Posted on 11/23/2015 9:02:19 AM PST by pabianice
I watched with great interest Amazon's "The Man in the High Castle," a novel of Philip Dick's that I read in the 1970s. The series is very well produced and grimly done, but in the 10th episode the plot shifts radically. We "binge watched" all 10 episodes over the weekend.
In the novel, the Axis won WW II and they rule the world. In the TV version, there are alternate realities, one in which the Axis rules and one which is our world. The final several minutes of the 10th episode show one of the main characters coming into our reality through heavy meditation. This is a strict departure from Dick’s novel and sets us up for more in the next season. The scene is not one of imagination but of our world in 1962, complete with Chubby Checker singing “Do the Twist,†Ronald Reagan selling cigarettes on a billboard, and the Kennedy/Cuban Missile Crisis. This could not be a delusion as the online synopsis suggests; it is too precise. No one could hallucinate the detail this character sees in our 1962.
The next season will be interesting.
Not surprising that Hollywierd thinks an old sci-fi fantasy about losing our nation to Nazi’s is worthy of adapting for an audience in 2015.
That way they continue to distract Americans from the fact that we did, in reality — lose our nation to the Communist’s.
It’s pretty clear that the show is inspired by the novel but the specific plots and characters have not and will not follow the novel that closely.
Which is fine with me as I do not think the original plot in the books would make for a very satisfying TV show.
I never read the book and until the series started, never heard of it.
There was some binge watching yesterday.
The marshal was a really evil. He was played by the guy who was on Torchwood, Burn Gorman (?). It took a few minutes to place the bookstore guy. It was Crazy Eddie from First Wave.
Joel De La Fuente (sp?) is also very good. Had to believe he was Wang Paul from Space Above And Beyond.
I’m looking forward to more.
The novel is a bit too difficult to follow 100% faithfully on TV. I looked up the plot, and it would have made for a disappointing series.
sounds like they’re doing a very typical sci-fi multiple parallel universe spin....i dont had a problem with that...after all it just an alternate reality story having us as an alternate reality subplot... it almost becomes obligatory in that type story
Typical for PKD stories: movie is generally based on the story, but takes a significant departure. I’m re-reading “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” aka “Blade Runner” now; parallels about halfway thru, then a key “do we turn left or right here?” decision takes the other direction for the on-screen version. “We Can Remember It For You Wholesale” aka “Total Recall” is/isn’t just a memory and delves deeper or not. IIRC, the only PKD-inspired screenplay that is rather true to the story is “A Scanner Darkly”, which is depressing insofar as the story is quite depressing.
Its the difference between a “science-fiction” story vs a straight “history-fiction” story
I somewhat enjoyed the show. I binged over the weekend as well and figured it would become a Fringe-like parallel universe story (have not read the book). I did feel it significantly dragged beginning midway through the show all the way up until the last few minutes of the last episode.
It seems to be a common theme amongst serial TV shows lately. The plot becomes the vehicle for character development. In much the same way The Walking Dead comprises mostly of heart-to-heart conversations between two characters interspersed with zombies.
I found myself fast-forwarding through some of it and not missing any plot points. More exposition is needed and less drama.
I watch episodes of whatever a few times a week during lunch(Amazon Prime/Netflix). I watched the 3rd episode of TMITHC today. While it was entertaining, the Marshall really annoyed me. Why someone wouldn't plug that dude and dump his body down a well is beyond me. I'll end up watching the entire series but I've read that not much happens plot-wise until the end of the last episode. That's disappointing.
I also watched the entire Hand of God series recently and it was fine to watch during lunch but I'm not sure if it's worth a new season.
It was a very near thing, the defeat of the Nazi Wehrmacht was no very sure outcome at all.
Change one little direction early on. Hitler does not, in fact, attack the Soviet Union, but managed to keep Uncle Joe at least neutral in the war. The Russians, perfectly willing to provide aid in the form of fuel and food to Germany, in exchange for directing all their efforts toward England and the colonial empire of England, eventually giving the Nazis a foothold all the way circling the globe, by simply preempting the former British control after the capitulation of the British. Neville Chamberlain prevailed over Winston Churchill, and Churchill is imprisoned and killed. The North American continent, occupied by German sympathizers in Canada, and an increasingly pacifist population in the US under Roosevelt, is easy prey for conversion to the American version of national socialism, as they were perhaps three-quarters of the way to adopting much of the philosophy of Nazi Germany anyway.
Very seductive scenario.
That's true and it was disappointing. I felt myself grinding through it and the big reveal at the end left me unsatisfied. It's not a show where I'll be waiting for the next season with bated breath.
But then I'm a finicky show watcher. I don't have patience for character development and them making dumb decisions. How many times do we have to sit through, "I have to go. He saved my life." "I have to go back she saved my life." etc. Same with TWD. Somebody goes out, goes missing, we have to go find them.
To be honest I lost interest in that show after the CDC blew up. A plot point that might've moved the story in a more interesting direction for me. I mean you can only take these societal breakdown storylines for so long.
I have the same problem with Homeland. Admittedly, a show that keeps the plot moving well. Too much of, "I have to stay here and figure this out." Sure is annoying, especially coming from a bi-polar neurotic female.
P.S.: Is anybody else tired of every character using the phrase, "I get that" to just brush past another character's legitimate objection or criticism to a proposed course of action in order to keep the show on its predetermined path.
Sorry for the rant, but these things have been bugging me for awhile.
I wonder: If they stepped into the America of today, would they conclude that socialist tyrants were destined to gain power here regardless of the details from WWII.
I watched it too. It really made me think about what is happening today.
I have to disagree. I get great pleasure from a fine texture to a drama regardless of plot. The small touches in TMITHC are great. FDR’s assassination in 1933 (a near thing). The war continuing until 1947 after the US’ late entry into the war, with the Germans finally using The “Heisenberg Device” (1) on the US (without FDR there is no Manhattan Project). The wonderful “pull together” posters in Japan-occupied San Francisco and German-occupied New York. The opening sequence of German paratroops dropping near Mount Rushmore; the American plane going down in flames near the Statue of Liberty. The typical American Nazi Family, with beautifully dressed wife, kids in Hitler Youth uniforms, and neighbors greeting one another with “Heil Hitler!” All in all, great touches a la “Blade Runner.”
(1) Heisenberg was the German’s main man on making an atomic bomb
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