u/Just-Benefit2024

What is it with the constant watery eye close ups in the later seasons? I get that the circumstances are mostly very bleak… and it might just be me thinking this. But do the constant watery eye close ups feel a bit forced or like over acting at times?

I’m rewatching the show, and I think I’ve finally figured out what sometimes bothers me about Luke as a character.

I don’t necessarily find his emotions themselves unrealistic. He's obviously been through an enormous amount too - his wife and daughter were taken from him, he has no idea what is happening to them for years, and he's basically powerless to help them...

What I sometimes find unrealistic is the way the show transitions between his emotions.

Luke seems to swing between being extremely repressed/almost overly casual about something, and then suddenly becoming very angry, frustrated or emotionally explosive. The pattern itself could absolutely make sense as a trauma response. Like 'suppress everything until you can’t anymore,' but sometimes the repression is played so casually that it doesn’t feel like repression. It just feels like he isn’t reacting very much at all.

For example, S2E7 (After) really stood out to me. After the bombing at the Rachel and Leah Centre, Luke and Moira are waiting in Canada for information. They know Handmaids have died, but they don’t yet know whether June is one of them.

Moira understandably wants to stay until they know. But Luke basically says that he has faith June is alive and goes home to get dinner! And that reaction has always seemed SO bizarrely casual to me.

I completely understand that denial could be his coping mechanism. Maybe he simply cannot allow himself to contemplate June being dead, so he convinces himself she’s alive and focuses on something mundane like getting food. Or maybe it's just bad acting?

I do feel like the scene needed to show more of that underneath the surface.

This is his wife, who has been trapped in Gilead for years, and he has just learned that there has been a major attack involving Handmaids with confirmed fatalities! He has no confirmation that June survived!

I would expect some visible panic - obsessively waiting for updates, pacing, repeatedly insisting she must be alive, becoming irritable because he’s terrified, or even going home and making dinner but clearly using it as a distraction because he cannot cope with staying there.

Instead, when you put him next to Moira, she actually seems considerably more anxious to find out whether June's alive than her own husband does!

And I really don’t think the intention is that he cares less about June. Everything else about his character tells us that he loves her and that losing June and Hannah has truly affected him.

That’s why I think my issue is more with the execution of his emotional reactions than the emotions themselves... which can then make some of his later angry or grumpy reactions feel more immature or disproportionate, as we haven’t necessarily been shown the fear, grief or pressure building underneath them.

Does anyone else find Luke’s emotional transitions a little strange sometimes? Or do you read his more casual reactions as more deliberate denial, repression, etc.?

I’m re-watching again because I absolutely love the show, but one thing that increasingly annoys me is how inconsistent Gilead’s punishments are when it comes to June.

And to be clear, I’m IN NO WAY saying June hasn’t suffered horrendously - she obviously has, especially psychologically. My issue is that the show establishes very early on that Gilead permanently mutilates women for comparatively “smaller” acts of disobedience, yet June repeatedly does things that should be considered far worse in Gilead’s eyes and somehow avoids almost all permanent physical mutilation.

Janine loses an eye for talking back. Emily/Ofglen is permanently mutilated. Lillie/Ofglen #2 loses her tongue after being the first to openly refuse an order - an act of defiance June joins in with (secondly). Other Handmaids are brutally punished for rebellion or disobedience. And Serena loses a finger for reading from the Bible.

Then there’s June, who repeatedly attempts to escape, openly defies Aunts and Commanders, becomes involved with the resistance, influences other Handmaids, challenges Gilead publicly, and generally causes far more “trouble” for the regime than most of the women we see permanently punished.

Yet she repeatedly gets returned to being a Handmaid physically intact.

I understand some of the in-universe explanations. June is fertile, there are periods where the Waterfords have an interest in protecting her, Aunt Lydia has a strange attachment to her, and psychologically breaking her may sometimes be more useful and "effective" to Gilead than physically disabling her.

But fertility doesn’t completely explain it for me either, because most of the punishments I’m talking about wouldn’t prevent someone from becoming pregnant or giving birth. Gilead clearly has no problem removing an eye, finger or tongue while still expecting a woman to fulfil whatever “role” they’ve assigned her.

Serena is probably the example that makes the inconsistency stand out the most to me. She’s a high-ranking Commander’s Wife and still loses a finger for reading - yet June can commit repeated acts of outright resistance against Gilead and somehow never receives a comparable permanent punishment.

Again, I don’t think June “needed” to suffer more. If anything, the psychological trauma she accumulates is one of the strongest and most believable aspects of her character. It’s just that the show establishes such brutal rules for what happens to women who disobey, and then increasingly seems to suspend those rules whenever they apply to June.

After a while, it starts to feel less like there’s an in-universe reason for keeping her physically intact and more like obvious protagonist plot armour.

Does this bother anyone else, or do you think there’s an explanation within the show that makes it work?

I’m currently taking Modafinil, which has been really beneficial for helping me get moving, feel more productive, and function better day-to-day. However, by late afternoon, I sometimes notice I can feel a bit jittery or more anxious.

I’m also taking Pregabalin for my anxiety disorder. It helped a lot at first, but as my tolerance increased, it became less effective over time.

I was just wondering what has worked for others who have both CFS and anxiety? ❤️

I’m wondering if other HSPs experience this, because I’m starting to feel like I’m losing my mind a bit. I know having an anxiety disorder isn't the best either!

I can prepare pretty well for interviews. I know my experience. I can do the actual work. But face-to-face interviews, in particular, make me feel like my whole nervous system goes into overdrive.

It’s not just answering the questions. It’s the room, the lighting, the body language, the eye contact, the tone of voice, whether they seem rushed, whether I’m sitting right, whether I’m talking too much, whether they look bored, whether I’ve misunderstood the question - all of it hits and flusters me at once.

Then my brain completely fogs. I fumble words. I forget things I know. I come across much more nervous and less capable than I actually am in the job itself.

It’s frustrating because when I'm actually doing a job I'm experienced in, I can stay calm under pressure (for example), so when I say that in interviews, they are probably like, "Can you actually?!" I can focus on what needs to be done, follow procedures, communicate carefully, and do the practical work. But in interviews, especially in person, the focus turns inward, and I start monitoring everything.

Virtual interviews are so much easier for me because there’s less sensory and social overwhelm. I can be in a familiar environment and focus more on the actual questions. Face-to-face feels like being assessed not just on my answers, but on my ability to cope with a very intense social/sensory situation.

Does anyone else find this? Have you found anything that helps with in-person interviews as an HSP, especially if you also have anxiety?

I loved the soundtrack btw! Radiohead, Joy Division were my top faves.

Mine are the scenes when:

- Tommy takes a break from work, and all his PTSD comes flooding back. When Charlie peeks through the door, sees his dad completely inebriated after smashing a bottle/glass, and Tommy starts sobbing afterwards.

- when Tommy thinks he's going to die, and he prepares his wagon with all the photos, memories, etc., and then he sees Ruby and runs to hug her.

- when Arthur tries to hang himself after being betrayed by his dad.

- where it's Ruby's funeral... but only when I found out about Sinead O'Connor's tragic death following her son's. And they play "In This Heart" by her during the funeral.