The Testaments, Season 1 Feature Scores
Explore all 51 feature scores for The Testaments, Season 1, organized into pros and cons.
Scores by Feature
Summary
51 reviewed features-
Very positive 4.5-5.016 (31%)
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Positive 3.5-4.416 (31%)
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Neutral 2.5-3.49 (18%)
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Negative 1.5-2.48 (16%)
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Very negative below 1.52 (4%)
Pros
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Girlhood, indoctrination, complicity, friendship, resistance, and patriarchal power give the season substantial thematic weight. This is one of the show’s most consistently praised qualities.
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The contemporary parallels are among the strongest points of agreement, especially around reproductive control, authoritarianism, grooming, and complacency. For some viewers, that relevance is so close and repetitive that it becomes exhausting.
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Acting is one of the strongest areas of agreement. Even negative reviews usually praise the young ensemble, with only a few reservations about Daisy’s performance.
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Interest in another season is consistently high among favorable reviewers, who see abundant room for rebellion, character growth, and a larger payoff. Even several mixed reviews hope later seasons fix the pacing.
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The friendships feel lived-in, believable, and essential to the story. Reviewers especially respond to Agnes and Becka’s bond, Agnes and Daisy’s developing trust, and the wider sisterhood.
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Bright pastels, purple-and-white uniforms, and carefully composed iconography give the sequel a striking look. Even skeptical critics generally acknowledge the polish, though some find it too similar to its predecessor.
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The girls’ gradual awakening, friendships, and small acts of rebellion are among the season’s strongest elements. Daisy’s depth and Aunt Lydia’s shifting motives are less consistently convincing.
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The finishing school, opulent homes, ritual spaces, and culturally suggestive details create a beautiful but threatening environment. Reviewers repeatedly see the design as one of the production’s strongest assets.
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The supporting ensemble is repeatedly singled out as a strength, with Becka, Shunammite, Hulda, the Aunts, and Gilead’s adults all receiving specific praise.
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The series is frequently described as gut-wrenching, disturbing, and deeply moving. For some viewers, its closeness to current politics makes it too exhausting or painful to enjoy.
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A large group calls the series a worthy, fresh, or exemplary follow-up. The opposing view sees franchise fatigue, creative dependence, and a story that should not have been extended.
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Positive reviewers describe the season as moreish, addictive, and difficult to stop watching despite its bleak subject matter.
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The cinematography is widely admired for smooth movement, painterly framing, and imagery that can feel exquisite and creepy at once.
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At its best, the season is an unnerving, slow-building thriller that keeps viewers alert. Its tension drops when the pacing stalls or Mayday’s easy movement through Gilead feels too convenient.
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Rotating viewpoints and character-focused episodes give the season useful depth, with Aunt Lydia’s material producing both a major highlight and some of the sharpest criticism. Exposition-heavy stretches and an underdeveloped standalone episode keep the structure uneven.
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The YA dystopian approach is the season’s defining gamble. Many find the teen-drama blend fresh and effective, while others experience tonal whiplash or feel it trivializes the material.
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Reviewers value how ordinary teenage behavior sits beside normalized authoritarian cruelty. That contrast makes indoctrination, privilege, and the mundanity of fascism feel disturbingly plausible.
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The adaptation takes substantial liberties with character ages, relationships, timelines, and plot order. Many reviewers accept those changes because the novel’s spirit remains intact, while others are less convinced.
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The finale leaves several character and rebellion threads hanging in a way that strongly increases interest in Season 2. A smaller episode-ending cliffhanger also keeps immediate questions alive.
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The season delivers several effective surprises and a late shock for some reviewers. Others saw major developments coming well in advance or felt the twists were insufficiently earned.
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The privileged teenage viewpoint gives Gilead a genuinely different angle, especially through its marriage-market setting. Several critics still feel the sequel repeats too many ideas and story beats from The Handmaid’s Tale.
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The season’s coming-of-age story is often described as fresh, gripping, and politically urgent. Less enthusiastic critics find it emotionally hollow, repetitive, or too reliant on shock.
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The expanded color-coded wardrobe gives the younger generation a vivid identity while preserving Gilead’s social hierarchy and visual symbolism.
