US: The Man in the High castle

It's obvious now after watching the finale that this is a science fiction show


Joe being in the film killing frank, and the trade minster ending up in the alternate universe, either a dream or otherwise is too much like fringe

also, I wish I had a pound for every time they said Obergruppenfuhrer
 
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Its not really sci-fi its more supposed to be a thought provoking piece i.e. which timeline is the real one? - but it leaves out some of the elements of the book/source material that really build that up.

While I understand what they were going with, with the ending it does kind of fall flat in reality.
 
Will be giving this a go after I finish Black Sails.

As it's based on a Phillip K. Dick novel, not making a whole lot of sense in places would mean that the producer's are staying true to the book...
 
Finished and loved it. I can see how people could complain about pacing of the initial episodes, but the pacing is even and more importantly soon you discover the pacing is right. I am glad this wasn't network TV series and wasn't paced from one advert cliffhanger to another and truly I hope it won't end up as limited series.
 
Rroff said:
Its not really sci-fi its more supposed to be a thought provoking piece i.e. which timeline is the real one? - but it leaves out some of the elements of the book/source material that really build that up.

While I understand what they were going with, with the ending it does kind of fall flat in reality.
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Having them see themselves in an alternate reality smacks of fringe to me. It's almost as if they are all in heaven/hell after dying in the war.....unless that's what's going on :confused:
 
glen8 said:
Having them see themselves in an alternate reality smacks of fringe to me. It's almost as if they are all in heaven/hell after dying in the war.....unless that's what's going on :confused:
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I removed the spoiler tags because a) it's US section and the show already aired b) you're not spoiling the plot, you are speculating. I hope you don't mind

From what I remember the source material ie. the book doesn't really provide any answers. Philip K. Dick wanted to write sequel to the MITHC until the end of his life, started several times and given up or converted the chapters to something else, even tried to find co-author at some point. Overbearing psychological pressure while researching Nazi related material was quoted as one of the reasons.

IIRC Dick's alternative universe of MITHC goes much further than its TV depiction - the surge of technology created by the war leads to accelerated progress in space exploration and colonisation of the planets. The alternative universe reality revealed to the protagonists in form of a story within story is actually equally grim as the in-book-reality. It's a universe where the common enemy of world democracy - the expansive Soviet communism - never happens. Mao loses in China leading to extreme right wing forces ruling the country. Colonial, imperial UK is in the state of the cold war with US over world domination. Time/space continuum warp machine (to explore alternative timelines) is a distinct technological possibility in the near to the story future and was considered as one of of the sequel plot points. It is very much Fringe but without a glimpse of hope - without an anchor point in the "good", correct, reality "reality". As usual with Dick - it's a choice between grim and terrible. The light in the tunnel is a freight train fast approaching your way.
 
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glen8 said:
Having them see themselves in an alternate reality smacks of fringe to me. It's almost as if they are all in heaven/hell after dying in the war.....unless that's what's going on :confused:
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You are taking it too literally - the story is kind of intended as a "what if" abstract thought provoking piece - which doesn't really come over very well in the TV show.

While the original material is somewhat sci-fi in nature its not really intended as sci-fi as such rather that is dictated by the premise of the Nazi's winning and the projection that their technology progress would have been 50 years ahead of our own at the point in time the story takes place.
 
4 episodes into this and I think it's already in my top 5 shows of all time! They've made the whole "world" so believable, including the wild west neutral zone. It's gripping, intriguing and has just the right amount of hokey thrown in. Brilliant opening credits too - almost up there with Band of Brothers.
 
This has to be the best thing throughout for a long time. Every episode was pure brilliance and even made me feel for the nasty Nazi chap. I can't wait for more.

I enjoyed Daredevil and would have said that was slightly better if it hadn't been for the final episode.
 
Rroff said:
Struggled with it personally - the first episode jumped around a lot and wasn't really that interesting (the dialogue was really dry/dull) - even though it had massive scale and high production value.

Might have got better once it got into the story proper but the first episode didn't grab me at all.
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This is where I am - one episode down and I'm really not sure whether to move forward.

Not that you expect a huge amount in a pilot but I found it completely predictable, although I'm a sucker for anything WWII.

What I didn't expect was how disturbing I found it if that was our reality.
 
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