OT: The Man in the High Castle

[RN7]

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!

[kato13]

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.

[headquarters]

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.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by headquarters

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.

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

[kato13]

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.

[pmulcahy11b]

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

[RN7]

Originally Posted by kato13

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.

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

[Cdnwolf]

Sounds like something Harry Turtledove wrote.

[Raellus]

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.

[kato13]

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.