared that this was all part of a sort of long game character arc where it would come good in the end, how wrong I was…

I am not even upset they killed him, although this goes against the story presented in the 2019 book The Testaments - where shows Nick is alive and embedded resistance.  If they wanted shock value they could have still killed him, all they had to do was simply honour the character and not turn him into, in their words, a N*zi – I don’t like using that word, I think it’s dangerous slinging this sort of language about and how could they use that awful word to describe Nick’s character in a story they had woven for 6 seasons – there are simply zero, none, nada examples of Nick acting this way, but as soon as they the word out into the ether, idiots online ate that sh*t up and believed that’s what he was, and that was what was shown – if I could scream it from the rafters I would, this is wrong and was not at all in the story which they presented nor is it present in the source material.

I was never expecting a romantic ending where Nick and June end up together, that, given the show wouldn’t have felt right either, even though I ship the couple I am not an idiot, I know and understand enough to be sure it was never going to be how it ended.  But at least be true to the characters you presented and not push a complete 180 shift in personality into barely 2 episodes.  I’ve not seen this mentioned too much anywhere but something I’ve really noticed about series 6 is that June’s interactions with Nick in this series just seem ‘off’ to me, can’t put my finger quite on what it is but they just seem shallow and I don’t think this is Max’s acting, he is Nick, sublime as always, but Lizzie for me just seems false and transparent, don’t know the reason for this, is it to prepare us for what’s to come?

Thankfully I did not start watching the 6th series until July months after it was released; it appears therefore I missed out on the terrible gaslighting the despicable showrunners and Lizzie Moss pushed out as the show was airing – In retrospect I’m glad I missed this because I actually think this would have driven me literally insane.  Fancy asking fans to video themselves watching the episode where they/ she killed him, are they crazy?  What did they get from requesting this?  I am glad this season has been critically panned as it really is abysmal, I can’t even get through it all, though I know what took place, seen clips etc, I don’t need to see it since it would only serve to make my annoyance stronger.  I guess no press is bad press and the stance taken that any engagement even wholly negative only drives up viewing figures, but is that a legit reason to totally trash your story line?  To completely destroy the love?  To ruin not only Nick, but in doing so also take down June?  Did no one speak up in the writer’s room and protest this character shift?  Did no one foresee the backlash, the hate?  Although it does in fact seem that some people thought it was good and did not see the problems with it that I did.

I’ve read posts on FB this very week from some ignoramus which seemingly present as fact that Nick raped June in their first sexual encounter, whilst it was a rape for sure, the rapist wasn’t Nick it was Serena.  She may have used the word ‘ask’ when she explains she has gained agreement from Nick, but we know she doesn’t mean ask, she means ‘told’.  Nick doesn’t have a choice just like June, if he were to report it the whole household is dead.  The fact that Serena is present for the ‘encounter’ is because she is there to control it, to make sure the deed is actually done, and she is euphoric afterwards.  And what does she get at the end after being complicit in this and all the other rapes and terrible things she’s done, she gets a redemption arc and June forgives her.  June should have eaten her face just like she did with Fred, what on earth were they thinking here, we all like the actor, she did a marvellous job, but liking the actor should not be a reason for making a story nonsensical.  Whilst we are on the subject, an actor asking for a change of storyline/character because they don’t want to be portrayed as a villain any longer should not be shoehorned into a script where it does not fit or belong, Bradley Whitford I’m looking at you here (though I also think he did a fantastic job portraying Lawrence).  I will not discuss Luke as this is getting long and I’m rambling, suffice to say they did it with him too.

All this to say, I’m not over it; I’m still angry about it; and I don’t really know what to do with it, but I would like to thank the awesome fan fiction writers on Archive of our Own who have helped me process and those that have made posts on Tumbler about the series and feel the same way as I do.  Much love also to the Above the Garage Podcast on YouTube, wish I’d known about this when I watched it first time round, you made me feel I found my people.  It’s probably deranged of me to feel so much about a fictional character, but sadly that’s just the way I am constructed, I care too much, sorry.  And if you feel the same way, you are not alone, and we are united in our anger – let’s continue to keep the dialogue going and not let the fire burn out!

A word to Max, hate what they did to you here, and wish you nothing but the best in your future endeavours, I will go on to support your work and Happy Birthday.

*I’m British (sorry), we call senior school in England where you go from ages11 – 16 or sometimes older if you decide to stay on