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The series can prompt reflection on how democracies normalize authoritarian ideas and how indoctrinated people gradually recognize their loss of freedom.
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Callbacks and continuity with The Handmaid’s Tale can elevate the story and reward longtime fans. They can also make the sequel feel inaccessible to newcomers or trapped in the original’s shadow.
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Humor appears only in small doses, but the occasional jokes and Rowan Blanchard’s comic moments provide welcome relief from the oppressive setting.
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The school, marriage market, and privileged girls make familiar Gilead feel fresh to many reviewers. Detractors think the show overexplains a world audiences already know and treats old information like revelation.
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The sequel is considered understandable across different levels of Gilead familiarity, using recognizable lore without requiring every viewer to remember the full original series.
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The central performances are a clear attraction, giving the younger perspective emotional credibility even for viewers unsure about the sequel itself.
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The opening episodes impressed some viewers with their atmosphere, performances, and promise. Others found the pilot overloaded with exposition and too trapped in Gilead’s familiar formalities.
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The coming-of-age drama can be absorbing and emotionally forceful. Some stylistic choices, especially conspicuous music and YA flourishes, make the darkest material feel less serious than intended.
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The middle of the season gains momentum and becomes more character-focused after a mechanical opening. That improvement helps, but the early episodes still spend too long explaining familiar territory.
Cons
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Diverse casting is visible, but critics repeatedly say the series avoids meaningful engagement with race and leaves its queer-coded elements underdeveloped.
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The marriage market, predatory older men, grooming, and molestation make the sexual material deeply unsettling rather than titillating.
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Despite the YA framing and teenage leads, the material is intensely adult and often harder to watch because the victims are young. One critic also found the actors’ ages distracting for the roles.
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Aunt Lydia is the main point of friction: several reviewers feel her softening, redemption, and double-agent direction clash with the character established earlier.
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Differences among the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale, and this sequel create noticeable strain. Aunt Lydia’s history and the shortened timeline are the most frequently questioned points.
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Reactions to the dialogue are sharply divided. One reviewer found the teenage speech authentic, while many others called it trite, clunky, overly explanatory, or painfully on the nose.
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The series is not family-friendly, with sexual abuse, coercion, executions, mutilation, grooming, and sustained political oppression driving the story.
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The ten-episode season is criticized as far longer than its amount of story can support, with one reviewer comparing it to a pilot’s worth of plot.
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The sequel is generally less graphically violent than The Handmaid’s Tale, but it still includes mutilation, executions, abuse, and deeply disturbing violence against women. Reviewers often found the level emotionally difficult.
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One critic felt the series depends too heavily on prior Handmaid’s Tale knowledge to work as a truly standalone experience.
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One critic found the sub-45-minute episodes oddly truncated yet still underfilled, reinforcing the sense that too little plot is being stretched across the season.
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The writing earns praise for its themes and some strong character work, but criticism is frequent. Reviewers repeatedly mention didactic voiceovers, blunt messaging, cringe-inducing lines, and missed dramatic potential.
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One reviewer celebrated an explosive, unexpected finish, while others thought the finale reverted to predictable Handmaid’s Tale patterns or undercut its climax with weak writing.
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The more intimate middle episodes allow characters to lead the story and draw praise. Elsewhere, emotional scenes and voiceover-heavy material are judged less effectively directed.
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Enjoyment depends heavily on tolerance for Gilead’s cruelty and political parallels. Some had a great time and rated it highly; others found it tiring, exploitative, or impossible to recommend right now.
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The music is a major point of disagreement. Some call it unusual but effective and well suited to youthful daydreaming; others find the needle drops obvious, awkward, or damaging to the drama.
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Some reviewers found the story easy to follow without a rewatch. Others were distracted by plot holes, implausibly careless Mayday operations, and character decisions that weaken the internal logic.
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The ending offers hope and a strong appetite for more, especially through its unresolved character threads. Critics who disliked it found the central reveal obvious, confusing, or too dependent on franchise knowledge.
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Slow-burn setup is the season’s most repeated drawback, with several reviewers calling it a prologue stretched across ten episodes. A smaller group appreciates the measured buildup or finds it faster than The Handmaid’s Tale.