The Man In The High Castle

[Bearcat]

I stumbled across this.. Actually I saw a preview last night and it looked interesting so I looked it up. I watched the first episode. It has promise. The premise is great...

Based on a Phillip K. Dick (Blade Runner) novel...  

  Episode One on Amazon Prime

[Charlo-VR]

Yes, I was so pleased it got picked up for a season!

[Feathered_IV]

Looks like fun.  I'll definitely check that out.  Thanks!

[SharpeXB]

Yeah that looks great!

[Jason_Williams]

So under this alternate history the Italians got New Jersey I assume? 

 

Do they say how the Axis Powers win?

 

Edit: The Axis got the A-bomb before us.

 

Edit 2: The newsreel footage is a clue.

 

Anyone read the book it is based on?

 

Edit 3: I dug it. Twisty McTwisterson at the end.

 

Jason

[Dakpilot]

Written in 1962

 

http://www.amazon.com/The-High-Castle-Philip-Dick/dp/0547572484

 

said to be partially inspired by an acclaimed Ward Moore book, set in an alternate world where the Confederates won the Civil War, Bring the Jubilee

 

not read either, but enjoyed Philip K Dicks'  "Do Androids dream of electric sheep" (made into legendary Bladerunner movie) many years ago

 

Cheers Dakpilot

Edited September 19, 2015 by Dakpilot

[FlatSpinMan]

The book is okay but nothing amazing. I'd be keen to see any adaptation of a WW2 what-if though. "Fatherland" years ago was okay but pretty low budget.

[Feathered_IV]

Just managed to watch it.  Pretty good I thought.  I really liked that bleak atmosphere.  Probably not too far off what life would be like under the victorious Axis powers.

[Feathered_IV]

The stock-standard plot line of the race to get the "thing" is something most people will be familiar with.  The really interesting thing for me so far is the shaky relations between the Nazis and the Imperial Japanese mystics.  That side of it seems really well done.

[Ace_Pilto]

It's not a bad show, has a fair few twists in the plot but they're not really that hard to see coming if you know suspense in how TV shows works. I'm enjoying the show so far, it's an interesting premise and even though I can see where it is going it's still well made enough to be worth watching. Things should get interesting when Der Führer kicks the bucket (which I'm assuming will be soon), how the power vacuum plays out is bound to have a lot of exciting repercussions in terms of what happens between Germany and Japan as well as who ends up grasping the reins of the Nazi empire and by what means they do so. 

 

The only thing I don't understand is the films, they seem pretty worthless to me. My guess is that they come from someone high in the Nazi hierarchy who feels guilty about the past although I can't see how some newsreel footage is going to undermine a massively powerful global empire (Eric Snowden anyone?), the author must either have a naively optimistic view of human nature or some other ace up his sleeve. (Hopefully the latter)

 

The Italians don't get much of a mention so I guess they must have contented themselves with Ethopia and an embassy in New Jersey. It wouldn't surprise me if the Nazis just took over since that is how things panned out after their defection from the axis powers IRL.

 

I Haven't read the Phillip K. Dick book this is based on but I've come across his work elsewhere. He's a pretty decent Sci-fi author IMO.

 

tl;dr A decent show but I never find myself saying "I did Nazi that coming".

Edited January 2, 2016 by JimmyBlonde

[Feathered_IV]

A decent show but I never find myself saying "I did Nazi that coming".

Oh Sir! We can shut the Internet and all go home now because you just won it. :D

[Ace_Pilto]

To my eternal shame, It's not even my line but thanks Feathered 

[Bearcat]

So under this alternate history the Italians got New Jersey I assume? 

 

Do they say how the Axis Powers win?

 

Edit: The Axis got the A-bomb before us.

 

Edit 2: The newsreel footage is a clue.

 

Anyone read the book it is based on?

 

Edit 3: I dug it. Twisty McTwisterson at the end.

 

Jason

 

There was one episode where there was mention of a Heisenberg device... sounds like some kind of time travel... and apparemtly the Nazis have it and the Japanese are trying to get information on the device..

[Ace_Pilto]

There was one episode where there was mention of a Heisenberg device... sounds like some kind of time travel... and apparemtly the Nazis have it and the Japanese are trying to get information on the device..

 

I assumed they were talking about an atomic bomb.

[JtD]

Just managed to watch it.  Pretty good I thought.  I really liked that bleak atmosphere.  Probably not too far off what life would be like under the victorious Axis powers.

