Why Gayle King is ‘frightened’ by ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’

Gayle King is such a fan of “The Handmaid’s Tale” that she’s interrupted complete strangers on the street to recommend the drama as the “best show on TV.”

“If I overhear a conversation about what people are watching, I say, ‘Have you by chance seen or heard of ‘Handmaid’s Tale?’ I dare anybody, once I make a recommendation to watch it, there hasn’t been anyone who doesn’t say, ‘I see what you mean’ and then they start recommending it to more people.” King told CNN in an interview this week. “Then I say, ‘Here’s my email because I would like a report.'”

While the “CBS This Morning” anchor keeps a packed schedule and early morning TV hours Monday through Friday, she finds respite on the weekends, when she said she binges shows including “Handmaid’s,” from either her bed or her “very nice TV room” in her New York City apartment.

Initially, King recalled, she wasn’t interested in adding another hour-long show to her viewing queue, but once she saw the Hulu hit, which premiered Season 3 on Wednesday, she couldn’t turn away.

“Whenever I hear there’s another hour show, I say, ‘I just don’t want to get hooked on another hour show,’ plus I’m a TV news junkie, I have a show for every night of the week and I catch up on weekends,” King said. “But I started watching ‘Handmaid’s’ because of Elisabeth Moss, because I like her. I was instantly hooked. In terms of writing and acting, it’s the best thing on TV.”

Not normally drawn to series with dark themes, King said when it comes to the “professional, articulate women living in [the fictional] Gilead,” she’s invested.

“Dark isn’t usually my thing,” she said. “The more we see what is happening in the real world today, it’s very troubling what we are seeing on the show. The dismantling of rights, it’s very frightening to me. [The show] leaves me enraged, inspired, frightened — all at the same time.”

The riveting Season 2 finale left the audience with Moss’s character choosing to stay in The Republic of Gilead under the totalitarian regime which has taken over a section of The United States, where she has a baby, instead of escaping to Canada.

“You understand as a mother, I’m not leaving my daughter, how am I going to leave my daughter?” King said.

Moss sat down with King for an interview, set to air next week on “CBS This Morning.”

“Lissie told me ‘I don’t like dark, but I like playing dark,'” King said of the star’s thoughts on her heavy role as “Handmaid” protagonist June Osborne. “When you watch how Elisabeth can portray some of the strongest emotion without saying a word — those icy blue eyes, the lighting, the edits are interesting. I’m also fascinated by how women treat each other, we can be the cruelest of the cruel and that dynamic is fascinating to watch.”

“The Handmaid’s Tale” premieres June 5 on Hulu.