The Man in the High Castle

[EyeQueue]

Is anyone watching this? It's an Amazon original series, and the entire first season is now up for streaming. It's based on the Phillip K. Dick alternative history/sci-fi novel that takes as its starting point how the US would look if they had *not* won WWII.

We just watched the final episode in Season 1 (Season 2 will be up sometime later this year--they did renew it for one more), and have really enjoyed it.

Anyway, I'm dying to discuss theories if anyone else watches/has watched it! Just make sure spoilers are under spoiler tags.

[DaffyDill]

We have it and I watched the first episode with Husband, but I fell asleep. Not the fault of the show, I was just shattered and needed sleep badly.

I'll get back to it though! Really interesting premise and I'm surprised no one has really tackled it before. Over here in Australia, I imagine we would have been ruled by the Japanese...which would be interesting...

 

[Geechee Girl]

I watched the series. I enjoyed the premise, but not the lead actress. She lacked chemistry, and wasn't compelling enough for me to care whether she lived or died. I did however enjoy the arc of the artist becoming radicalized. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I am interested to see where it goes in season 2. 

[clueliss]

I watched.  I really enjoyed it.  

[EyeQueue]

19 hours ago, Geechee Girl said:

I watched the series. I enjoyed the premise, but not the lead actress. She lacked chemistry, and wasn't compelling enough for me to care whether she lived or died. I did however enjoy the arc of the artist becoming radicalized. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I am interested to see where it goes in season 2. 

I actually kind of like the lead actress. I didn't get a lot of chemistry between her and Frank Frink, but more with Joe. I, too, liked the idea of pacifist/artist Joe becoming radicalized, but he did start to get a bit annoying. (Spoilers follow, so tread carefully).

Spoiler

Especially when he was such a hypocrite after his attempt at a criminal act, and then got pissed at Julianna for engaging in the resistance.

A number of things didn't turn out the way I had thought they would, and I'm super intrigued to know where it's headed, especially after

Spoiler

Tagomi seems to have some Super Magical Powers and transports himself to what appears to be another timeline in the season closer. Is *he* the one who is making the films? Are there multiple people who can phase in and out of different timelines?

And, is Hitler the Man in the High Castle? His "eagle's nest" certainly looked like a "high castle" to me, but that may be a red herring.

I was a bit disappointed that we didn't get at least a *bit* more answers by the last episode of the season.

I'm going to read the book over the weekend to see what's up with that, and where the differences are so far. I have a feeling, though, to get another complete season out of it, the writers are going to have to depart substantially from the book (just because I know the book isn't that long--I would think not long enough to carry 2 seasons as-is).

[JenniferJuniper]

On 1/8/2016 at 2:06 AM, Geechee Girl said:

I watched the series. I enjoyed the premise, but not the lead actress. She lacked chemistry, and wasn't compelling enough for me to care whether she lived or died. I did however enjoy the arc of the artist becoming radicalized. I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending. I am interested to see where it goes in season 2. 

I'm with you.  I love alternative universe and time travel stuff so the premise worked for me, but I really thought some of the lead acting wasn't very good and didn't care about the female lead at all.   The actor who played John Smith was very good though, and I found the character pretty interesting.

No qualms with the ending here, but I can see a second season possibly spiraling into nonsense. Tricky stuff.

[happy atheist]

I really enjoyed it. I thought the world-building was really well done.

The one thing that really rubbed me the wrong way was the stupid bounty hunter guy. He was far too cartoonish and over the top.

[Maggie Mae]

I watched the first episode when it came out and was all the hype. I promptly forgot about it. It was OK, I liked the premise, but I don't think I was engaged enough to keep watching. 

[EyeQueue]

I just finished reading the novel, and I have to say there's not a whole lot of overlap. The first season seriously fleshed out the kind of bare bones framework that exists in the novel, and I'm assuming that the 2nd season will continue that.

So, there's really no telling where things might go.

I'll very likely continue on with it when the next season comes out, but they better freaking wrap it up. There's nothing I hate more than a series that just ends because of cancellation and doesn't provide a wrap-up.