OT: Slow Day: The Man in the High Castle, Season 1 (with spoilers)
Since it's a painfully slow day, I wanted to see if anyone has finished season 1 of Man in the High Castle. What are your theories about what's going on? How did you like the first season?
Here are a couple of my questions/thoughts:
-Is the resistance unknowingly supplying the films to Hitler the entire time? Is Hitler the leader of the resistance? Since he's hanging out in his Austrian castle in the end of the season, it sure seems he's "the man in the high castle."
-Are the films really just showing alternate universes? Does Tagomi wake up in an alternate universe San Fran at the end? Is he dreaming? What's going to happen next?
I thought the show got pretty slow at times, but the overall concept is great in my opinion. I will say though that the final scene with Tagomi waking up in the alternate San Fran was a bit of a buzzkill, as the show seems to be taking on a "Lost" set of rules.
What say you?
January 8th, 2016 at 4:52 PM ^
But the end has me hooked enough to be back next season.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:17 PM ^
Both the series and the book "lost me a bit". Cool concept though.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:56 PM ^
The concept is mindblowing. Other aspects are hot and cold.
After binge-watching the series I purchased the book to see how it differed. It differed a lot, but it was similar in that it didn't tie off any loose ends at the conclusion. PKD is a really good writer of alternate reality stuff, but I definitely wanted more at the end of the book.
January 9th, 2016 at 12:11 AM ^
I also read the book following a binge watch. I'll go further, aside from the Axis winning the war and partitioning the United States, the book basically has nothing in common with the show. No movies. No hunk Nazi agent who may or may not have second thoughts, no Kampetei inspector, no Obergruppenfuhrer John Smith (had to laugh when I heard the name follow the rank), no resistance to speak of, no shooting of the Emperor's son, an entirely different Julianna. Frank Frink's struggles were totally different. No Hitler in a high castle. The only characters with even a bit of similarity between the book and show was the antique dealer Chidan and Tagomi.
One note of similarity, the endings of both were incomprehensible. I guess since the show gets another season we may have some explanation.
January 8th, 2016 at 4:53 PM ^
I was left with the impression that Hitler is the man in the high castle. I assume the resistance was unwittingly supplying him with the films, and he, like the main character (the blonde guy, forgot his name already) was playing both sides.
January 8th, 2016 at 4:57 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 4:59 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:09 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:00 PM ^
Yes, Rufus Sewell, who I haven't seen since Dark City in 1998, is very good in that role.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:46 PM ^
Yes, and Total Recall, and Minority Report, and A Scanner Darkly, and Paycheck so on. Some more so closely adapted than others.
It's Philip K Dick, a very very well known writer and easily considered one of the best of the modern era when it comes to SciFi/Philoshopy Fiction.
If you haven't read any of this work - you should. They are great novels, and a lot of short stories that are very easy and quick reads. One of my all-time favorites.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:58 PM ^
I thought the same thing, so I bought the book and read it...the stories are completely unrelated. The only similarities are the character names, even the relationships those characters have with each other are different. I won't spoil the book any more than to say, if you only want to read it to see where the show is going, it will be a complete waste of time.
All in all, I enjoyed the TV show as I love the Alt History genre. I honeslty have no idea where the show is going, but i do think it is going somewhere that should have a satisfying conclusion, even more so than the source material.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:06 PM ^
I raced out to Episode 8. Now waiting for my wife to catch up to it. She has just started with Episode 1.
Interesting precept. It could have come true with a few things falling this way or that way.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:14 PM ^
As you can tell from my sig, I got into the show quite a bit. Being a history major and student of the WW2 era in particular, it was pretty intriguing to me to consider the counterfactuals that underpin the plot. I thought the sets and scenery (and a good deal of the acting - especially Wegener) were fantastic too.
I was tracking with the arc of the story pretty good until we actually saw what the final film showed with Frank and Joe. Yeah - alternate universe or something? Precisely why Ed's confession to shooting the prince would stand up to scrutiny is beyond me also.
Tagomi was a great character. Have no clue what that final scene was all about...it reminded me a bit of the movie the Source Code from a few years ago.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:15 PM ^
It made me want to read the book, which I understand is fantastic... and very unlike the series.
I thought I had it figured out & pretty much had, but the way they ended the season with a strong Hitler collecting the films left me very meh. (I thought they would have shown that Hitler was making the films to give the resistance something to be occupied with & giving them info about his enemies in his own government, pitting enemy against enemy.)
Overall, I thought the strength of the series was in its alternative timeline development of technology where some things were advanced from where they were (or are.) Character-wise, I thought the strongest was Trade Minister Tagomi. The two leads gave me absolutely no reason to continue watching the show for a second season, and I won't. They just are boring. Kill them and there is no part of you that wishes they lived. Let them live and there is no reason to want to know what they do.
The show could have been so much better.
Want to watch a great show? Jessica Jones.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:19 PM ^
I agree with this completely. I got swept up in the narrative but in retrospect it's just not nearly as cool or interesting as it could have been. Did make me want to read the book though.
