Red Clocks

It's a not entirely unlikely future scenario - hell we're already well underway with the cagily named “Heartbeat” rulings being pushed in several US states. In this, the darkest of timelines, abortion has become illegal. Those that provide abortion services can be charged with second degree murder and those seeking abortion can face significant jail time. In vitro fertilization is banned and legislation is being put into place demanding every child should have two parents.

In this environment we have the biographer/teacher Ro desperately trying to conceive before the laws are put into place making it impossible. Susan the housewife and mother feeling trapped, tied to a blithely oblivious jerk of a husband. Mattie the high schooler who finds herself pregnant and seeing her future dreams slipping away.

I loved the interactions between the characters. How these characters see each other through their own wants and desires. How the childless Ro quietly seethes at the mother in Susan and yearns at the possibility in Mattie. Wrestling between her own self-interest and what Mattie needs. How Gin, the healer in the woods is understood by the women in the community. Those moments really shine for me.

But as a whole it just didn't work for me. Maybe I'm just Pete, the oblivious dude friend to the equally crass Didier. Typical guy, doesn't get it. It just seems to deal with the aftermath of these ruling and duh, it kinda sucks for women. It puts their lives in danger, wrongfully incarcerates them and subtly pits them against each other. Preaching to the converted here. I wanted a villain and not just ignorant men. I wanted to read about how this affects the Christian right that has been fighting for this, how lawmakers subvert the rules when it's beneficial to them, how you justify denying abortion when it's rape or incest. Maybe it just wan't dystopian enough and instead focused on the hand wringing of suburban white women when the current conversation IRL happening right now feels way more dire.