Blondie's Dreaming swells under the title sequence of the first episode of The Testaments as girls in purple garments ride a purple bus with purple curtains across the countryside. It is so right and also so Canadian — the countryside, not the music.
The author of the book that the new series is based on is Canadian icon Margaret Atwood, a jewel in the nation's strong and free crown. With new episodes shot mostly in the Toronto area now streaming on Disney+ via Hulu on Wednesdays, it is worth visiting some of the locales that residents of the Great White North may recognize on screen.
Cut to Lucy Halliday's Daisy flashing back to a memory of skateboarding along Lake Ontario, with Toronto's CN Tower-spiked skyline behind her. The sequence appears near the end of that same first instalment of the sequel, which is set — mostly — in Gilead 15 years after the events of The Handmaid's Tale. The character herself is Canadian and has a not-so-subtle exchange with Chase Infiniti's Agnes, who muses to the newest Gilead resident: 'I imagine Canada must be very different from here.'
It may be different, but a lot of it is going to look the same, including Daisy's family's consignment store, which is on Dundas Street, according to Cosmopolitan.com. Likewise, the café where Daisy shares a scene with June is located in Little Italy.
As one does, she meets her herbaceous boyfriend at a skate park. You could shred it yourself if you have time to get to Oshawa. Also in the home of the OHL's generals, a bandshell where some very bad Gilead men are found hanging. Visit Memorial Park to recreate the Episode 1 scene with a fun selfie.
'Ardua Hall,' an Aunts hub in Gilead, is actually a 44,000-square-foot mansion in Oakville called Chelster Hall. Other Ontario locales that will appear on screen include North York's high-end St. Andrew-Windfields neighbourhood, the Niagara area, Cambridge and Guelph, the former Hamilton Spectator building, and North Bay, which is a favourite backdrop of Hallmark-type Christmas movie location scouts.
Like The Handmaid's Tale, The Testaments also used Cinespace Film Studios in the Etobicoke area, so the run of the show is bound to be interwoven with plenty of red, white, and sorry.
