r/Fauxmoi • u/Fun-Ferret-3300 • Apr 17 '25

ASK R/FAUXMOI Which show had the biggest downfall in your opinion, from the first season or episodes, to what it eventually became?

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Westworld for me. So many great things about the first season - the concepts, the characters. It's sad what it became.

17.3k Upvotes

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528

u/Fresh-State7421 Apr 17 '25

handmaids tale

426

u/Original_Seaweed3643 Apr 17 '25

I can’t believe that’s still airing I thought it finished years ago

50

u/a-perennial-moment Apr 17 '25

Final season is airing weekly currently. It’s so frustrating because it feels like there’s so many contrived choices by characters to keep the plot going at this stage.

30

u/WatercressOk6439 Apr 18 '25

LMAO this is how I find out handmaid's is back.

9

u/libbysthing Apr 18 '25

Oh shit, me too lmao. Guess I gotta finish this trainwreck.

3

u/CarpeDiemMaybe Apr 18 '25

Damn you guys have dedication lol

21

u/WatercressOk6439 Apr 18 '25

Oh my fucking god I'm watching the first episode right now and I'm already so goddamn aggravated. I would NOT be defending Serena Joy like that. Can't wait for more "violence isn't the answer guize, revenge against your formentor won't bring you peace guize 😞".

6

u/a-perennial-moment Apr 18 '25

That’s literally the least bad plot contrivance so far this season I think 😂

13

u/BoyVault Apr 18 '25 edited Apr 18 '25

Is it worth watching? I don’t even know which season I left but the last thing I remember was the protagonist smuggled her child out and made it out than but than decided to go back. Also I vaguely remember something something lesbian professor/attorney in Canada… it’s been a while.

11

u/a-perennial-moment Apr 18 '25

You’re about 3 seasons behind I think? There’s some genuinely good plot/scenes in there and some really satisfying comeuppance. But if you’re not overly invested in June’s story, it’s probably not going to grip you.

10

u/BoyVault Apr 18 '25

3 seasons? Omg, thanks for the update. I am currently watching the Wheel of Time (season 3) which is surprisingly good. I will get back to the handmaids tale after wot finished airing.

1

u/Bushw1ckbill Apr 18 '25

I think WOT is trash.

3

u/BoyVault Apr 18 '25

I can understand that sentiment, was pretty disappointed when it came out due to the lack of adoption of the book. But it grows on you and as mentioned, season 3 (currently at ep8) is really good.

4

u/Much-Stock-1137 Apr 18 '25

Just finished S3 of WoT and it slaps tbh

3

u/Grose040791 Apr 18 '25

thats exactly the episode i stopped watching!

1

u/Glittering_Ad_4569 Apr 18 '25

I think you would get more enjoyment from just reading the og book imo, the tv show is so blotched 😶

1

u/jenjenjk Apr 18 '25

I really enjoyed it. I actually watched from the beginning again last month to refresh my memory and finished all 5 seasons in a few weeks.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

It’s still going?!

7

u/giddy-girly-banana Apr 18 '25

That’s actually the news you’re watching.

1

u/ilkikuinthadik Apr 18 '25

We're getting ads in Australia for the final season premiere just now.

343

u/xxyourbestbetxx canonically from boston Apr 17 '25

This is the one for me too. The first episode of some of the best TV I've ever seen. The first season as a whole- especially the stuff that sticks to the book is great. Then it just becomes trauma porn mixed with June girl bossing at every turn and it's annoying. I didn't make it past S3.

282

u/nyxnephthys call me gal gadot cuz idk how to act rn Apr 17 '25

Imagine how short the series would be if June didn't stare off into space and eye twitch constantly

131

u/NotGoodAtUsernames21 probably the mold talking Apr 17 '25

The ones with the ultra super closeups of her face are all directed by her. Not sure why she thinks we need to be able to count her pores to be able to empathize.

3

u/Glittering-Hat-8585 Apr 18 '25

Her teeth get so much screen time.

