'The Handmaid's Tale' Season 4 Reviews: What Critics Are Saying

There are now just hours left in the countdown to the debut of The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4, and as fans excitedly await the season premiere, the reviews are rolling in, and as it turns out, the season is currently gaining little fanfare from critics. While Season 4 does not yet have an audience score, its current Tomatometer rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes sits at just 43%, a drastic drop from its Season 3 rating of 81% fresh.

Set to debut the first three episodes of the season on Wednesday, April 28 on Hulu, which you can subscribe to by clicking here, Season 4 is set to pick up directly after the shocking events of the Season 3 finale. Per Hulu’s official synopsis, “in the upcoming fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale, June (Elisabeth Moss) strikes back against Gilead as a fierce rebel leader, but the risks she takes bring unexpected and dangerous new challenges. Her quest for justice and revenge threatens to consume her and destroy her most cherished relationships.”

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Along with Moss, who directs three episodes of the new season, The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 brings back cast members Joseph Fiennes and Yvonne Strahovski as Commander Fred and Serena Joy Waterford, Max Minghella as Nick, Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia, Bradley Whitford as Commander Joseph Lawrence, Samira Wiley as Moira, Madeline Brewer as Janine, O-T Fagbenle as Luke, Amanda Brugel as Rita, and Alexis Bledel as Emily. Sam Jaeger, who appeared in Season 3 as Mark Tuello, has been promoted to series regular. McKenna Grace, meanwhile, is a new addition to the cast. With the season set to premiere on Hulu on Wednesday, keep scrolling to see what critics have to say about the new batch of episodes.

‘Unlike anything we’ve seen before’

“The fourth season of The Handmaid’s Tale brings the audience something that they’ve been waiting for – a taste of long-awaiting freedom, rebellion, and sweet revenge. The newest chapter delivers an utter satisfaction with characters evolving in a way that we’ve never seen before,” Zofia Wijaszka wrote in their review for AwardsWatch. “This season is unlike anything that we’ve seen before. Be ready for a wild, anxiety-filled rollercoaster that will leave you question your favorite characters and deeply realize the damaging impact that Gilead leaves on its victims.”

A C+

“The quality of Handmaid’s Tale isn’t suffering because the political climate in America has changed… It’s suffering because Miller and company have become so enraptured by the show’s grandly executed atmosphere of prestige misery — used to stunning, Emmy-winning effect in season 1 — that they’ve started mistaking garden-variety brutality for brutal truths. Revolutions take time, but they also evolve. The Handmaid’s Tale is stuck in the crisis stage,” Kristen Baldwin wrote for Entertainment Weekly, giving the new season a C+ grade. “If you’re still watching The Handmaid’s Tale… you’ve probably resigned yourself to seeing June’s saga through to the end. Can the show deliver on a true second act, justifying the decision to keep the story going so far past Margaret Atwood’s novel? We’ll likely have to wait until season 5 to find out.”

‘Mind-blowing plot developments’

“I watched the first eight episodes and I can report that there are some mind-blowing plot developments to come: some of them quite soul crushing, while some of them are very moving, and others truly suspenseful and thrilling,” RadioTimes‘ Peg Aloi wrote. “Far from being escapist television, The Handmaid’s Tale continues to act as a mirror to our present troubling times, and as a dark lens focused on our uncertain future.”

Repetitive plot

“As the fourth season moves along, so do plot similarities to past seasons and repetitions. Captures happen. Tortures happen. People die; sometimes because of June and sometimes not,” Whitney Friedlander wrote for Pasta Magazine. “This isn’t to say that everything about the fourth season of Handmaid’s Tale is bad. The directing is still beautifully shot… Moss, with her stiff upper lip and watery blue eyes, is still one of the finest actresses this side of Meryl Streep, and it’s a testament to her talents that she can methodically release June’s rage in a controlled manner instead of exploding in primal scream after scream.”

It will leave you ‘breathless’

“If you thought the past three seasons were good, be prepared to be breathless with, hands down, the best, most impressive season of the series,” QBP Reviews‘ Amyana Bartley wrote. “There aren’t enough words to express the brilliance of Season Four’s daunting, impassioned, rollercoaster. I expected that Season Four would be good but I never expected the level of dedication, effort, struggle and mastery that the artists of this season give both on and behind the screen. Everything about this Season is spectacular and cannot be missed.”

Is it time for it to end?

“As with Dexter and Homeland, the dystopian drama has exceeded the natural lifespan of its story, as it plows forward with nothing new to say, tinkling cymbals and sounding brass,” Matthew Gilbert’s review for the Boston Globe reads. “Watching the new batch of episodes, I began to think of The Handmaid’s Tale as a genre series, and not in a good way. If it had ended after just a season or two, it could have been a concise and sharp tale; less would have been more, the points all clearer and more powerful for having been made only once or twice. Now, the show has become another one of TV’s never-ending stories, another Homeland, where seasons are crammed with action-adventure filler, as June runs from one safe house to another, always escaping from seemingly inescapable situations.”

The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 debuts on Hulu, which you can subscribe to by clicking here, on Wednesday, April 28. At that time, the first three episodes of the season – “Pigs,” “Nightshade,” and “The Crossing” – will be available for streaming. New episodes will then premiere on a weekly basis.