A Year Later, One of Hulu’s Best TV Shows Returns With New Sequel Series (& You Can Watch the First 3 Episodes Now)

Ever since launching in 2008, Hulu has crafted a strong portfolio of original programming. The streamer has established a must-watch status with back-to-back breakout hits, some of the most recent being The Bear and Paradise. Less than a year after one of Hulu’s best and most significant original shows wrapped its six-season run, the streamer just launched its highly anticipated spin-off series.

There’s no denying that The Handmaid’s Tale was a watershed moment for Hulu. Launching in 2017 as an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel of the same name, the dystopian series transformed Hulu into a serious competitor in prestige TV and became one of the platform’s biggest shows. Just a year after June Osborne’s story wrapped, the metaphorical torch is being passed to a new generation of Gilead women in the sequel series, The Testaments, which kicked off with a three-episode premiere on Hulu on April 8th. The new series is based on Atwood’s 2019 novel and picks up roughly five years after the fall of Boston in the final season of The Handmaid’s Tale and shifts focus to how a new generation, including June and Luke’s daughter Hannah/Agnes, navigate the oppressive, patriarchal structure of Gilead.

The Testaments Takes Fans Back to Gilead for a Perfect Continuation of The Handmaid’s Tale

The Testaments is only just a few hours into its series debut, but one thing is already undeniably clear: the coming-of-age sequel is a hit with critics. Although the show hasn’t broken onto Hulu’s streaming charts just yet and general audiences are only just beginning to weigh in, the show debuted with a “Certified Fresh” 85% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 27 reviews, a number that surpasses The Handmaid’s Tale’s 83% average score (for comparison, that show holds a 91% for its debut season).

The new show is being described as a slow-burn YA-focused drama that offers a “fresh and distinct” feel to The Handmaid’s Tale, shifting from the raw violence of the original show to the psychological damage of grooming, school rivalry, and the mundanity of life within Gilead. ComicBook’s James Hunt wrote that the show “strives to forge its own identity rather than just playing the hits from its predecessor,” offering a lighter, more fast-paced tone compared to the bleak nature of The Handmaid’s Tale. At the same time, the series brings back so much of what made The Handmaid’s Tale great, including the gorgeous cinematography and Ann Dowd’s return as Aunt Lydia.

Will There Be a The Testaments Season 2?

Hulu hasn’t officially been greenlit for a second season of The Testaments, but there’s strong indication that a renewal is likely. Atwood’s novel spans more than 15 years, and the debut season of the show only covers a portion of that, meaning there’s plenty of story left to tell. Showrunner Bruce Miller has also stated his hopes for The Testaments to be a multi-season series, and Dowd revealed to Deadline that “they have begun writing” Season 2.

The first three episodes of The Testaments are now streaming on Hulu. The remaining seven episodes of the 10-episode season will be released weekly on Wednesdays, concluding with the season finale on May 27th, which also happens to be the one-year anniversary of the flagship show’s series finale.

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