It's exactly what I liked least. Everyone's running around like a zombie. Just because you're living in a totalitarian system, it doesn't mean you stop living - having a chat, having a laugh, having a party. All will still be happening, people are people.

[HippyDruid]

I assumed they were talking about an atomic bomb.

Yeh, Same, I thought they were referring to Werner Heisenberg who actually did work on the German Nuclear program.

I assumed he had the bomb named after him. They also tend to discuss uranium when Heisenberg is brought up.

 

However Heisenberg was also responsible for theorising the Uncertainty Principle so prehaps it has double meaning?

 

It was a good show, but it seems like they tried to sum it up a little to quickly for my liking. I might look for the book.

Edited January 9, 2016 by HippyDruid

[Ace_Pilto]

However Heisenberg was also responsible for theorising the Uncertainty Principle so prehaps it has double meaning?

 

It's possible but the idea of implementing the Uncertainty Principle in anything more practical than an academic discussion on scientific theory (if by the reference you mean using a gravity device to distort time?) is pretty far fetched even today, let alone for the 1960s, even the Nazi super-science 1960s. The films might be a clue here, one of them clearly shows an alternate reality and there's no explanation as yet as to why or how that came to be,

[johncage]

you're not taking your lithium tablets.

[Bearcat]

I assumed they were talking about an atomic bomb.

 

They already had that .. that was how they won the war...  They got the bomb first...

[Feathered_IV]

One thing that strikes me with this show though; the plot seems to hinge on people dropping stuff. 

[Ace_Pilto]

They already had that .. that was how they won the war...  They got the bomb first...

 

You could be onto something. If it doesn;t refer to an atomic bomb then I'm guessing it is a machine that can see into the future.

[II./JG77_Manu*]

Watched the first season, though i think it wasn't done particularly good.

Pretty ridiculous how those people broke their tongues to spell "Obergruppenführer". 

The world in this series doesn't immerse me. It's not plausible. Seems not thought through too well.

First thing is what JTD already mentioned:

 

It's exactly what I liked least. Everyone's running around like a zombie. Just because you're living in a totalitarian system, it doesn't mean you stop living - having a chat, having a laugh, having a party. All will still be happening, people are people.

In addition i am pretty sure, if Germany had invaded a part of the US, they would have forced German as official language. 

Let's assume they would not..they definitely wouldn't have single expressions like "Obergruppenführer" mixed into English, makes no sense. 

In the whole season you don't even once hear anybody speaking proper German. Not even the high ranks of the Nazi's. And the people who try to area failing pretty bad. 

Homeland shows how to produce high quality series. The last season was set in Germany, so they hired tons of (real) German artists, even a few pretty famous ones. I felt immersed from the very first episode. 

The Man in the High Castle is from Amazon, so budget can't really be the reason. Apart from that, there are loads of German theatre actors you can get pretty cheap.

But the way it is, i think the "Nazi side" is all but convincing. Had a good laugh at some scenes, that should not be triggered in a Drama i guess. 

I can't speak Japanese, in fact i was never in Japan, don't know how it feels to be there, so i have no idea how good or bad they are showing their life/language/culture etc..

The story itself would really have potential, but the way it is executed just doesn't make me care about it, because i can't take it serious. 

Edited January 10, 2016 by II./JG77_Manu*

[C-Bag]

I was a huge PKD fan in my 20's so it's been a really long time since I read MITHC. I thought my memory had totally failed me, but reading the wiki on the book I realized they had once again scrambled Dick's story. No wonder it didn't seem familiar. Every single time anybody has done a movie or in this case a tv show based on a Dick book or short story they have either dumbed it down to such a low level as to not be recognizable(Blade Runner) or just plain destroyed the plot.

 

It's almost like this show is an alternate reality of Dick's alternate reality. I'm not sure if they have done this to stretch the story or what. The book was not that long, only 230 pgs. Maybe to keep everybody guessing even those of us who read it.

 

Dick's books are always a wild ride because you are always dropped in the middle of a story with no setup and there's usually at least 3 stories /characters going on at the same time and all somehow wrapped up in the same plot. So it's hard to just be a casual observer as there are little hints here and there in conversations or signs on the wall or whatever that give you the backstory. In this case I can't remember where but it was said the Nazi's used a A bomb on Washington for sure. The book had no movies and the main character of the book has been left out. More misdirection I guess.