The new TV follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale is already being hailed by critics as a worthy successor to the Emmy-winning original series.

Adapted from Margaret Attwood’s book of the same name, The Testaments takes place decades after the events of the Handmaid’s Tale finale, but while time has moved on, things are still as bleak as ever in Gilead.

In this new chapter for the franchise, the action is centred around teenagers at a finishing school for girls being primed for marriage – which has led to surprising comparisons to everything from Gossip Girl and High School Musical to Pretty Little Liars, albeit with a nightmarish undercurrent.

Led by Oscar nominee Chase Infiniti, who recently won acclaim for her work in One Battle After Another, and Bafta winner Lucy Halliday, the show has already won a wave of near-unanimously positive responses from critics.

Here’s a selection of what the early reviews for The Testaments have had to say…

“In some ways, it is slightly lighter and brighter than its precursor – a kind of YA reboot. Set a few years after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale, it focuses on the next generation of Gilead women. But it’s a YA version that still encompasses bloody punishments, rotting corpses swinging from gibbets and indoctrination and abuse – with the youth of the protagonists making it even harder to watch. The iconography remains ravishing, though.”

“A story that feels fresh and vital and every bit as compelling as the original […] this is Bridgerton meets Lord Of The Flies; a young adult epic for the ages.”

“The Testaments is a triumph. The ten-part series achieves what few sequels or spin-offs do, to stand as an impressive entry outside of its predecessor and feel disturbingly familiar, while offering something new entirely.”

“A stunning follow-up […] The Testaments is a show about sovereignty and rebellion. It’s about having the courage to pull the rug out from under oneself, even when a soft landing place isn’t guaranteed. It’s a reminder that while the youth may be naive, once their eyes are opened, they can never unsee what they’ve discovered.

“Finally, it’s a stellar examination of the uniqueness of girlhood and how the patriarchy underestimates the power of female connection, often to its peril.”

“Not only does it succeed as a sequel, The Testaments is also a wonderfully defiant adaptation of the source material. The changes that have been introduced keep this story fresh in ways that better suit the medium of television without sacrificing the original tone or message that underlies it.

“This first season is about as perfect as a retelling of The Testaments could be, and it’s the best this franchise has been since The Handmaid’s Tale first peaked with seasons one and two.”

“There’s no case of sequel-itis here. The Testaments feels just as urgent as its predecessor – and just as darkly enjoyable.”

“Dystopian or not, there is always fun to be had watching young people navigate the trials of growing up. Aunt Lydia’s academy may be hell on earth, but it’s also Mean Girls with a dystopian twist.

“You have to admire the sheer chutzpah that the producers have displayed in taking a respected sci-fi text and turning it into a sort of George Orwell version of High School Musical – a potentially disastrous gamble carried off with style and assurance.”

“Plum-cloaked in a YA-leaning, high school drama that owes as much to Pretty Little Liars or Gossip Girl as it does to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments gives us an apocryphal version of the Epstein files.”

“There are terrific performances here, from budding star Chase Infiniti, up-and-comers like Lucy Halliday and Mattea Conforti, and known commodities like Ann Dowd and Amy Seimetz.

“But there’s something creatively suffocated about The Testaments, from the endless references to events featured in The Handmaid’s Tale to the cameos by key Handmaid’s figures to the various recycled archetypes to 10 episodes spent withholding a revelation I’m convinced every single Handmaid’s viewer will have already guessed.”

“On a school trip Lydia’s charges stand before a gibbet of hanged rapists and at a school assembly they scream for violent punishment against a man caught masturbating. But we’ve seen it all before, and it doesn’t feel shocking any more.

“Within the strains and tensions of a teen coming-of-age story there is a compelling sense that while the girls may be victims of male-dominated religious intolerance, they can also be complicit in authoritarian cruelty. But the show feels like another teenage drama set within an all-too-familiar landscape.”

The first two instalments of The Testaments are now streaming on Disney+, with new episodes coming every Wednesday.