--- title: "The Testaments" year: 2026 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-testaments" fi1m_id: "the-testaments" imdb_id: "tt10970762" tmdb_id: 287527 wikidata_id: "Q137357617" fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 78 critics_reviews: 6 published: "2026-09-10" updated: "2026-09-10T18:11:23.826613+00:00" region: "CO" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Testaments (2026) Created by Bruce Miller · Drama ## Identity The Testaments - **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/the-testaments - **Type:** Series - **Fi1m ID:** the-testaments - **IMDb ID:** tt10970762 - **TMDB ID:** 287527 - **Wikidata ID:** Q137357617 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10970762/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/287527, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137357617 **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 78 from 6 reviews *In a sentence:* Gilead builds a girls’ school and, as usual, forgets to build a library > Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday give the return to Gilead two faces worth following, and Ann Dowd is as unsettling as ever. But ten episodes is too many for this story, and a good deal of the world-building we have seen before. ## Synopsis Ann Dowd returns as Aunt Lydia in this ten-episode adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 2019 sequel to *The Handmaid’s Tale*, set a generation on in Gilead. Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti), a Commander’s daughter who has never known anything else, is approaching the age at which the regime arranges marriages, and her stepmother Paula (Amy Seimetz) is in a hurry. Her friends Becka (Mattea Conforti) and Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) are in the same position, under the eyes of Aunts Vidala (Mabel Li) and Estee (Eva Foote). Beyond the border, Daisy (Lucy Halliday) is growing up with parents who keep secrets from her. Written by Bruce Miller and Stuti Malhotra with a large team; directed by Mike Barker, Jet Wilkinson, Quyen Tran and Shana Stein. ## Review Margaret Atwood published *The Testaments* in 2019 as a sequel to *The Handmaid’s Tale*, and Bruce Miller, who ran the television version of that novel, has now adapted this one with Stuti Malhotra and a large room of writers. The story moves on a generation. Ann Dowd is back as Aunt Lydia, and also produces; nearly everyone else is new. Ten episodes arrived on 8 April 2026. It is good, and it is at least three episodes too long, and both of those things are plain from about the halfway mark. Agnes MacKenzie (Chase Infiniti) is a Commander’s daughter, raised inside Gilead with no memory of anything else, and now old enough that the adults have begun to talk about husbands. Her stepmother Paula (Amy Seimetz) wants her placed quickly. Her friends Becka (Mattea Conforti) and Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) face the same arithmetic. Their schooling, such as it is, comes from the Aunts: Lydia, Vidala (Mabel Li), Estee (Eva Foote). Across the border, a girl called Daisy (Lucy Halliday) is growing up outside Gilead with parents who are careful about what they tell her. The two strands run apart for a while, and the series is patient about bringing them together. Infiniti is the reason to watch. Agnes has been taught to hold her face still and lower her eyes, and Infiniti plays the stillness as effort rather than emptiness: you can see a question forming behind the trained expression and being put away. Halliday, given the louder part, matches her with a sulk that turns into something braver. Conforti’s Becka, the frightened one, moved us more than we expected. There is a scene early on in which the girls are shown what their married lives will look like, and Becka simply cannot make her body do the polite thing the others manage. We felt sick for her, and we understood then why the series wanted to be about girls rather than women. Dowd has been playing Lydia since 2017 and knows exactly how much to give. Here she is written with a past the earlier programme only hinted at, and Dowd lets a little of it leak through, mostly in how she watches the girls when they think nobody is watching them. Nobody is asking us to forgive her. She is working out what she can afford. Greta Zozula and Marc Laliberté shoot the school in cold, even daylight, so the Aunts’ brown and the girls’ pale dresses sit against bare walls with nothing to pull the eye from faces. It is handsome. It is also a look we know from the previous programme, and by the third episode we had stopped noticing it, which is not what a look is for. Adam Taylor’s score does better: he keeps the music under the girls’ scenes and mostly out of the Aunts’, and the silence in Lydia’s office is doing real work. The directors, Mike Barker, Jet Wilkinson, Quyen Tran and Shana Stein, hold the style steady, and the editors, Ana Yavari, Wendy Hallam Martin and Lara Johnston, cut cleanly within scenes. Between episodes, the seams show. The trouble is length. Atwood’s novel is brisk, and this is ten episodes. The middle stretch keeps pausing to show us how Gilead works, its ceremonies and ranks and colour codes, and we knew