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Amazon's new TV series, 'The Man in the High Castle', is based off the award-winning 1963 novel by Philip K. Dick about an alternate-history where the Axis powers have won WWII. Both the book and show take place primarily in America, which has been partitioned by the Nazis in the east/midwest and the Japanese Empire on the west coast.
Teasers/ trailers:
+ Show Spoiler +
To kick off the discussion, I have written my own review of the pilot episode at IMDb.com, and have included the text below:
+ Show Spoiler + 'The Man in the High Castle' (2015) -- Intriguing Premise with Room for Growth
What is ostensibly Amazon's attempt at developing its own 'House of Cards' provides an intriguing backdrop with a promising but somewhat- shaky implementation. The show, based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, is one of five pilots that Amazon is promoting for a potential run at a full 2015 season.
Right from the start, the show stays close to its source material in both plot and setting. While following the book certainly has its merits, the script so far lacks in its portrayal of the characters' psychological intricacies— and in several cases comes across as heavy-handed. For example, in this episode we learn (and are reminded of) how evil the Nazis are through generic torture scenes and murder-- typical "bad guy" stuff. I don't recall the text depicting any accounts of Nazi violence to this extent, but rather their presence loomed on all characters due to the claustrophobic effects of their propaganda and fascist scheming.
The acting was competent but the script felt oddly-paced, in particular it seemed that not much thought had been given to the character Joe Blake (he did not exist in the book) as he didn't really convey any emotional or logical motivation for wanting to become a political dissident besides hoping to "do the right thing". That being said, the characters Nobusuke Tagomi and Juliana Crain were especially brought to life in this adaptation.
Based on the direction of the pilot, I fear that the show may attempt to play-up the "American resistance" theme which is irrelevant and antithetical to one of the major messages of the book. What was intended as a commentary on paranoid diplomacy in a totalitarian world could all too easily become a trite Star Wars- style action/adventure series. On the other hand, one cannot expect fully fleshed-out characters in the pilot episode so it will take some more time to fairly judge the writing quality.
I am cautiously optimistic about this show's future-- for a pilot it certainly succeeded in establishing an alluring setting, and I was not surprised to learn that Ridley Scott was involved as the set- design and ambiance was superb. Overall, I am excited to see if this will manage to thrive alongside both the classic novel and other contemporary political-drama TV shows.
My rating: 7/10
Other Reviews:
Gizmodo WIRED Entertainment Weekly The Seattle Times The Telegraph
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Was good, but the female character was kind of annoying. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was awesome as usual. this gives me a slight hope that one day I might see Harry Turtledove's Darkness series be made into a series.
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The book is great, one of the best by PKD (all his work is brilliant).
Did the I Ching already appear in the pilot?
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Watched the pilot and was intrigued. Not sure it is good, but it is worth watching at least the second episode to decide.
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The first episode is available for anyone to watch
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second episode is on amazon also.
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I have been looking forward to this since the release of the pilot episode but i am going to watch it when they have more episodes or do a week by week release
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Just watched first 4 episodes. It's good, with certain flaws that I felt took away some of the believability. Some characters are exaggerated to the point where it detracts from the plot. But overall definitely enjoyable!
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I am a bit disappointed. The first few episodes I watched are OK, but didn't really live up to my expectations.
Irrespective of that, some of the German parts are a bit cringe-worthy for a German, I wonder if that's also true for the Japanese parts.
I got a good laugh when they showed this ID, DAS GROBE NAZI-REICH is wrong on so many levels. Grobe should be Große or Grosse and they would have never called themselves Nazi-Reich, it sounds hilarious and derogatory in German.
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I wonder if that's due to German failure or due to a number of things almost being parodies of themselves.
I enjoyed the show for its world building, but it had a severe lack of plot. And we still know next to nothing about the films.
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On December 07 2015 11:00 Acrofales wrote: And we still know next to nothing about the films. Exactly, and the fact that everyone was like 'we trade information about the Germans for some films and that's totally natural' doesn't make any sense. Sure they want to strike the Nazis however they can, but come on...
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Idea was awesome, execution was terrible.
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On December 07 2015 12:44 Complete wrote:Idea was awesome, execution was terrible.
So they stayed faithful to the book.
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Of course the coach of Team Iceland from Mighty Ducks 2 is a Nazi. I wrapped up everything yesterday and I thought it was ok but meandered. The point we finally get to in the last episode could have been gotten to much sooner if the pacing were right.
We didn't need to spend half as much time following the+ Show Spoiler + Kempetai trying to get FInk for shooting the emperor when they know it was a nazi, but could actually focus on moving the plot forward, adding more about the films and what not. Give me more about what the Japanese high command is doing about the assassination attempt, how they plan to respond to the nazis rather than streeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeetching for episodes. It is Man in the High Castle not DBZ ffs.
I did think the first time they did the parody between Joe Blake and Juliana with the cutting between what was happening was cool, but played out a bit by the end. I don't know if that makes sense or you all remember that part specifically.
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I think the films told so much in so little.
Very beautifully made, with a lot of hidden details that give information about the world.
I would recommend this show for more mature public, might not be something interesting for the younger generation.
I found the plot progress quite nice and wasn't bored.
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On December 17 2016 23:25 Amestir wrote: Season 2 is out!
Hype!!! =D
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