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Rating: 3/5 stars
Verdict: "The Testaments" is polished, well-acted and still uncomfortably relevant, given today’s political climate. But for all its timely themes, it struggles to break free from "The Handmaid’s Tale’s" shadow, often feeling like a rehash rather than a reinvention. Worth watching for the performances, especially Chase Infiniti, but not exactly essential viewing.
Release schedule: Episodes 1-3 streaming now, then once weekly every Wednesday at 12 a.m. ET.
Where to watch: Hulu
To be honest, I wasn’t exactly clamoring to go back to Gilead.
By the time "The Handmaid’s Tale" wrapped, it already felt like a show that had said what it needed to say — and then kept saying it, again and again, just in case we missed it the first five times. The biggest problem facing the next chapter in Margaret Atwood’s dystopian universe might not be anything "The Testaments" does, but that its predecessor simply went on too long.
After watching the first three episodes, my reaction is less excitement and more exhaustion. This is a well-made show. It’s timely, polished and full of strong performances. But it also feels like slipping back into a story that’s running on muscle memory.
Article continues belowWhat is 'The Testaments' about?
"The Testaments" shifts the focus to a younger generation — girls who didn’t just survive Gilead, but were raised in it. That’s a smart pivot on paper. Instead of June’s outsider perspective, we get Agnes (Chase Infiniti), the daughter of a high-ranking Commander, who’s grown up believing this is just how the world works.
Agnes is a “Plum,” which basically means she’s being prepped for marriage like it’s a debutante ball from hell. She wears purple, attends a finishing school run by Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd, still unsettling), and is taught — explicitly and implicitly — that her entire purpose is to become someone’s wife and, ideally, a mother.
Then there’s Daisy (Lucy Halliday), a newcomer from Canada who’s been recruited into Gilead and doesn’t quite buy what they’re selling. When she’s paired with Agnes, you can see the show lining up its central dynamic: believer meets skeptic, system meets disruption, etc.
The problem is you already know where all of this is going. That slow unraveling of belief? The creeping realization that Gilead is rotten to its core? The small acts of rebellion that build toward something bigger? We've seen it. "The Handmaid’s Tale" already spent six seasons circling the same themes. Even when "The Testaments" tries to reframe things through a coming-of-age lens — friendships, crushes, giggles, mean-girl dynamics — it still lands in very familiar territory.
Verdict: Still relevant (maybe too much) but frustratingly familiar
If there’s a reason to stick with "The Testaments," it’s Chase Infiniti. She’s excellent here, proving that her star-making turn in "One Battle After Another" was not a one-hit wonder.
Agnes is a tricky character because so much of her arc is internal at this point. She’s not rebelling (yet), not breaking rules in any major way. She’s just starting to question, starting to feel that something is off. Infiniti plays that beautifully. It’s all in the eyes, the bit of hesitation, the tiny changes in how Agnes carries herself and approaches others. You can see the gears turning, even when she can’t say any of it out loud.
The rest of the cast is great, too. Lucy Halliday brings edge and spark to Daisy, and Ann Dowd slips back into Aunt Lydia mode like she never left. And on a technical level, the show is exactly what you’d expect: It looks great, the production design is meticulous, everything is very prestige TV.
And to be clear, the story this show is telling still matters. Maybe more than ever. The themes of control, bodily autonomy, indoctrination — none of that has lost its bite, especially given the current political climate in the U.S. If anything, "The Testaments" feels a little too real at times.
But that’s also what makes its sense of repetition more frustrating. Because when a show is this relevant, I want it to push forward and say something sharper and dig deeper. I want it to be an "Andor." Instead, "The Testaments" often feels like it’s rehashing the same ideas "The Handmaid’s Tale" already explored, just from a slightly different vantage point.
I’ll keep watching. For Infiniti, mostly, and for the hope that it finds a fresher angle as it goes. But three episodes in, "The Testaments" feels less like a bold new chapter and more like a story we already know, told one more time.
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