all of it already because we sat through the other show learning it. We were bored during one of these tours, and then annoyed at being bored, because the girls were waiting offscreen with a plot we wanted to get back to. Every time the series remembers it is about Agnes, Daisy and Becka, it picks up. Every time it remembers it is a franchise, it stops. Set against its parent, it is gentler and less gory, closer to a school story with the lights turned down, and we do not hold that against it. It is a 15 and it earns the certificate without wallowing. What it has not found is a reason to be this long. Most critics have been kinder than we are, and the ones who liked it most liked the girls, which we understand. Watch the first two episodes together. If Agnes and Daisy have you, stay, and forgive the middle. If the uniforms and the ceremonies are what you came back for, you have seen them done with more force before. *Fi1m score 70, published 10 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics are pleased to be back in Gilead, and nearly all of them agree on why: Chase Infiniti, as Agnes, is singled out in review after review, with Lucy Halliday named alongside her in several as the second of the series’ two young leads. The praise clusters around the shift in perspective, from the handmaids to Aunt Lydia’s school for the regime’s daughters, and the reviews describe it as a coming-of-age story about indoctrination, friendship and rage, several noting a lighter, more teenage tone than the original without much loss of menace. The reservations come from two quarters. The AV Club finds ten episodes too many, with world-building that pads rather than deepens, and asks whether the sequel needed to exist at all. The Hollywood Reporter thinks the strong performances are hemmed in by the original show’s archetypes. Nobody is hostile, but the spread is wide, from warm approval to a shrug. ## Straight answers **Is The Testaments worth watching?** *The Testaments* is worth watching if you want to see Gilead through the eyes of the girls raised inside it, and we scored it 70. Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday carry it, and Ann Dowd's Aunt Lydia remains unsettling. Ten episodes is too many, and the middle stretch repeats world-building we have already sat through. **Where can I watch The Testaments in Colombia?** *The Testaments* is streaming on Disney+ in Colombia. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Testaments, and is it suitable for children?** *The Testaments* is a UK 15 and earns it, but it is gentler and less gory than its parent series, closer to a school story with the lights turned down. It is not for children; the subject is a regime arranging marriages for teenage girls, and one early scene left us feeling sick for them. Older teenagers who can take that should manage. **How does The Testaments compare to The Handmaid's Tale?** *The Testaments* is quieter and less brutal than [*The Handmaid's Tale*](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale), set a generation on and built around girls rather than women. The earlier series, in its first seasons, is the more frightening and forceful of the two; this one is kinder company and slower, with a middle that pauses to re-explain Gilead. Newcomers can follow it, but its look and rituals will feel fresher if you skipped the original. **Is The Testaments based on a true story or a book?** *The Testaments* is based on Margaret Atwood's 2019 novel of the same name, itself a sequel to [*The Handmaid's Tale*](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale), and not on a true story. The novel is brisk where the series is padded out to ten episodes. You do not need to have read either book, though knowing the earlier programme makes the world-building tours feel more repetitive. **What should I watch after The Testaments?** After *The Testaments*, try [*The Handmaid's Tale*](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale) (2017, Fi1m 75): The parent series, angrier and rougher; the early seasons are the ones to see. Then [*Mustang*](https://film.one/film/mustang) (2015, Fi1m 84): Five Turkish sisters, one house, marriages being arranged; funnier and fiercer than you expect; and [*Never Let Me Go*](https://film.one/film/never-let-me-go) (2010, Fi1m 73): A boarding school that is quietly preparing its pupils for something terrible. ### Reviews we read (11) - **Variety**, Aramide Tinubu (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a stunning and exemplary follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as a magnificent coming-of-age story about girlhood, survival, rage and friendship under Gilead’s regime. [Read](https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/the-testaments-review-hulu-1236709315/) - **Radio Times**, Jess Bacon (4/5): It is a triumph as a dark coming-of-age fable that stands impressively on its own while feeling disturbingly familiar, emphasizing indoctrination, female friendship and the regime’s control over young women. