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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 4 finale contains a weird product placement

This story contains NO spoilers for the season 4 finale of The Handmaid’s Tale.

The season 4 finale of The Handmaid’s Tale has wrapped up and if you are in South Africa you can no watch the entire season on Showmax.

We’re big fans of this Hulu Original series based on the 1985 novel by Margaret Atwood and while we’re sad to say goodbye to the Handmaids again, this season has been stellar.

The season 4 finale ‘The Wilderness’ is a great episode and that’s all we’ll be saying so as to avoid spoilers.

But during the season finale there was mention of something that had us do a double take.

At one point in the episode, Commander Fred Waterford while talking to his wife Serena Waterford mentions that he would like to have a Zoom chat with his wife because it would be nice to see her.

As you might be aware, Zoom has become rather popular over the last year. The application was actually launched in 2011 though so Zoom has been around for a rather long time.

We did a double take because while video conferencing has been mentioned in the show before, this is the first time we’ve heard a platform mentioned by name.

What is odd to us is that Zoom somehow managed to make it to release and widespread use in the same timeline where the Sons of Jacob managed to overthrow the US government and turn the country into the dystopian Republic of Gilead.

Truth be told, it’s not all that unbelievable.

Some put the year the novel takes place as 2005 but the show is quite a bit more modern. For example, we see iPhones and other smartphones in flashbacks, in one season we see June rewatching Friends and tech appears to be everywhere, except Gilead of course.

Some folks have guessed the show takes place between 2024 and 2025 which would explain the proliferation of smartphones and dating apps in flashbacks. This would also make the presence of Zoom a bit more plausible as by that time we would’ve seen the rise of the video conferencing platform.

We would also have seen the modern world gripped by disease and a declining birth rate which make that time period all the more believable.

It’s still bizarre though especially when one considers just how brutal the takeover was by the Sons of Jacob. The fact that a US company with that amount of power was able to make it out of the US and still conduct business is a bit strange to us but this is a fictional TV show right?

This is also just such a weird product placement. We know that brands will pay top dollar to be featured in movies and TV shows, but we have to wonder why Zoom choose this show to place its product.

We suppose even authoritarian leaders need to chat to their family?

We joke, but The Handmaid’s Tale season 4 finale is the most watched piece of Hulu Original content ever produced according to a report from Deadline.

Clearly Zoom made a smart call and the fact that we’re talking about the mere mention of Zoom shows that product placement probably worked.

As mentioned you can stream the entirety of The Handmaid’s Tale on Showmax including the season 4.

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