The Man In the High Castle

[NewJeffCT]

New series from Amazon based on the alternate history story from Philip K Dick where the Nazis and Japanese won WW2 and the US is an occupied nation.

The first two episodes were excellent - very dark and intense.

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2015/nov/20/the-man-in-the-high-castle

[jmg257]

1. After hearing about it, checked out the book - didn't get very far.

Sounds like the series is done well!

[madinmaryland]

2. Hmmm. Might be interesting. Thanks.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Today's LA Times had a very positive review. We'll probably watch it. n/t

[Humanist_Activist]

4. Never read the book, may try to, wonder what the POD is supposed to be...

In the first two episodes, its implied that it Nazi Germany got the Bomb first, hence forcing the surrender of the U.S. and allies. I do wonder what else could have happened, because the results were extreme with both the Reich and Japan having territory in the former United States.

[NewJeffCT]

5. I have not read the book

but, from what I understand - swipe to the right for spoilers - [font color=white]In the book, the key event was that FDR was assassinated at the start of his presidency and his VP turned out to be weak & ineffectual. Then, in 1936, a Republican isolationist won the White House and kept the US from aiding the British, Russians and Chinese, and it also kept the US economy in the throes of the Depression. So, by the time 1940 rolled around, Germany was too powerful to be stopped by the British and Russians without US backing, and the US economy was still not in good shape. Eventually, the Germans invaded the US east coast and Japan the west coast. When the Germans nuked Washington DC, the US surrendered in 1947. IRL, as part of the Lend Lease program, the US sent the equivalent of over $650 billion in today's dollars to Britain (primarily), Russia, France and China. No lend-lease program without FDR...[/font]

[CBGLuthier]

6. I wonder if they will miss the real point of the book

What was fascinating about the book was that the alternate reality they proposed, supposedly our own reality was more Utopian than our own actual reality which leads the reader to question why our own world is not as good as it should be. I think instead they are just doing a lazy form of OMG the Nazis and the Japanese won alternate history story without this subtle twist.

[hunter]

7. Popular movies based on the works of Philip K. Dick almost always miss that point.

His stories are often a reflection of our own world, a reflection in which we can see the monsters of our own reality that are ordinarily invisible to us.

The hatchet job "happy ending" Hollywood added to the original release of Blade Runner is just one example, of many. The "directors cut" ending of Blade Runner was a little better, being ambiguous, but it still introduced an element of movie-style hopefulness that simply wasn't present in much of Dick's work.

[Xipe Totec]

8. The Man In The High Castle - Trailer

What if the High Castle turns out to be Trump Tower?