A Man in the High Castle

[t209]

For those who don't know the story, based on Phillip K. ****'s novel,
It's based on alternate history where Axis won the Second World War due to Frankling D. Roosevelt was assasinated and US remained neutral. I know some problems but the book was written when some of the secrets weren't revealed until later (like Enigma code, logistic reports, and secret mission). Japan and Germany became major superpowers, which they turned US into Poland/Korea/Germany with "real" US as buffer state. It focused on a Japanese diplomat, an American, and people who were influenced by their decision.
Then it got weird when the Japanese diplomat looked at an art hard enough and teleported to a multiverse where Japanese weren't as scrutinized despite not being in control and Embarcadero Highway was built. It is implied that he came into our's 1960s.
So any opinions?

[Clertar]

The pilot looked very good, I've been waiting for months for November 20 :smallbiggrin:

[Hybridartifacts]

The pilot looked very good, I've been waiting for months for November 20 :smallbiggrin:

Was it faithful to the book or doing it's own thing?

[Clertar]

Faithful to a degree, but it's very much an adaptation. And I don't think that's a bad thing.

[Killer Angel]

Faithful to a degree, but it's very much an adaptation. And I don't think that's a bad thing.

Yeah, the way I see it, the book should be only the starting point for a TV series.

[Bulldog Psion]

I watched the first half of the pilot on Amazon today while eating lunch, after seeing this thread here.

Thus far, the thing seems competently done, but none of the actors have really "grabbed" me with their performances yet. I'll probably keep watching any other episodes they offer, but I hope somebody gets more interesting as a character soon.

Then again, I just finished a marathon rewatch of the free "Justified" seasons, and most TV actors seem a bit wan and translucent after Boyd Crowder, Wynn Duffy, Ava, and that lot. :smallbiggrin: Keeping Goggins in particular around for the rest of that show was the best decision they made. :smallwink:

Edit:

Watched the second half of the pilot at dinner. It's really starting to grow on me; enough so I'm quite interested to see what happens next. Of course, it helps that I've never read the book, probably -- it's kind of terra incognita to me, so that's kind of fun, also.

[Bulldog Psion]

Well, there are now 10 episodes available on Amazon rather than just 2. So I'd imagine that there are a similar number available on other services also.

Looks like I've got my evening entertainment for a couple of weeks at least. :smallwink:

And now, for a thought, spoilered because it is, in fact, a spoiler:

The bounty hunter in Episode 3, the Marshal, is in a way deadly serious, but I also find him oddly comical. :smallbiggrin: He's like the distilled essence of the hard-boiled pulp detective, with a mean streak a mile wide added in.

On top of that, he looks like he's about 4 feet tall. (I know he's taller than that, but he gives an impression of small size.) So I can't help associating him in my mind with Tracer Bullet (http://calvinandhobbes.wikia.com/wiki/File:Bullet5.png) from Calvin & Hobbes. :smallbiggrin:

I still enjoyed the episode a lot, don't get me wrong. But the Marshal made me chuckle at his most "Tracer"-ish moments, which probably wasn't quite the response the writers were looking for. :smallwink:

[lurkmeister]

Oooh, I saw a commercial for this show earlier today while I was watching some sportball with my roommates. Darn, now I wanna check it out.

It would help if I wasn't broke.

[Clertar]

So, anyone watching it?

[MouthofSauron]

Yeah, the way I see it, the book should be only the starting point for a TV series.

Agreed; the book gets a little esoteric for a "straight" adaptation to t.v.; those parts work really well for the novel, but television has different strengths and weaknesses entirely.


Well, there are now 10 episodes available on Amazon rather than just 2.

Well, there go my next 24 hours or so.:smalleek: See y'all on the other side.

[Bulldog Psion]

So, anyone watching it?

I am. I sped ahead on the weekend a bit, so I'm up to episode 8, really. Excellent stuff -- in a kind of Greek tragedy way, I suppose.

The characters have really grown on me; they're all quite interesting, actually. The first episode, I admit, it was just the "scenery" that intrigued me, and the characters seemed a bit flat; but they've really developed since then.

You know the series is well written when

you end up feeling a certain amount of sympathy for an SS officer, of all things. Considering my opinion of them IRL ... well, it takes some pretty skillful characterization to achieve that particular miracle. :smallwink:

Anything in particular you'd be interested in discussing, Clertar? We can do it spoilers, after all. :smallsmile:

[Ruslan]

For those who don't know the story, based on Phillip K. ****'s novel
Nope, the novel is by Phillip K. ****, and not as you wrote.

[kingzerno]

Having seen adverts for this everywhere I decided to give it a go. I've watched 3 episodes so far and I have to say I'm enjoying it. For me though it does fall into the "heavy" category of tv programmes. Not something I think I could binge watch. It's a one at a time sort of show!

Without going in to more detail (I know not how to make one of those spoiler bubbles) the Japanese arrest...brutal...

[Bulldog Psion]

Without going in to more detail (I know not how to make one of those spoiler bubbles) the Japanese arrest...brutal...

There's a bar of buttons right above the panel where you type your message. At the right end is a button labeled "Spoil." Highlight the text you want to spoiler, then hit that button.

Alternately, you can type in the spoiler tags on either side of the text directly. Here they are:

[SPOILER ] [/SPOILER ]

I added a space between the "R" and the ] bracket in each case so that it won't make an actual spoiler. But those are the opening and closing HTML tags that create a spoiler, once the extra space is removed.

Hope that makes sense. :smallsmile:

[kingzerno]

Much obliged bulldog!

Winning

[filmzone12]

which they turned USA