The Man in the High Castle TV Series

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Annihilus

Annihilus

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Has anyone seen it yet? It's a streaming show on Amazon Prime and the first season is 10 episodes long. It is based on the novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick (the guy that wrote the book that Blade Runner was based on).

I wasn't all that enthused with the pilot, but on recommendation from a trusted source, I checked out the rest of the season and it turns out that he was right....it's really, really good.

The basic premise is that the show takes place in a world where the Nazis and Japan won WWII. The U.S. is divided up into the Pan-Pacific States on the West coast and the Nazi Reich States in the East. There is a neutral zone in the Rocky Mountains. Season 1 takes place in the 1960's and Hitler is still alive. It is a drama, but there are some scifi elements sprinkled in, which I imagine will become more prominent in season 2.

I can't really say more than that without giving certain plot points away, but I highly recommend giving it a try (past the pilot episode, which I found the weakest of all the episodes by a long shot).
 
Can't believe this show feel off my radar. I'll definitely be checking it out.
 
I've read the book and wouldn't think the plot lends itself to an episodically based format, but I might well give it go.

Phillip K Dick has written a crazy amount of stuff that has been turned into very good films that people don't realise...

Blade Runner (As mentioned by the OP)
Minority Report
Paycheck
Total Recall (x2)
The Adjustment Bureau
A Scanner Darkly (one of the few films I just plain gave up on after 20 mins and that was with reading the book beforehand!)
Imposter

Sadly all made after his death aside from Blade Runner. The books are a hard read sometimes and it's obvious at points he was as high as a kite but a genius in his own way.
 
Binged it the first weekend it came out, and loved it
 
Darth Despot said:
I too thought the pilot was lame.

Maybe I'll give it another shot after I finish "Making a Murderer"
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I was pretty hesitant to give it a go after the pilot, but it really comes together nicely and once you get immersed in the world and understand the nuances that they are trying to present, it works pretty well. I can't wait to see where it heads next season. I need to go back and watch the pilot again to see why I was so hesitant to watch the rest of it. Amazon does their series in a weird way: they make the pilot and release it. If enough people watch it, then they pick up the series and it comes out months later (close to a year). So maybe that's why the pilot felt a bit different from the episodes that followed.

SCC said:
I've read the book and wouldn't think the plot lends itself to an episodically based format, but I might well give it go.

Phillip K Dick has written a crazy amount of stuff that has been turned into very good films that people don't realise...

Blade Runner (As mentioned by the OP)
Minority Report
Paycheck
Total Recall (x2)
The Adjustment Bureau
A Scanner Darkly (one of the few films I just plain gave up on after 20 mins and that was with reading the book beforehand!)
Imposter

Sadly all made after his death aside from Blade Runner. The books are a hard read sometimes and it's obvious at points he was as high as a kite but a genius in his own way.
Click to expand...

It's funny that you mention that you don't know how it would work episodically because that is one of Dick's few books that I haven't read and I'm having trouble figuring out how it works as a novel, LOL. I do plan on picking it up this weekend, though. Lies, Inc. and Cosmic Puppets are two of my favorites by him.

Did you hear they approved a Blade Runner sequel? Not so sure I'm jazzed about that.
 
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Annihilus said:
I was pretty hesitant to give it a go after the pilot, but it really comes together nicely and once you get immersed in the world and understand the nuances that they are trying to present, it works pretty well. I can't wait to see where it heads next season. I need to go back and watch the pilot again to see why I was so hesitant to watch the rest of it. Amazon does their series in a weird way: they make the pilot and release it. If enough people watch it, then they pick up the series and it comes out months later (close to a year). So maybe that's why the pilot felt a bit different from the episodes that followed.



It's funny that you mention that you don't know how it would work episodically because that is one of Dick's few books that I haven't read and I'm having trouble figuring out how it works as a novel, LOL. I do plan on picking it up this weekend, though. Lies, Inc. and Cosmic Puppets are two of my favorites by him.

Did you hear they approved a Blade Runner sequel? Not so sure I'm jazzed about that.
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I did not know that, not sure how I feel about it.

Maybe I'm being unfair, it has been a while since I've read it, I might read it again (it's only very short).

I think you've managed to name 2 Dick stories I haven't read. I might have to dig them up and give them a go.
 
I wanted to watch this, but I don't have prime! I did get to watch some of it on you tube looks like a great show, and exactly what America under Nazi control would probably look like!
 
I was never a huge fan of PKD.

He was tremendous at generating ideas and speculating on how technology would change society, but his writing skills were rather ordinary, IMHO, compared to his peers such as Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, and Alfred Bester.

What's amazing to me is how Hollywood has latched onto him for some really successful movies. Total Recall is just a lot of fun, and Blade Runner is a classic.
 
TipRoast said:
I was never a huge fan of PKD.

He was tremendous at generating ideas and speculating on how technology would change society, but his writing skills were rather ordinary, IMHO, compared to his peers such as Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, and Alfred Bester.

What's amazing to me is how Hollywood has latched onto him for some really successful movies. Total Recall is just a lot of fun, and Blade Runner is a classic.
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What Hollywood did very well was take the concepts, which as you say were pretty good, and translated the writing style into something palatable.

I have to admit I struggled reading some of this stuff because of his style.
 
TipRoast said:
I was never a huge fan of PKD.

He was tremendous at generating ideas and speculating on how technology would change society, but his writing skills were rather ordinary, IMHO, compared to his peers such as Robert Silverberg, Poul Anderson, and Alfred Bester.

What's amazing to me is how Hollywood has latched onto him for some really successful movies. Total Recall is just a lot of fun, and Blade Runner is a classic.
Click to expand...

I'm right there with you on PKD as far as his writing style goes. I do like his story ideas however, so I just try to read quickly (almost skimming) so as to gloss over his problematic wording as much as possible.

I started Man in the High Castle last night and am only about a quarter of the way through it, but they did an amazing job of getting his ideas and characters into the TV series (at least so far). The characters in the book are nearly identical to the ones in the show.
 
Alright I have put this in my watchlist to give it a go, sounds like my kind of show.
 
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