Even Elisabeth Moss Can’t Save ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Season 5

Over two decades of TV, the burden placed on Elisabeth Moss’ face would leave a lesser actor permanently disfigured.

Mad Men” pushed Peggy from a surprise pregnancy through bitter battles with a bitchy boss.

Top of the Lake” cast her as a sexual assault specialist.

Hell, even “The West Wing” put President Bartlet’s daughter, Zoey, through a traumatic kidnapping plot.

And then there’s “The Handmaid’s Tale,” a show that could’ve been titled, “How To Endure Oppression.” For five seasons (so far), June Osborne has been the audience’s envoy into a world of overt misogyny, casual torture, and emotional anguish, which makes Moss’ visage our primary translator of oft-unimaginable depravity.

Reed Morano, the Emmy-winning Season 1 director and series’ visual tone-setter, recognized that framing June’s plight via extreme close-ups and long, lingering shots could utilize the intimacy afforded by television to build a deeper connection to a dystopian story.

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