Pick your poison of near-future dystopias with this week’s episode: grim authoritarian government regime or sinister-but-smiling tech hegemony? Wade and Kevin take a look at the first three episodes of Bruce Miller’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Does it do justice to the anxieties and complexities of its source material? The other dystopia is much sunnier but no less worrisome in its implications. James Ponsoldt’s film adaptation of the Dave Eggers novel takes a hard look at technology and social media’s impact on society, but is there more realism or more hysteria in its musings on these themes? Listen to find out!
Listen to Seeing and Believing 106:
Music interlude by Run Maggie Run, “Lion Tamer.” Used under Creative Commons license 3.0.
Theme music by Alexander Osborn and Lindsey Mysse. Used under Creative Commons license 3.0.