And Jessica Jones ruled. I wish they were doing another season instead of moving on to the next superhero.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:46 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:50 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:17 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:28 PM ^
It is a good show. I do like the fact that the head Nazi's son needs to be killed because he has a genetic disorder - good karma there. The most disturbing is the ash falling while Joe drives west and a cop helps him change his tire. The cop tells him it is just the day they incinerate the old, infirm and other drags on society.
I was hoping more of Red Dawn aspect but the resistance seem to have little going for it. Oh and by the way, Jules is really hot. Hoping for more steam in season 2. She and Frank don't really seem to have much going on.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:28 PM ^
How were the videos faked? Was the last scene a dream? I want to know these things
January 8th, 2016 at 8:47 PM ^
I dont think the premise is that the videos are "faked" but rather they are videos that were somehome acquired from alternate universe/history where the Allies won the war. This "alternate" history shown in the films looks mostly like the real history we know, although there are apprarently a few differences in some of the specifics.
As others have pointed out, Philip K. Dick was primarily a sci-fi writer, so this sort of "view from a alternate universe" is not as strange as it may feel when viewed a plain action-drama.
Basically we are peering into an alternate uninverse, while the films depicted in the story peer back into ours.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:43 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 5:47 PM ^
Well, in real life, Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who did work on nuclear physics during the war. So I still think the Heisenberg device is the bomb.
January 8th, 2016 at 6:49 PM ^
True, but the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is a fundamental concept in quantum mechanics, which while not directly applicable to alternative universes, is certainly related.
January 8th, 2016 at 5:44 PM ^
Seemed to take off into a bit of a strange, more sci fi area at the end, after starting off as a very solid action-drama. Hopefully we get a better explanation of some of it next season.
I find it extremely likely that Hitler is The Man in the High Castle, as he has both the inside information, a known desire for the tapes, and a reason to see the Nazis weakened - it is the only way to prevent a war with the Japanese after his death.
Looking forward to the next season!
January 8th, 2016 at 6:09 PM ^
Given the source material was created by Philip K Dick (who wrote mostly sci-fi stuff) the sci fi turn was not unexpected for me. I hope that the tv show takes the arc of following the freedom fighters and their eventual triumph, but if Game of Thrones has taught us anything, it is that tv shows no longer have to adhere to the source material (and TMOHC certainly does not) and that shows don't need happy endings to be compelling television.
I do find it hard to agree with the idea that Hitler is the titular character though. It may be a twist that I completely overlooked, but the idea that he does not want war with Japan doesn't seem to jive with his known character (at least in this universe). If they have the bomb, they could make Japan capitulate the same way that the US did, except now Japan knows how Germany treats undesireables, and realizing that they will fight to the last to try to avoid extermination. I don't know, there are always alot of moving parts when an empire decides to turn on an ally, but I would find it hard to buy that Hitler would want or fight for peace with a non-Aryan people.
January 8th, 2016 at 6:31 PM ^
Since going to war seems to be a such a popular sentement in his ranks, and the feeling is that they will attack Japan after his death, he must be against it to some degree.
From what I know of TMitHC, it seems to be even looser with source material than I found Games of Thrones. I actually went into the series almost completely blind, with no knowledge of who had even wrote the novels it was based on, so I kind of went in blind. I would actually love it if Netflix pushed farther than any show before, to see what their audience would accept - what if Hitler, the most hated man of the last century, and made him a quasi-protagonist? We need more people willing to push boundaries, just to see how people would react.
January 8th, 2016 at 8:06 PM ^
If the show tries to get back to the main plot of the book (by having the titular character in Colorado, explaining how the films are made) I think that would be a good story too
January 8th, 2016 at 6:20 PM ^
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January 8th, 2016 at 6:32 PM ^
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January 8th, 2016 at 8:13 PM ^
January 8th, 2016 at 10:30 PM ^
1. Is the book worth the read
2. Is the show available on somewhere that's not Amazon prime
January 9th, 2016 at 12:08 AM ^
Everything related the whole conceit of the show (the fact that the Nazis/Japanese win the war) is fascinating and completely enrapturing. Seeing an alternative universe with an elderly Hitler is a total mindf#ck. I'm intrigued by the films, though perhaps less so after the season finale. Seeing a world in which DC was nuked and the Third Reich is still a thing is really something, in a terrifying way.
That being said. Boy do the characters suck. The novel is rather metaphysical and non-character driven, as I understand it, so they had to invent a lot. And didn't do it very well. I found myself getting really, really bored with long stretches of the show.
And now that they've blown past the material in the novel... I have a feeling this is going to get really, really bad in season 2.
January 13th, 2016 at 8:46 AM ^
I've watched a little more than 1/2 of the first season and I think it's one of the best shows on TV and has the potential to be one of the all-time greats.
It is also the scariest thing I've ever watched. Way more frightening than zombies or a plague.