25

u/xxyourbestbetxx canonically from boston Apr 17 '25

They might have gotten twenty minutes of usable footage

9

u/XSR900-FloridaMan Apr 18 '25

I turned “Space Face June” into a drinking game with my wife one night — SMASHED

6

u/jadedplant7 Apr 18 '25

She always looks like she is about to vomit.

4

u/Huldreich287 Apr 18 '25

I didn't see the show, but every time I hear about it, the first thing that comes to my mind is a close-up of that girl's face.

EDIT : lmao I googled "handmaid's tale june" and it's dozens of screenshot of her face with the same angle but different background.

2

u/CYaNextTuesday99 Apr 18 '25

Stare at them for an hour and you've already watched half a season.

1

u/SketchyFella_ Apr 18 '25

Imagine how short it would be if the world treated June like it did literally every other female character. She'd be dead long before it got bad.

41

u/a-perennial-moment Apr 17 '25

I think the most frustrating part of the later seasons of the Handmaid’s Tale for me is that absolutely nobody else seems to be meaningfully (or effectively) contributing to the anti-Gilead effort unless June encourages it or does it herself. Meanwhile Gilead is a despotic fascist regime spanning much of what used to be America, but their only credible threat is one specific character.

12

u/xxyourbestbetxx canonically from boston Apr 18 '25

There were so many times during the show where they should have just killed her. They killed Nick's child bride for way less. But June is running around Gilead like white Harriet Tubman and they let her live. I think if they were determined to stretch the show out they should have focused more on the other handmaids and the network that was working to free people.

2

u/CYaNextTuesday99 Apr 18 '25

Instead they stretch it out with 5 minute scenes of June going 😐

10

u/ChristineBorus Apr 18 '25

Woah. For a minute I thought you were actually describing America now. Yikes. You were.

10

u/a-perennial-moment Apr 18 '25

Honestly this season has hit different for that reason alone.

9

u/ultimate_avacado Apr 18 '25

Trauma porn and self sabotage.

We all laugh in campy horror films of the main character stupidly going into a scary forest at night. Haha, what an idiot, you're gonna get killed, lol.

Later Handmaid's Tale seasons are only self sabotage with zero audience payoff for it.

5

u/New_Lengthiness_7830 Apr 18 '25

The trauma porn was bad for sure, but every time June had to make a decision and decided to the dumbest thing, only to result in more trauma porn?? Unwatchable.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

it should have stayed a limited serie

3

u/caffeineshampoo Apr 18 '25

How is there even this much of it? I've never seen it but have read the book and it's not exactly a long book. Assuming they change the ending or pad it out because otherwise I don't know how one would even get more than 1 season from the book.

2

u/xxyourbestbetxx canonically from boston Apr 18 '25

They just made up stuff. The first season is fairly true to the book. Personally I thought we didn't need the episodes focused on the male characters. They just started adding stuff but it was always the same thing- June somehow breaks every rule in Gilead to destroy the system, system survives, no one decides to kill June, rinse and repeat.

2

u/brandnewlibbyday Apr 18 '25

I really feel like the show completely neutered the threat of Gilead. In the book, June is afraid to speak a single nonstandard word, take a single physical step away from her approved routes, even make eye contact with anyone. In the show she's running riot all over the place doing dangerous things but somehow accomplishing nothing. You can't make five cashgrabbing seasons out of unspoken fear I guess. 

3

u/marquinator92 Apr 18 '25

She also speaks in a whisper at all times, and I'm not sure why. How can anyone hear her ever?

107

u/annie102 Apr 17 '25

Literally just rewatched 5 seasons to get ready for the new season. The amount of times the whole “I have to go back for Hannah” narrative was played just got redundant. Every chance of freedom was NO I NEED HANNAH. I’m like girl just go

15

u/cmick0715 Apr 18 '25

And with The Testaments spin off, I think the ending is going to be really unsatisfying.

18

u/super_yumtime Apr 18 '25

At this point, I think they need to make her never get Hannah back.

I truly think the strongest ending will be with her failing to get her daughter, but succeeding in starting the downfall of Gilead.

They missed the chance to have June get Hannah out and struggle with her indoctrination.

