Hulu’s Emmy-Winning Dystopian Series Peaked In Season 1 & Still Hasn’t Recovered 9 Years Later

Although Hulu’s best dystopian sci-fi series, The Handmaid’s Tale, was consistently critically acclaimed, the show never quite lived up to the potential of its incredible first season. Between Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099, Apple Tv’s Neuromancer, and the upcoming The Captive’s War, sci-fi fans who want to see more small-screen dystopias are spoiled for choice in 2026. However, the genre has been producing some modern classics for a few years now, with titles like Silo, Foundation, and the underrated Halo series all standing out as great sci-fi series.

One Hulu hit predates all of these, and its critical acclaim could be part of the reason that they were greenlit in the first place. Released in 1985, author Margaret Atwood’s dark dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale tells the story of a totalitarian future America, renamed the Republic of Gilead. Dominated by a patriarchal theocratic government, the Republic of Gilead treats women as second-class citizens and saves its most unsettling treatment for the titular “Handmaids.” These women, against their will, are used as human incubators for the offspring of Gilead’s wealthiest citizens.

This grim premise made 2017’s timely adaptation The Handmaid’s Tale an intriguing prospect, but it was the show’s stellar cast and unpredictable plotting that turned the series into a critical darling. The Handmaid’s Tale season 1 was deft, dark, and often jaw-dropping in its brutality. Blending thoughtful social commentary with a nonstop plot that shocked even seasoned sci-fi fans, The Handmaid’s Tale was elevated by stellar central turns from Elisabeth Moss, Ann Dowd and Alexis Bledel.

How Close The Testaments Comes To Reaching The Handmaid’s Tale Season 1’s Heights

However, this strong start wasn’t necessarily an unalloyed good for the show. As much as the show tried to outdo itself with darker, even more brutal later outings, The Handmaid’s Tale never topped its first season, and this was reflected in the reviews received from season 2 onward. Where season 1 was met with universal acclaim, season 2’s reviews began to question whether The Handmaid’s Tale ladled out a little too much horror for its own good.

By season 3, the shine had worn off Hulu’s dystopian masterpiece, and season 4 of the series saw The Handmaid’s Tale hit with its worst reviews yet. While fans who stuck with the series said that seasons 5 and 6 were a marked improvement on this outing, it was still unavoidably clear that the show was never going to outdo its first season. Luckily, its long-awaited spinoff, The Testaments, might manage to do just that as the Hulu series continues.

Based on 2019’s Atwood novel of the same name, The Testaments is a direct sequel set 15 years after The Handmaid’s Tale. Starring One Battle After Another’s breakout star Chase Infiniti, the show’s first season was met with widespread acclaim upon its April 2026 release. With a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 88%, The Testaments has already handily outdone the performance of all but two seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale (those being the show’s first two outings). Thus, the sequel might be able to live up to its predecessor.

However, this would be a considerable challenge for The Testaments, since the show struggles with the same central issue that sank later seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale. Atwood’s fictional dystopia setting is thoroughly familiar at this stage, and even the show’s nastiest shocks don’t come as a major surprise to viewers who recall the original show’s dark tone. Thus, it is tough for the sequel to equal the acclaim garnered by The Handmaid’s Tale, since Hulu’s dystopian show was its best before viewers understood the intricacies of how Gilead’s society and culture operated and how its norms were upheld.

Release Date

2017 – 2025-00-00

Network

Hulu

Showrunner

Bruce Miller

• 

  Elisabeth Moss

  June Osborne / Offred / Ofjoseph

•