Vanity - Has anyone seen "The Man in The High Castle"?

[Perdogg]

Vanity - Has anyone seen "The Man in The High Castle"? It started yesterday on Amazon.

Please post any reviews.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Thanks! Much obliged. :)

[Notforprophet]

We were snowed in last night with the first snow storm of the season, so we binge watched the whole first season.

Disclaimer: I am a HUGE Philip K. Dick fan and grew up reading his sci-fi and others but somehow never read the novel that this show is based on.

That said, it’s a really interesting premise and the show is expertly crafted. I was riveted from the first episode, wondering about who the Man in the High Castle (MitHC) could be and how this banned media could exist even.

Production value is awesome; car buffs will like all the old 50’s and 60’s models but given a fascist touch. The architecture! I loved the oppressive concrete minimalism of the Greater Reich buildings. The production on this show is great.

Some slow spots; I dozed off somewhere around episode 7 - 8, but it ends on a great note and I look forward to MitHC season 2.

NFP

[Notforprophet]

Really not appropriate for kids. Some brutal torture scenes, nudity, f-bombs, as well as the gassing of Jews. Repeat; not recommended for kids at all.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Thanks! I found this also (I didn’t find this yesterday ... think it just appeared): https://www.commonsensemedia.org/tv-reviews/the-man-in-the-high-castle

[Bender2]

Hi dogg, binged watched “The Man in The High Castle” yesterday evening into the night. Day before I did the same with “Jessica Jones” and can say I enjoyed both—

However, “The Man in The High Castle” did not really satisfy me at all. I recall reading Philip Dick's novel back in my early high school days but damned if I can remember much about it other than I also found it lacking even though it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1963. My best recollection is that I thought it was stogie, long winded and way overwritten by Dick while I did not find this in his other writings which I really enjoyed.

The Amazon Series is severely updated and “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy” by Hawthorne Abendsen novel in the original has become cans of films. The plot has also been greatly rebooted with Hitler's syphilitic incapacitation of the novel totally gone and he is now very spry and rather elegant in speech and movement living in his castle high in the German Alps. Lastly, the final ending scene is a very, very large jump requiring an even vaster leap in suspension of belief by the viewer. Perhaps this is to whet the viewers’ appetite for Season Two if it comes about.

That said, the acting was superior, as was the particular eccentricities & tensions of each totalitarian occupations and the production elements (i.e. cars, buildings, aircraft, weapons, etc) were fantastic with a few really jarring boo-boos. Such as SS Stormtroopers armed with modern machinepistols while their ‘Y’ strap load bearing gear had on the back a single triple ammo pouch for 8mm Mauser rounds not used in the MP5s they carried.

Also, of the many, many Nazi Decorations displayed on the many different versions of German uniforms, I did not see one Iron Cross but there was a plethora of a revised version of the Nazi War Merit Cross 1st Class (Rebooted in black with silver outlines) & Knights Cross of the War Merit Cross hung on both Obergruppenführer John Smith & Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich necks. In reality, Heydrich was posthumously awarded this after his assassination in 1942.

I say watch the series even if you are a nitpicking old military/history buff like me, the ten hours you spend will not be wasted.

Now, Netflix's “Jessica Jones” is 13 hours of pure enjoyment with lots of overt/obscure cameo roles in a sexy, snarkily funny, well crafted dark plot with very real stunts (& VERY little CGI) and just a touch of secondary Liberal Hollywood PC Crap.

While not a real Marvel Comic fan (I was born too early for them and was a Superman/Boy/Girl, Batman, Sgt. Rock DC Comic fans up to I discovered Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke in 1957) I do find the acting of Krysten Ritter to be so damn beguiling that I would watch her read the Dallas phone book. Of course, in my old fart defense, her sultry, smoking hot looks and poetry in motion gate have nothing to do with this—

Yeah, and I'm sticking to it!

As to the 2nd banana lesbian angle driven to beyond a dull point, I did not realize Carrie-Anne Moss was so damned bowlegged. In her short dresses, it became comically distracting ever time she walk into a scene.

Okay, both series were well worth the effort with “Jessica” being the better of the two.

[Impy]

“Krysten Ritter “

My cousin was dating a chick that looked like her, only she was fairly short. Mmm.

Anyway, I’ve seen the ads for “The Man in The High Castle”, might check that out if the pirate videos work. ;d

[Bender2]

Re: "Krysten Ritter"

Well, let's show our gal... Krysten?

Krysten, dear... show Impy who you are--

Okay, Bendy-- First, my mug... shot--

Next up-- Front... and back--

A kiss goodbye... and for luck--

So, smoke 'em... if ya got em!

That's... my gal!

[mad_as_he$$]

Finished all the episodes last night I have mixed feelings about kids watching it. While there is only one - not full frontal - nude scene that needs to be considered. There are several brutal execution scenes and beatings. The character development is fantastic and shows that even in the bad guys there are honorable people. Pretty nuanced. That said I would show it to my early teen kids with a discussion after every episode, my kids were very mature and country raised. There is way worse garbage out there.

[mad_as_he$$]

Loved her in BB.

[SevenofNine]

Well I be turn into Indian Summer on PBS tonight it season finale YESSS it coming back Bender

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

Thanks! My husband and I’ve watched the first two episodes now, and I’m glad we kept our kiddos away. (My poor husband couldn’t take the ending of the second episode. He went off to read a book, and waited for me to tell him how it came out!) I think it might be great to discuss with teens, but it’s pretty grim for younger kids.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

Would love to as I am interested with all things Third Reich (history, cult of personality, key players) and my Dad just send me a 2-DVD set titled “Nazi Hunters”, which is amazing... Saw the ad last week - look interesting...

[pabianice]

Very well done, but a departure from the novel. 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.

[skr]

All of Season One is on Prime now

[skr]

There are plenty of parallels between our present administration and the Nazis.