Women, men, power: "Handmaid's Tale," "Succession," "Yellowstone," "GLOW," "CLAWS," more

Spoilers included.

At dinner with friends recently, the conversation turned to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and the ending of the second season. I thought the season as a whole was powerful in the way it repeatedly emphasized the ruthlessness of the powerful – that the men in charge of Gilead were going to maintain control no matter how brutal they felt they had to be. And that control was not over some women, but all women, as we saw in the execution of a misguided teen (who had been betrayed by her own, control-minded father) and the repeated punishment of Serena. As one of our friends said, Serena thought privilege gave her a pass on society’s worst treatment of women – only she learned otherwise, and finally saw that her “daughter” would be denied even those few things Serena had carried over from the pre-repression years.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the portrayal of women, men and power – not only because of what we see from the men ruling the country (and their, well, handmaids) but because of how women have turned up in shows like “Succession,” “Yellowstone” and “GLOW.” “Succession” (which I have watched faithfully) and “Yellowstone” (where I am a couple of episode behind) are especially interesting because they both involve powerful patriarchs who have several sons but only one daughter, and each daughter (played by Sarah Snook in “Succession” and Kelly Reilly in “Yellowstone”) is placed outside the family core while simultaneously appearing to be the smartest among the offspring.

In each show, as in “Handmaid,” power comes with arrogance and brutality, sometimes successfully (Logan’s crushing of the coup in “Succession”) but sometimes not (John’s arrogant seizing of his cattle sets in motion all sorts of awful events). What has made Reilly’s performance the best thing in “Yellowstone” is her unapologetic ferocity, while Snook only becomes a real power player when she unleashes her fury.

But see, in these shows, it’s still the men who rule, no matter how smart or capable or dangerous the women are. In “GLOW,” where the story revolves around women trying to secure a positive place for themselves, even if that place is in professional wrestling, they are nonetheless beholden to the men who run television (or, as the season ended, a strip club in Vegas). And those men are far less interested in giving women power than in maintaining their own – when “GLOW” proves it could be a TV phenomenon, it is cut down over ownership as thoroughly as Serena’s finger was.

A departure from all this is “Claws,” the out-there TNT drama which has women jockeying for power against each other, with the men often shoved to the side, or put in service of the women. The show is not consistent in that message – in a pivotal scene, the main adversary subjugates herself sexually to a man – but control is still something women have to a great degree. And it appeared in last week’s show that Desna is ready for ruthlessness. 

Also, I am addicted to the show generally, and its array of performances from the likes of Judy Reyes and Carrie Preston (if you somehow have missed the great “Brockmire,” go find it all and don’t miss Preston’s performances at the end of the second season).

All this offers one reason why “Skyscraper” (more about it in another post) was more interesting than many action movies: the female lead, played by Neve Campbell, had her own power, and it is finally she, not Dwayne Johnson’s action guy, who saves the day.

But, getting back to “The Handmaid’s Tale,” what do we make of that ending? My sense is that June is going underground to join whatever revolution is out there. We know there is something, based on the bombing, and the escape plan involving a series of Marthas working together as well as one sympathetic man. There are also external forces at work, demonstrated by the failure of the Canada overtures, and the mentions of other nations outside this one. June would seem able to join in the fight. 

She already tried flight, which was disastrous; she saw in the trapped-in-the-mansion sequence that she is capable of anything, including childbirth, on her own. And I doubt she would hesitate to pull a trigger if given another chance to take out a leader. 

Still, if June has found a new role, what of Serena? That could be a bigger emotional question for the next season. Most of the men, though they cling to power, have proven themselves ever more contemptible. I spent some time lately reading a lot of Philip Roth, until the misogyny became too unbearable, and more recently have dug deeper into Margaret Atwood, and the experience has been akin to watching “Handmaid.” At times it seems as if Atwood creates characters Roth would build novels around, full of self-absorption and disdain for women – and then shows us the ineptness and shamefulness that Roth missed, along with women whose strength Roth would never notice.