15 Best TV Episodes Of 2018 (So Far)

8. June - The Handmaid's Tale

In going beyond Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale has somehow become even bleaker in Season 2 - and at times, it's been too bleak, even for Gilead. The premiere, though, succeeded because of how it balanced that with just the thinnest ray of hope.

Picking things up with Offred and the rest of the handmaids, we see the consequences of their decision not to stone Janine in Season 1, which results in a terrifyingly tense sequence of events and a sense of dread that goes on to run throughout most of the episode.

The show's aesthetic is once again hauntingly beautiful, and it pretty much goes without saying that Elisabeth Moss knocks it out of the park, conveying in a single look what most actors could require a monologue for, and getting to go head to head with both Aunt Lydia (Ann Dowd) and Serena Joy (Yvonne Strahovski).

It's another episode that delves into the past too, with the flashbacks enhancing our understanding of what happened to create this world, but somehow they bring it around to shine some much-needed light through the tiny cracks in the darkness, getting Season 2 off to an explosive, exciting start.