OT: The Man in the High Castle
 

Anyone see Amazon's pilot TV series of The Man in the High Castle last week?

The Axis won the Second World War and 1962 America is a divided nation. Germany occupies the eastern states and the Japanese Pacific States of America control the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska with a neutral Rocky Mountain States buffer zone.

War history unknown at this point but Germany and Japan seem to have divided the world between them after beating America in 1947. Reference to German's landing by sea at Virginia Beach during the invasion of America. German's have wiped out Jews in Europe and maybe blacks in Africa. In America Jews, blacks and other minorities only live freely in Rocky Mountain States. Germany has the edge in technology and has developed the hydrogen bomb.

Plot seems to based around the smuggling of a film reel that shows and alternative history film where the Allies really won the war, and that the film reel might in fact be the truth. Also Hitler is now on his death bed and a war of succession is going to be fought in the Nazi hierarchy between the followers of Joseph Goebbels and Rheinhard Heydrich with one camp wanting to drop the bomb on the Japanese home islands and invade the Japanese Pacific States of America.

Plenty of shocking dystopian visuals and dialogue.

Nazi American capital of New York looks downtrodden and industrial. Time Square full of Nazi propaganda and German corporate neon signs in German and English. American resistance still exists but US patriots are being hunted by Gestapo and are brutally tortured when captured. Loads of Nazi sympathisers and German and pro-Nazi American troops use Kubelwagen's. Border guards on river crossing with Rocky Mountain States wear green German style uniforms with PASGT type US helmets. Most vehicles in Nazi-America or still American. Police drive 1960's US police cars and wear US police uniforms with Nazi-American flag armbands. German Concorde style jets in Nazi insignia can also fly from New York to San Francisco in two hours.

The Japanese Pacific States of American capital of San Francisco is now very Asian and poor looking, with some strange looking skyscrapers with Japanese Rising Sun images painted on them with the still standing Golden Gate Bridge in the background. Japanese/Asian culture is now dominant with Japanese style bars. Cars are mostly small 1950/60's Japanese and European makes. Japanese also seem to have a liking for old American guns and items. A factory run by American's in San Francisco makes forgeries and makes a lot of money selling them to the Japanese. German embassy in San Francisco is a huge art deco fortress. The Greyhound buses are still in operation from San Francisco to Rocky Mountain States.

Canon City in Rocky Mountain States is old weather-beaten town that still has old WW2 anti-Japanese and anti-German propaganda stickers on its walls. Has an American style diner with a black owner and the region uses German Deutschemarks as currency.

German Nazi characters so far are just unlikeable racist thugs. More sympathies for the Japanese but they are capable of being fairly violent too and arrest and kill suspects they believe are subversive or the American resistance. German ambassador and official in San Francisco talk of wiping the Japanese off the planet after Japanese officials are unhappy with the arrangements they made for greeting the Japanese Emperor on his forthcoming visit to San Francisco. American family in San Francisco watching black and white TV game show with an American-Nazi trooper from Florida winning a prize and then cursing the Japanese and Germans. Greyhound bus travelling to Canon City from San Francisco full or black and mentally handicapped people. Friendly police sheriff in countryside helps truck driver change wheel and then casually refers to the smoke and ash in the air as being from a local incinerator burning cripples and the terminally ill.

Hope Amazon continue with this series, it's just out there!

I enjoyed it. I am not getting my hopes up for seeing more as it was only a pilot and 9 of 10 pilots go nowhere.

Read a book thats highly similar
 

It centered mostly on the re-development of American national pride with a particular emphasis on the guys making counterfeit Americana like old Colts etc for sale to wealthy Japanese officials etc.

I liked it alot. The book.

Its got very good reviews and Rotten Tomatoes gave it an 87% approval rating so fingers crossed.

Sounds like something Harry Turtledove wrote.

It's based on a novella by Philip K. Dick by the same title (his Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep was turned into the film Blade Runner; other films based on his work: Minority Report, Paycheck, A Scanner Darkly, Total Recall, and Scanners, IIRC) The novella was pretty good but not the stuff of rivetting TV. I haven't seen the show yet but it's likely that, aside from the premise, there's very little in common between story and show.

From what I have seen it gets more support from PKD fans than any Clancy film ever did. That give me hope that the are keeping it closer to the original than is average for Hollywood.

The people behind it have a pretty good pedigree as well

Ridley Scott is the EP
Frank Spotnitz (one of the creators of the X-files) is the main writer.
And 2 time (Heroes and House) Emmy winning director David Semel directed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWXTEuTr7sY

Episode one.... in full

Looks like it was picked up for a full season

http://deadline.com/2015/02/amazon-o...eo-1201375797/

Great can't wait. Any Idea when it will be starting?

Amazon has unpredictable airdates.

For comedies it looks like they show up 6 months to a year after after approval.

