THE INTERPRETER | Yvonne Strahovski
THE SHOW | The Handmaid’s Tale
THE EPISODE | “No Man’s Land” (October 19, 2022)
PERFORMANCE | It doesn’t matter if you love, hate, or love to hate Serena Joy Waterford, there’s one thing that’s undeniable: Yvonne Strahovski is so ridiculously good in the role. Five seasons, and she is still find new ways to waste ourselves emotionally in a difficult and complicated game. Be pray! Let’s talk about this week’s episode, shall we?
Strahovski gave a tour de force performance throughout the hour, which began with the ousted Gilead founder delivering her first child. Serena’s desperation, both physical and emotional, was clear in all of Strahovski’s choices: the high-pitched moans as the contractions intensified, the desperation with which she kept her gun trained on June as he faltered, the steel in her voice as she refused to go to a hospital – even if it meant enduring one of the most painful processes of living in an abandoned barn.
This pain shattered Serena emotionally, allowing Strahovski to play the more human aspects of her extremely hateful character. As an audience, we were there with June; one moment basking in the powerful love flowing from Serena to her newborn son, Strahovski’s tearful smile a thing of beauty, and the next hating her for comparing her situation with the Wheelers to June’s in Gilead . (We know Serena was exhausted, but how oblivious can a person be?!)
Want to revisit a moment of television perfection? Predict the moment when Serena suggests June take little Noah and give him a better life than she can provide. Strahovski’s eyes overflow with tears as Serena quietly explains her poor outlook. Do you know what else overflows? Our admiration for the beauty with which this actress can play on our two sympathies and our contempt, sometimes within minutes. We still don’t know what we think of Serena these days, but Strahovski? She is incredible.
HONORABLE MENTION | Reminding us all why she is a legend, the estimable Marla Gibbs put on an utterly heartbreaking performance on Thursday Grey’s Anatomy, first introducing us to the feisty, fun-loving woman Simone’s grandmother once was, and then showing us the confused, scared old person she’d been transformed into by dementia. As soon as Simone gently explained to her grandmother that she was not her mother, her mother was dead, Gibbs changed his whole demeanor, his face contorting in indignation and a lack of understanding that was hard to see. . “Somebody help me,” cried Joyce, unable to believe what she was being told. “Bravo,” shouted the audience, shocked again by the 91-year-old television icon who has been killing for five decades.
HONORABLE MENTION | Comedy can come from the strangest places, and this week Documentary now! found it in the rugged mountains of Russia, thanks to the hilarious duo of Alexander Skarsgard and August Diehl. Skarsgard played a 1980s German director making a documentary about the remote area – while also filming a CBS sitcom pilot Called There Single nanny. Skarsgard’s signature intensity lent itself perfectly to comedy, with the director’s lofty artistic ambitions pushing him to ridiculous extremes. And the hilarity only doubled when Diehl walked in as the cutting-edge comedian who violently clashed with the director of Skarsgard – when he deemed his accommodation insufficient, he held a knife under the director’s throat – bringing wild-eyed manic energy to an already wild episode. Documentary now! has always been a treasure trove of tiny acting gems, and with Skarsgard and Diehl’s deeply silly double act, Season 4 is off to a superb start.
HONORABLE MENTION | AndorFiona Shaw made us feel Cass and us everything things as Maarva declined his son’s offer to leave town, to instead fight the good fight on Ferrix. On the one hand we were crushed to learn how Maarva had for 13 years avoided the part of town where her husband Clem had been hanged by Imperial forces. But after learning of the daring raid by the Aldhani garrison, “I put on my best coat and walked through the square with a smile on my face!” she shared, inspired as she is now to “hold on here” on Ferrix. Then, when Maarva noted that Cass had “a different path” ahead of him, your heart had to swell as Shaw gazed at Diego Luna with adoring eyes. “I’ve never loved anything like I’ve loved you,” Maarva confessed. “But you can’t stay. And I can’t go there. Suffice to say, Shaw made us as sad to see mom and son go their separate ways as they were.
Which performance(s) hit your socks this week? Tell us in the comments!