I love that The Testaments has been adapted for TV, and that they made so many changes to it in order to better present it as a riveting TV show - as it was, the book if adapted faithfully would have been very slow to start and wouldn't have introduced one of our main characters for years into it in order to stay true to the timeline - but I really hate that this is a show about teenage girls.
I have nothing against teenage girls and, again, I do enjoy this change because it allows the showrunners to do more with it, but the thing I hate is that it therefore attracts a younger audience—an audience that is not familiar with the source material and does not have the necessary skills to engage with it critically.
One of the things that the show introduced is 16 year old Agnes having a crush on a 21 year old Guardian. He is then instead married to her 16 year old best friend. And this is something that the young people watching this show are whining about loudly, suggesting even that the showrunners purposely didn't make Garth's age obvious to trick people into shipping a teenager and an adult together.
And, it's like, have you never watched The Handmaid's Tale? Have you not engaged with the source material to understand what sort of world they live in? Agnes has flowered, she's considered a "woman" by Gilead's standards and is old enough to be wed—almost was wed to a middle aged man. She is not considered a teenager as far as Gilead is concerned, but a woman of marriageable age whose duty is now to bear children to her future husband.
And you're supposed to recognize that this is a horrific concept! But you are also supposed to recognize that this is all she knows—and Garth, despite being part of the resistance, was also raised in Gilead, so this is what he knows, too. This is normal to them.
On top of that, there's a moment in The Handmaid's Tale when 15 year old Eden, who is in love with a Guardian herself, asks June about the idea of a baby being raised by parents who love each other. She is asking, of course, because she wants to hear validation for her decision to run away with Isaac, and while June doesn't know the details, she tells Eden that, "in this place, you take love wherever you find it." Gilead is a horrific place, especially for women, and she is encouraging Eden to do whatever she might in order to find what little happiness might exist for her in this place—regardless of the details.
So, if you apply that logic to The Testaments, would you not want to encourage Agnes to do the same? Granted, at this point, we don't know whether the showrunners will do anything with her feelings for Garth—whether they will get together or not. If they follow the book at all, it's unlikely, given that Agnes goes into aunt training to avoid getting married—but so did Becka, and yet, she was married off to Garth in the show, albeit drugged and against her own wishes.
But...wouldn't you want her to find whatever love she could? Especially as she doesn't envision living anywhere else but Gilead, she doesn't envision that leaving is even a possibility to her.
Anyway, I hate that this show is attracting such a young audience as the social context for this sort of content is lost on them, given how high the rise in pro-censorship views is among young people on the internet, and the loud voices of antis who denounce exactly the sort of content that this show is putting out. Too many people are writing angry posts online about the show, not realizing what this universe even is, and also attacking the people who do ship Agnes and Garth, because of their age gap. And while I don't ship them myself, I'm just tired of having to see it every time I open social media.
Please, children, I beg of you, watch The Handmaid's Tale. This is a book that used to be assigned to young people in the 13-16 age group in school to help young people learn critical thinking skills and nuanced understanding toward themes of oppression, propaganda, feminism, etc. Please engage with the source material to understand the context of the universe in the TV show you are now watching.
And please recognize that this show was not designed specifically to be watched by people your age, and that the primary audience is adults who can engage with it critically.
