The Man in the High Castle

[Neon Maniac]

Has anyone watched this? I just finished it. I tried watching it when it first came out and gave up during the 2nd episode. I started it again the other week and finished it. It was pretty meh. The first couple of seasons were okay the 3rd was meh and the 4th was just kinda WTF due to actors not wanting to come back for whatever reason.

[DJBenz]

I tried to watch it when it first aired. I didn't get very far.

[Alien Redrum]

Same here. Neon's not making a good case to try again.

[Neon Maniac]

If you like political intrigue in that kind of thing you would probably like this, but it also just gets kind of meh. I honestly think the writers painted themselves into many corners trying to get away from the book and trying to explain things that they changed away from the book. There is some decent political intrigue but it also gets old after a while and you stop caring about anybody if you ever cared about them to begin with. At the end of the day I was rooting for the axis, and found them much more interesting. And the ending was ridiculous. I'm not going to put spoilers in but it's a stupid series ending, and 60% of the cast changes in the last season, which is really stupid, so you really don't care about anything by the time you get to the last season. And honestly you get so tired of seeing a freaking swastika on everything it just becomes weary.

I'm going to put a spoiler here on how it ends in case you're interested because I don't believe either of you are going to watch this but you will see how ridiculous it is.

Spoiler:

at the end of the day, about 10 black people overthrow all of Japan and get them to give up all of their mineral rights and wealth in the US. Somehow. They are members of the BCP, black Communist Party, something we've never heard about until the last season. The Nazis get overthrown by one General in the US who decides he doesn't like being a Nazi anymore and on his say so everybody in the military and government decide they want to go back and live like the regular US. Somehow. And yes I don't think we're ever introduced to this guy until the last season.

[shiki-jitsu]

I love Philip K. Dick, but I never really got into this story. And I haven't gotten past the first episode of this.

[Neon Maniac]

I like him also. But I think that this book was less about a plot and more about the devices, if that makes sense. It's been a long time since I've read it but I always felt that it was less about an alternate reality and more about using an alternate reality to demonstrate how he believes reality works; or doesn't work, depending upon your viewpoint. I did enjoy them working in the word ersatz every now and then. That's a word I learned from him and I think he puts it in almost every story he does. Which again kind of goes back to his ideas about reality.

[shiki-jitsu]

I am reading a book on I Ching right now and I remember that is relevant to one of the characters. So I am tempted to watch it.

[Neon Maniac]

I am reading a book on I Ching right now and I remember that is relevant to one of the characters. So I am tempted to watch it.

In the book there are a couple of characters who use it to make decisions, if I remember right; and the man in the high castle says his book as dictated to him by the I, Ching.

In the show, nope. A japanese character uses it to make decisions, and that's kind of strong in the first 4 episodes or so, then it's not at all any more. And in the show it's not about an author, it's about a guy who gets movies delivered to him that are basically news reels from WWII where the allies won.

So, don't let that tempt you to watch None of the themes from the book really make it through and it turns into a show about the multiverse and stopping nazis from taking over all the earths, so it's like Sliders in that way too.

[DJBenz]

I love Philip K. Dick.

FTFY.

[Neon Maniac]

One of the actors I really like is in this, and you usually don't see him in such a meaty role. I'm not talking about DJ Qualls, but Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. If you don't know the name, back in the 80's and 90's if you needed a yakuza bad ass in a big movie he was the go to. I think Rising Sun with Snipes and Sean Connery was one of his big roles, and he may have been in the original Mortal Kombat. He played a much different type of guy in this. I think it would've added a lot to the show if he'd ben cast as the secret police guy instead.

[Neon Maniac]

The show also rips off Georgia O'Keefe's painting Sunrise. And they ruin it and do it half assed. Which is pretty much how they do everything on the show.