Remember just how compelling “The Handmaid’s Tale” was when the series landed on Hulu in 2017?

Created by Bruce Miller and starring Elisabeth Moss, the show was an adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s acclaimed 1985 dystopian novel about a repressive theocracy, Gilead, rising up and taking over most of the continental United States, drastically changing the lives of millions of people — and executing many others — in the process. This was done in the name of combating concerningly dropping birthrates, with, for the most part, white Christian men in charge and myriad women reserved to the roles of servants and — the “Commanders” of Gilead hoped — vessels for their future children.

It was must-watch television at first, but, as has happened to other television endeavors that have stretched beyond their source material as the seasons piled up (cough, “Game of Thrones”), it largely limped to a conclusion after six volumes of episodes.

Perhaps that explains why its sequel series, “The Testaments” — an adaptation of Atwood’s 2019 follow-up novel, with Miller as the showrunner — appears to be taking a different approach with its storytelling. Seemingly, the debut season’s episodes — the first three of which drop on Hulu on April 8 — are leaving a lot of meat on the narrative bone for potential future seasons.

Probably smart.

However, the downside of that choice is that this initial offering feels like little more than a setup for the story to come. The faltering fiction offered here certainly doesn’t justify 10 episodes, the runtimes of which range from about 35 minutes to nearly an hour.

Taking place about four years following the events of its predecessor, “The Testaments” is only rarely propulsive and engrossing in the way top-tier shows are, but it is intermittently compelling and a reasonably rewarding return to Gilead and a vaguely tasty appetizer for what may be to come.

As with the book, the story revolves around two girls fast approaching womanhood, Agnes (Chase Infiniti) and Daisy (Lucy Halliday), and Aunt Lydia (“Handmaid’s” holdover Ann Dowd).

This non-handmaid’s tale is set primarily at Lydia’s elite preparatory school for future wives, where the aunts teach the “Plums,” including Agnes, not to read and write, but instead train them to be perfect little obedient life partners for the Commanders, who possess varying degrees of power and wealth. (We are reminded early on that in Gilead, a husband loves and protects his wife, while she loves and obeys him.)

Agnes’ adoptive father, Commander Kyle MacKenzie (Nate Corddry), adores her, while her new stepmother, Paula (Amy Seimetz), is rather cold to her and is working toward the day Agnes is married and, thus, out of her house. For that to happen, though, Agnes — like all the Plums — must be gifted by God with her period, which isn’t a certainty these days.

Daisy, meanwhile, is dressed in white as one of the “Pearl Girls,” young women from other countries who’ve come to Gilead for fresh starts. Lydia orders Agnes to show the Canadian import the ropes as she gets settled into her new and very different life at the school, where, unlike the Plums, she will reside.

Key secondary characters in “The Testaments” include three other Plums — Becka (Mattea Conforti), Agnes’s best friend, who shares none of her enthusiasm for becoming the wife of a Commander; the sweet and naive Huldah (Isolde Ardies); and the fiercely critical but also loyal Shunammite (Rowan Blanchard) — as well a pair of aunts working under Lydia, Vidala (Mabel Li) and Estee (Eva Foote); Commander Westin (Reed Diamond), who oversees the terrifying security force The Eyes, whom we know all too well from “The Handmaid’s Tale”; Commander Judd (Charlie Carrick), who has known Aunt Lydia for years; and Garth (Brad Alexander), Agnes’ young (and handsome) guardian and a Commander-to-be.

Hulu’s list of spoilers to avoid makes it difficult to get into the story even shallowly, but know you’ll learn more about Daisy’s backstory, as well as that of Lydia, who as we know from “The Handmaid’s Tale,” was a teacher when the coup happened. That’s explored in the season’s unsettling sixth episode, “Stadium,” directed by Jet Wilkinson and written by Gianna Sobol.

A decidedly welcome-back-to-Gilead moment awaits, too, in the premiere, “Precious Flowers,” penned by Miller and helmed by Mike Barker. The strongest chapter of the season, it succeeds in laying the groundwork for what’s to come before the season wraps with the potentially game-changing “Secateurs,” debuting on May 27.

In front of the camera, Infiniti is the standout performer — not exactly a surprise given her Academy Award-nominated turn in last year’s Oscar winning “One Battle After Another.” She makes the most out of several highly emotional moments for Agnes; without overdoing it, we feel the pain of the character who knows no life other than the one she’s lived in Gilead.

Halliday (“California Schemin’”) is solid as Daisy — the character with whom we can most relate, thanks to her rather ordinary upbringing in Toronto, while Dowd is every bit the Lydia you remember from “The Handmaid’s Tale.” The character is not as cruel to the young women she watches over as she had been at times in the past, but Lydia is a survivor — a character remarking early on by a statue of her at the school that Lydia was worshipped, then vilified and now is worshipped again — so she’ll be tough when she needs to be. We expect her to have a bigger role in the show’s probable future, given what we know about her arc in the novel.

Despite its faults, we would like to see a continuation of “The Testaments,” which counts the aforementioned Moss among its executive producers. Again, there’s more meat on this dystopian bone.

And if you remember the finer points of this series’ predecessor, one detail may have jumped out at you as to how closely this story ties to the previous one.

We shall say no more as we wish you a blessed day.

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‘THE TESTAMENTS’

2.5 stars (out of 4)

Rating: TV-MA

How to watch: On Hulu April 8

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