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/the-testaments-handmaids-tale-sequel-review/) - **The AV Club**, Christina Izzo (C+): The critic praises Chase Infiniti's performance as Agnes but finds the series overly padded with excessive world-building and slow pacing across its ten episodes. It questions the necessity of the sequel given the familiarity of Gilead from the prior show. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-testaments-review-tv-hulu-chase-infiniti) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (60/100, inferred): Strong performances, particularly from Chase Infiniti, anchor the series, but it feels creatively suffocated by heavy ties to the original show and recycled archetypes. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/the-testaments-review-chase-infiniti-hulu-handmaids-sequel-1236552871/) - **Evening Standard**, Vicky Jessop: Chase Infiniti is singled out for excellence in this return to Gilead, which blends beauty and unease while remaining as urgent and darkly enjoyable as its predecessor. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/tvfilm/the-testaments-review-disney-handmaids-tale-b1277853.html) - **The Guardian**: The critic finds the series a bloody, horrific sequel despite its somewhat lighter YA tone, focusing on the next generation of women in Gilead under Aunt Lydia's school. The visual iconography and study of indoctrination and power are singled out. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/apr/08/the-testaments-review-bloody-sequel-the-handmaids-tale-disney-plus) - **The Independent**: The series is hailed as a fresh, vital young adult epic like Bridgerton meets Lord of the Flies, with strong performances from Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday as the central ingenues. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/the-testaments-cast-handmaids-tale-review-hulu-disney-b2953490.html) - **The Telegraph**, Ed Power: The review sees the series as a successful dystopian Mean Girls-style YA twist on Atwood’s world, told from the perspective of teenage girls at an elite finishing school. Chase Infiniti’s performance as Agnes is praised. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/the-testaments-disney-review/) - **The Times**: The adaptation of Atwood’s sequel is presented as a Gen Z-friendly story of teen rebellion against fundamentalist oppression in Gilead. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/the-testaments-review-chase-infiniti-handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood-dvz58cs57) - **Collider**, Isabella Soares (9/10): The critic praises the stellar performances of Chase Infiniti and Lucy Halliday as stars in the making and highlights the fresh spin on the coming-of-age genre in a dystopian setting, noting its timely relevance. They single out the strong ensemble cast and layered storytelling for praise. [Read](https://collider.com/the-testaments-hulu-review-chase-infiniti-handmaids-tale/) - **Digital Spy**, David Opie (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the series a perfect retelling that lives up to the early seasons of The Handmaid's Tale, highlighting strong performances especially from Chase Infiniti and the fresh perspectives while maintaining the franchise's tone and relevance. It praises the adaptation's changes for television and the avoidance of excessive violence. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/ustv/a70895788/testaments-review-handmaids-tale/) ## Details - **Created by:** Bruce Miller - **Creator:** Bruce Miller - **Director:** Mike Barker, Jet Wilkinson, Shana Stein, Quyen Tran - **Writer:** Bruce Miller, Bayan Wolcott, Gianna Sobol, Maya Goldsmith, Nate Burke, Sam Rubinek, Elise Brown, Stuti Malhotra, Ben Miller - **Story:** Stuti Malhotra, Bruce Miller - **Teleplay:** Stuti Malhotra - **Novel:** Margaret Atwood - **Cinematography:** Greta Zozula, Marc Laliberté - **Editor:** Wendy Hallam Martin, Ana Yavari, Lara Johnston - **Music:** Adam Taylor - **Producer:** Ann Dowd - **Cast:** Ann Dowd as Aunt Lydia Clements; Chase Infiniti as Agnes MacKenzie; Lucy Halliday as Daisy; Rowan Blanchard as Shunammite Hayes; Mattea Conforti as Becka Grove; Mabel Li as Aunt Vidala; Amy Seimetz as Paula MacKenzie; Brad Alexander as Garth Chapin - **Release (Colombia):** 8 April 2026 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpWyxrPqkeA ## Where to watch in Colombia - Disney+: streaming, uhd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *The Handmaid's Tale* (2017), Fi1m 75: The parent series, angrier and rougher; the early seasons are the ones to see. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/the-handmaids-tale.md) - *The Magdalene Sisters* (2002): Irish girls locked away by the pious; Mullan’s film is what Gilead looks like without the costumes. - *Mustang* (2015), Fi1m 84: Five Turkish sisters, one house, marriages being arranged; funnier and fiercer than you expect. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mustang.md) - *Never Let Me Go* (2010), Fi1m 73: A boarding school that is quietly preparing its pupils for something terrible. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/never-let-me-go.md) - *The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie* (1969): A charismatic teacher shaping girls in her own image, and the cost of being her favourite. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-testaments