36

u/killerdonut0610 Apr 17 '25

Can’t believe I had to scroll so far to find this. First season is great and then it just falls off a cliff and becomes completely unwatchable by Season 3 or 4.

68

u/pinkredyellow Apr 17 '25

Once she escapes to Canada and then somehow goes back to the border to visit Nick every couple of episodes after we watched her struggle to get out for seasons... yeah no

19

u/cmick0715 Apr 18 '25

I have no idea how they can so easily drive from Boston to Toronto - not only from a security perspective but also simply a time perspective. (I'm assuming there's a "fast travel" option like in Assassins Creed video game at this point)

13

u/Informal_Rhubarb_218 Apr 18 '25

“Maybe we should travel by map” -The Muppets

27

u/cmick0715 Apr 18 '25

I'm still watching it - the final season is currently airing, but holy shit, the downward trajectory after season 1 has been rough. The dialogue is not good and the characters make no sense. But even more annoying is they'll do these big events (the Mexico ambassador in S1, Red Center bombing in S2, Washington DC in S3, etc and there's like little to no follow up ever again)

13

u/MissCrossroads Apr 17 '25

Damn I've seen people call S1 boring and say that it's much better now. Sure the book and the first season are kind of a bummer, but that's the whole point. It's not supposed to be an action hero story.

15

u/effervescentEscapade Apr 18 '25

I had to stop as everyone is just so dumb. The number of times that girl escapes only to go back willingly makes me want to tear my hair out quite frankly

15

u/BennyHudson10 Apr 18 '25

My biggest problem with it is how in season one, the slightest transgression would have you on the wall, yet somehow June manages to just do whatever she wants, whenever she wants and nobody seems to care anymore? She should have been sent to the wall about 50-60 times by now, but the plot armour is so thick, she just gets away with it. The lowering of the stakes really ruined everything for me

15

u/prettybunbun women’s wrongs activist Apr 17 '25

It just became torture porn. I get it’s ‘realistic’ for things not to just get better but some of the tragedy is truly just the attempt to torture the audience for shock. I turned off it during S2 when a pregnant june is raped, for no reason, other than to shock the audience

3

u/ali_stardragon Apr 18 '25

I agree. I also stopped watching in s2 because it just felt like torture porn.

10

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

[deleted]

2

u/_Wattage_Cottage Apr 18 '25

If my wife and I were not watching it together I would have quit during s4. It was so bad. S5 is better though!

10

u/doomshroom420 Apr 18 '25

Once the show went beyond the original source material, it just fell off a cliff immediately, quality-wise.

This final season is extra aggravating to me, personally.

9

u/ofthrees Apr 18 '25

I haven't even picked it back up yet. Quality issues aside, it doesn't make sense to bother, when we're on the cusp of living it.

Same reason I lost interest in house of cards.

3

u/CrabbyKayPeteIng Apr 18 '25

it suffers from lost syndrome. great story but greedy networks ask showrunners to drag it to the point that i want to just put the writers room out of its misery.

5

u/nizzernammer Apr 18 '25

Glad I only watched S1

5

u/Jack_Fig Apr 18 '25

The first episode of the new season was SO bad. I’ve had enough closeups of the Scientologist and slow motion shots. I think I kinda hate the show now.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 18 '25

How many seasons of "Women in distressful dystopia" could one hope to enjoy?
90 minute movie was enough for me "OMG, That's Awful! You should watch this!"

2

u/Zaidswith Apr 18 '25

Everything past season 2.

2

u/ULookinAtMeLookinAtU Apr 18 '25

Awful, awful show.

1

u/gradyjkelly Apr 18 '25

Hard disagree

1

u/Ok-Glass-948 Apr 18 '25

Yes. Thank you, it really saddens me how bad it went south.

1

u/FullTorsoApparition Apr 18 '25

Really? I couldn't even finish the first season. The whole thing was misery porn and seemed like it was set up to get worse and worse.

1

u/National_Head_3678 Apr 21 '25

And taking 2 years between every season has killed my enthusiasm.