'The Testaments' review: Thoughtful, coming-of-age sequel to 'The Handmaid's Tale'

WHAT IT'S ABOUT June's (Elisabeth Moss) daughter, Agnes (Chase Infiniti) is a teen now, also fully absorbed into the Gilead system by Aunt Lydia's (Ann Dowd) elite academy, Rubies Premarital Prep, where young women are trained to become obedient wives/mothers. She's joined there by the mysterious Daisy (Lucy Halliday), whom June secretly conscripted to join the student body as a neophyte, for reasons that will eventually become clear. Like "The Handmaid's Tale," this sequel (set about four years after "Handmaid's" finale) is framed as a written testimony, or witness accounts — three, in fact — by Agnes, Daisy and Lydia. Those will recount and lead to the downfall of Gilead. This first season is based on "Handmaid's" author Margaret Atwood's 2019 novel of the same name.

MY SAY Before we get to the show, it's useful to see what Atwood (who also has a walk-on in the season finale) might be up to with that title, the "testaments." The obvious meaning refers to those three testaments by the leads. Truth has been inverted by the commanders of Gilead "who call evil good and good evil" (Isaiah 5:20), so it's up to them to restore the balance. (Spoiler alert: They will, but not this season.)

Then, that subtler meaning. Because the two most famous "testaments" are the Old and New, and because Atwood's novels are companions (both TV series too), it's not hard to guess which is more like the Old, and which the New. "Handmaid's" was dark, violent, forged out of hellfire and brimstone. With "Testaments," there's at least a sense of hope, with the possibility of grace and redemption.

Best not to go too far down this road. Men are still monsters, while there's an abundance of genuinely creepy, dirty old man stuff in "Testaments" (the debutante ball of episode 5; ugh). But this does at least give a sense of tone and direction. If you'd rather think of the shows in secular terms, then "Handmaid's" was "The Empire Strikes Back" while "Testaments" is "Return of the Jedi." (Daisy/Agnes: Luke Skywalker; Aunt Lydia: Anakin.)

With Free Boston now out of the picture, the rebellion tamped down for the moment, "The Testaments" unfolds in a deceptively pastoral world. Everything, everyone, is snugly in their place. As usual, both the organizing and aesthetic principle is like a rainbow — the purples of Rubies Prep, where students are "Plums," the greens of the Marthas (servants), the browns of the Aunts (Lydia), the whites of the "Pearl Girls" (the newbies at Rubies), the blacks of the Commanders, and so on. It's all weird and unsettling, but at least characters are conveniently color-coded.

That's deceptive too. As a Pearl Girl, Daisy is masterful at hiding her true identity, in part because she doesn't yet know what her true identity is (she and Agnes have a bond, but best to say no more). Agnes — a Plum at the top of the pecking order because she is deemed fertile — buys into Gilead groupthink at first. You always see her in purple, but expect her and Daisy to mix up their sartorial choices when they actually do have choices.

With any TV series, you tend to think of cultural parallels, and the too-easy ones here are Hogwarts, or "Gilead 90210" because there are a few mean girls in this high school, a lot of hormones too. Instead, go back to the Bible. Someone here will turn out to be Judith — -the Jewish widow from the Apocrypha who beheads a general and saves her people. Lydia? Daisy? Agnes? (or June?)

 Vengeance is at hand. By whose hand should keep you guessing. 

BOTTOM LINE Settled, thoughtful and at times engaging coming-of-age sequel.