The Testaments is like a rewarmed TV dinner, while The Miniature Wife goes too big
Hugely disappointing is The Testaments, Hulu’s new spin-off from The Handmaid’s Tale.
It’s not like THT wasn’t without its problems – the show was often too hesitant to evolve the show out from its initial premise (and its roots in the book), there was a lot of treading water and resetting back to the status quo. It improbably kept the Waterford characters in the show for longer than made sense. And I never bought into the idea of seeing June back in the Handmaid outfit again.
But… that show was also regularly spectacular. The cinematography was often tremendous and the show delivered a number of all-time great television moments. The show was willing to go into some pretty wild and dark territory, especially in its later seasons.
The Testaments has embraced a ‘more of the same’ approach to its detriment. Instead of using the new show as an opportunity for a reboot or to examine Gilead from a very different perspective, we’re now three episodes in and watching too-similar thematic beats from the earliest episodes of the OG show, only now with far brighter cinematography and saddled by the need to keep linking it back to The Handmaid’s Tale.
And worse is the show continually winking at the audience about the potential for our two lead girls to be secret half-sisters. That’s from Margaret Attwood’s sequel book, but it doesn’t make a lick of sense in a timeline established by The Handmaid’s Tale TV show. The show needs to knock it off if it wants viewers to fully buy into the new iteration of the show.
I’m tentatively sticking with it, if only because I tried jumping off The Handmaid’s Tale and later realised I was missing out on a show that really was getting better each season. I’m doubtful the same will hold for this show.
And why is a teenage girl in a Canada that’s set around five or ten years from now listening to The Cranberries? That’s what you get when old men who were culturally vibrant in the 90s are running a YA teen girl show in 2026. It’s nonsense. Knock it off.
Another disappointment is Peacock’s new limited series The Miniature Wife.
A show about a man who shrinks his wife to the size of a hamster is inherently a goofy premise that opens obvious doors to male and female relationship power imbalances and patriarchal notions of ownership. We know this because it’s a) obvious; and b) was already done in the 1981 Lily Tomlin film The Incredible Shrinking Woman.
Just watch that instead.
The show has this great cast with Matthew McFadyen and Elizabeth Banks supported by O-T Fagbenle, Aasif Mandvi, Ronnie Chieng, Zoe Lister Jones, and Sian Glifford among others, but they are all playing it way too broadly and over the top. It’s as though pilot director Greg Mottola, who is wildly hit and miss, kept on pepping his cast with the information: “This is a comedy. Go big and funny… oh, you’re a scream!”
Instead it comes off as loud and obnoxious. And I did not like.
Also, I’m always happy to see O-T Fagbenle, who was great in The Handmaid’s Tale, in any show, but why is he playing a character in The Miniature Wife that is clearly supposed to be a much younger man in his 20s?
Returning TV
The Boys (s05), Hacks (s05), Turn of The Tide (s03)
New TV
The Testaments — Hulu
Who’s in it: Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday
What’s it about? A new generation of young women in Gilead grapples with the bleak future that awaits them.
Malcolm In The Middle: Life’s Still Unfair — Disney+
Who’s in it: Bryan Cranston, Frankie Muniz, Jane Kaczmarek, Christopher Kennedy Masterson, Justin Berfield
What’s it about? After shielding himself and his daughter from his family for more than a decade, Malcolm gets dragged back into their orbit when Hal and Lois demand his presence at their 40th anniversary party.
Star Wars: Maul Shadow Lord — Disney+
Who’s in it: Sam Witwer, Wagner Moura, Richard Ayoade, Dennis Haysbert
What’s it about? After the Clone Wars, Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire.
Big Mistakes — Netflix
Who’s in it: Dan Levy, Taylor Ortega, Laurie Metcalf
What’s it about? Blackmailed into working for gangsters, two deeply incapable siblings become the most disorganized duo in organized crime.
The Miniature Wife — Peacock [US] | Stan [AUS]
Who’s in it: Elizabeth Banks, Matthew Macfadyen, O-T Fagbenle
What’s it about? A technological accident serves as a catalyst for Lindy and Les, a married couple, to re-evaluate their relationship's power dynamics.
Bandi — Netflix
Who’s in it: Djody Grimeau, Rodney Dijon, Jonathan Zaccaï, Remy Laquittant
What’s it about? After their mother's death, a group of orphaned siblings in Martinique struggles to get by, driving some of them toward crime as a way to stay together.
New Movies
Outcome — Apple TV
Who’s in it: Keanu Reeves, Cameron Diaz, Jonah Hill
What’s it about? Beloved Hollywood star Reef Hawk becomes the target of an extortion plot when he receives a mysterious video that’s sure to shatter his image and end his career. Hoping to identify the blackmailer, he soon embarks on a soul-searching journey to make amends with anyone he could have possibly wronged.
18th Rose — Netflix
Who’s in it: Xyriel Manabat and Kyle Echarri
What’s it about? A spirited teen dreaming of the perfect debut makes a deal with a lonely newcomer, but unexpected feelings and revelations may shatter their plans.
New Documentary
I generally don’t talk too much about documentaries in this newsletter. There’s just too much factual content on top of scripted to service it properly. But, if there’s something I feel people need to know about…
Untold: Chess Mates — Netflix
What’s it about? How did a match between chess grandmasters devolve into a bizarre scandal about anal beads?
That’s the newsletter for this week.
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