The Man in the High Castle TV series

I've finished the pilot episode and while I enjoyed it, like all of Dick's adaptations a lot has been altered. That said I will be watching the entire run. It's one of the better things I've seen in quite a while.
 
Watched the first episode and am somewhat intrigued. But now I have to read the book before going any further. I'm a tad jaded because of the nature of rewrites his other works have gotten to be placed on the screen. And will someone please tell me why a movie has never been made of Dr. Bloodmoney?
 
Just finished this. Intriguing premise that went nowhere. Questions without answers irk me. So my rating. Meh.
 
I'm up to episode 8 of this and really liking it. I've not read the source material (or anything by PK Dick) so I don't know how it compares. I think it's beautifully made, with excellent acting and writing. It is very slow, but I don't mind that so much with streaming. Interestingly, I read an interview with the writer about how streaming is changing the way TV shows are made/written. So shows written for TV have to be a certain length, they have to have a definite beginning, middle, end, there have to be little reminders for things that might have happened for the viewer three weeks ago. None of that is relevant for streamed shows in which the viewer might watch the whole thing over a weekend. It doesn't have to fit into a time slot so can be 45 minutes if that's what the story calls for or more than hour. You don't need mini-cliffhangers for ad breaks because there aren't any. You can have one continuous story over one entire season. I think it'll result in better TV.
 
Idoru said:
I think it'll result in better TV.
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I think I'll have to disagree. I've watched all of these. The Pilot and second episode were great, but after those, the story went nowhere until the final episode. There were subplots that could have been picked up and ran with (the son with the illness) but it was all very pedestrian. It is a long time since I read the book (it is a strangely plotted book, which the TV series is reflecting) but I think they ran out of that story after the second episode. So, I did expect them to create much more new plot in the TV series (such as in the recent Twelve Monkeys.) I remember that there were a lot more references in the book to things they could have used (the Mediterranean Sea drained for farmland.)
 
Dave said:
I think I'll have to disagree.
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Do you think that it's a problem with just this show or with streamed TV as a whole? I think streaming will democritise TV in the same way it has publishing and music and I think that while this will mean there's a whole more rubbish out there, there will also be a lot more choice and a lot more quality - if you know where to look. I also think that this can only be a good thing for more marginalised genres like sci-fi and fantasy. The Man in the High Castle might not be the best example. It appeals to me but I'm just one person. I don't think Sense8 would ever have been made by any of the more traditional channels, and while it's not without its flaws I really enjoyed it and want to see how it develops. I'd love to see more experimental shows being made and I think streaming services are the places for that.

PS sorry for highjacking the thread! This discussion could probably be better served if in a separate topic but I've no idea how to separate them or even if I can.
 
Idoru said:
Do you think that it's a problem with just this show or with streamed TV as a whole? I think streaming will democritise TV in the same way it has publishing and music and I think that while this will mean there's a whole more rubbish out there, there will also be a lot more choice and a lot more quality - if you know where to look. I also think that this can only be a good thing for more marginalised genres like sci-fi and fantasy. The Man in the High Castle might not be the best example. It appeals to me but I'm just one person. I don't think Sense8 would ever have been made by any of the more traditional channels, and while it's not without its flaws I really enjoyed it and want to see how it develops. I'd love to see more experimental shows being made and I think streaming services are the places for that.
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Yes, I agree with you about the genre as a whole, and Sense8 is a better example than Man in the High Castle. They can tell longer stories, so that it is more like a book or a book series than a 1or 2 hour cinematic film. However, I think this began a much longer time ago when the American TV studios didn't have to syndicate to the Networks anymore and make the episodes available to be shown in any order. The criticisms I hear of 1960's shows like Star Trek are a little unfair because they had no choice than to make them this way.
 
Watched the first season, and I absolutely love it. Its quite scary considering this could have been today's reality if either the Germans or the Japanese had developed the A-bomb first. Britain, the Soviet Union and the US could not have put up a long resistance if its major cities were wiped out. The Man In The High Castle in a way makes you appreciate the sacrifice of those that died fighting on the side of the Allies, be it colonial, imperial, occupied, free or national soldiers.

I watched this show and then moved on to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the latter two are so much more powerful having the above perspective while watching them. WWII was one nasty war, but there was simply no other way around it, this was a timeline war of possible realities. I'm glad this one came out on top.
 
Yog-Sothoth said:
Watched the first season, and I absolutely love it. Its quite scary considering this could have been today's reality if either the Germans or the Japanese had developed the A-bomb first. Britain, the Soviet Union and the US could not have put up a long resistance if its major cities were wiped out. The Man In The High Castle in a way makes you appreciate the sacrifice of those that died fighting on the side of the Allies, be it colonial, imperial, occupied, free or national soldiers.

I watched this show and then moved on to Band of Brothers and The Pacific, the latter two are so much powerful having the above perspective while watching them. WWII was one nasty war, but there was simply no other way around it, this was a timeline war of possible realities. I'm glad this one came out on top.
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I doubt history could have played out that way.
 
The Man in the High Castle has always been a difficult to judge. The first series wasn't an easy piece for anyone to watch, because the audience journeys into a world we find so difficult to imagine. Things aren't explain, and they still aren't, until the very end of the second season.

This series is spectacular and fairly difficult to for the audience to understand as it requires totally open mind. You'll need it, because to watch this you'll have to be open to a suggesting that at in some utopistic version the "uber dream" is beautiful.

I could as well call this an origami, because until you'll have all pieces, you won't know exactly where the rabbit hole leads. But even then, I promise you that there will be time when you'll go back and rewatch, because the situations are mind-boggling. Although they all build up to a bigger picture.

One that explains PKD dystopic utopia better than anything else, and for that, Amazon has done much better job than helping three stooges in a car show. It is a remarkable job. In some case The Man in the High Castle has done better job with the time-travel than the Twelve Monkeys or Continuum.

The reason for that is because instead of leaving the multiverse in a theory state, it proudly dips into and call it as it - the alternative history. Those two together makes this series to one of the brightest Science-Fiction gems in this year. It is truly that good.

But it is also a risk. Same NBC took with the Timeless. Both, Amazon and NBC invested huge sums of money into the these series, but for it's the rainforest company that I personally believe to win the game. Then again I again reiterate that this series flies over most peoples head. So, if NBC listens they take notes from this one instead of Doctor Who on how to make a TT series that really twists watchers minds.
 
I gave the pilot a go and I just didn't find it that compelling though. Great idea for a show however.
 
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