For Dramas somewhere between 11 and 18 months.

This is from a small dataset and I think this is one or the more complicated productions, so I would say mid 2016 is probably the best guess.

I did not expect this would be even through the middle of filming for the full season yet, but apparently the second episode was shown at Comicon.

The 2nd episode hit the net (in horrible phone cam quality), but there is a trailer that was legitimately released.

http://www.wired.com/2015/07/sdcc-ma...astle-trailer/

Edit

The air date of the season has been "confirmed" as "this fall"

Saw the pilot myself and looked very interesting, so may well check out the full series when it's available.

It looks like we get new episodes on November 20th. Amazon generally drops all episodes at once so we might get all 13 eps (Including the pilot) that day.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/liv...r-frank-812732

10 days to go till series starts. Season 1 Episode 2 is already out online and saw it tonight. Very good production and very good acting and more action than the pilot episode.

It seems Washington DC got nuked in the war. Not much dystopian visuals in this episode with much of the episode based in the Neutral Zone. A few scenes in Nazi headquarters in New York and stormtroopers, Nazi officers house in Long Island and Japanese prison in San Francisco. Nazi helicopter seen through window at night on patrol. Japanese are as brutal as the Nazi's, roughing up prisoners and they use gas to kill people. The Nazi brass are throwing the weight around in Japanese occupied America and the Japs don't like it at all, and they have also penetrated Japanese intelligence.

The American resistance is still live and kicking, the Nazi's get a bloody nose. Hope the Japs get it in Episode 3. Can't wait.

You really could make a new RPG out of the material in this series.

It's based on a book of the same name by Philip K Dick.

Looks like I was wrong about the episode count. It looks like 10 eps total.

Might have gotten it confused with Jessica Jones which has 13 and drops the same day.

And ...when...is...someone...going to finally make a movie/miniseries/series based on The Forever War?!

I think Warner Bros may be planning to make the novel into a movie staring Channing Tatum.

When he turns 50... :(

AND?
 

What is wrong wit Fifty????
Oh yeah that, never mind

Anyone seen the second series yet which was released last weekend?

Spend the last few days looking at the ten episodes. Some critics love it and others clearly do not. I thought it was good, and there are more facts about the war and how America lost, and more information and visuals of the workings of the American Reich and Germany itself.

Great scene in episode 10 when -- SPOILER - highlight text to view --
the Nazis are planning to launch a nuclear attack on the Japanese Empire from a control room in Berlin. Big map with all of the worldwide German nuclear missiles, bombers and U boats and the Japanese targets in Asia, the Pacific and the US West Coast. The Germans would have annihilated the Japanese in 15 minutes. Just straight out of Doctor Strangeglove.
-- END OF SPOILER --

Up to episode 8 and I am enjoying it.

I like the additional depth that we are seeing in the main characters.

Shoot Sorry Kato I forgot to think that you might be still catching up. Its cool isn't it?

No problem.

By ep 8 I certainly saw it coming. Heck almost all the main characters did. But to those starting it would be less obvious.

I'll have more thoughts in a couple of days.


edit
Oh always good to see Stephen Root. Hope to see more of him in the last two eps.

Well enjoy the last two episodes, cause I certainly did!

The last two episodes were good. This show really has a way of making you root for unexpected characters or actions.

As an Alt history fan, and someone who has watched several documentaries on Hitler's dreams for Berlin, it was really interesting to see Germany this time.

I am reading that a 3rd season is likely but not confirmed yet. Will be interesting to see where it goes.

I really hope there is a 3rd season but its a pity we will have to wait till next December year to see it.

What did you think of the Nazi nuclear command centre scene? Scary to think that they might have been able to do that in 1962

And what film do you think the German Nazis allowed Obergruppenfuhrer Smith to see in Hitler's secret film archive bunker under the Reichstag?

The bunker was pretty cool. I could see projector tech doing that in 62 if things took a different path.

I honestly don't know what the Nazis (outside of Hitler) thought of the films. I am assuming not many watched them or even knew of the contents or -- SPOILER - highlight text to view --

the final ruse using the US Bikini Island test would have been dismissed as one of the obviously fake (from their perspective) High Castle films.

-- END OF SPOILER --

Favourite characters.

Obergruppenfuhrer Smith: Best actor on the show and my favourite Nazi. I met him once in real life!
Inspector Kido: My favourite Japanese imperialist
Lemuel Washington: Favourite potty mouth American resistance man
Frank Fink: He is a lot more likeable in Season 2
Adolf Hitler: The actor portrays him as even crazier than he was
Reinhard Heydrich: He really just looks evil
The Nazis: I just love their uniforms, the bad guys are always the most stylish
Robert Childan: I just like this guy!

Worst characters.

Joe Blake: He just gets lamer and lamer
Paul Kasoura: How does a Japanese big shot have a Western first name?

Others

Neutral opinion