Warning: This article contains mild spoilers for season three of The Handmaid's Tale.

The Handmaid's Tale is set to return to our screens very soon for its much-anticipated third season.

When we last saw June, played by Elisabeth Moss, she made the last-minute decision not to escape to Canada with Emily. Instead she handed over baby Nichole and returned to Gilead on a mission to save her daughter Hannah.

Picking up right where season two ended, critics are already divided on season three and how the first six episodes of the Hulu drama play out.

Hulu

EW

"If the season 2 finale left you screaming at your screen – For God's sake, June, why aren't you getting on the damn truck outta Gilead with Emily (Alexis Bledel) and baby Nichole? – season 3 won't do much to restore your confidence in that decision.

"Based on the first six episodes, June and the show she anchors are stuck in a grim cycle of combative misery, working ever harder for a future that gets further and further out of reach."

USA Today

"Although Handmaid's found a better way forward, season 3 retains one deep fault it's been plagued with ever since the series surpassed Margaret Atwood's novel. There just isn't enough story to go around, and the deeper the series dives into Gilead's bureaucracy and culture (including a jaunt to Washington, DC), the more the cracks in the world-building start to show.

"June may have some fight in her this year, but I wonder how much of her Tale is really left to tell."

Hulu

The AV Club

"Maybe the second half of the season will turn things around. Unfortunately, six hours is a long time to slog through a story that just seems to get more and more depressing."

IndieWire

"Season 3 starts by reestablishing our lead's purpose: resistance. Only this time, it's much more active resistance.



"Having made her decision, June needs more to do than survive, but building a rebellion is slow work hingeing on sacrifice. Gilead is big and strong, looming ominously in the tall framings of each scene and instilled in the handmaids via pained glimpses skyward from under their bonnets.

"The first six episodes are compelling, yet slower and more laborious than the first two seasons."

Hulu

The Hollywood Reporter

"The six new episodes are littered with elements to admire and respect when you aren't bogged down in feeling like a show that once appeared to have a lot to say is no longer participating in the conversation on the same level."



The Handmaid's Tale season 3 arrives June 5 on Hulu in the US, with a close release date on Channel 4 in the UK.

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