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    The Man in the High Castle

    The Amazon streaming service, newish rival to Netflix and normally subscription-based, is currently showing anyone who logs on a chance to see for free pilots of dramas that they may pick up for full series, based on viewer response.
    One of them is the first episode of what would be a series based on The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick. And it's really, really good. It's not perfect, two of the leads are a bit too good-looking for one thing, but the production design is really good, it gets the balance between tension and exposition right and it has Rufus Sewell as a sadistic jackbooted Nazi officer. I really hope it's developed into a full series.

    #2
    The Man in the High Castle

    I have to say I was not liking at all until about halfway through. They were not being subtle about the "America under the jackboot of fascism" angle, unlike the book, and indeed most of the other themes of the book, and Dick's trademark ontological ambiguity, seemed to be ignored. But by the end I'd been mostly won over. I'd certainly like to see where they go with it.

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      #3
      The Man in the High Castle

      Yes, it didn't seem to aspire to be much more than a classy alternate-history thriller, and so didn't make any great attempt to deal with any 'nature of reality' themes, though it was quite clever to have The Grasshopper Lies Heavy as a film. I thought it worked very well within the limits it set itself

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        #4
        The Man in the High Castle

        ...two of the leads are a bit too good-looking for one thing...

        This is almost enough to ruin it from the word go.

        ...it was quite clever to have The Grasshopper Lies Heavy as a film. I thought it worked very well within the limits it set itself

        Yes, that sounds like a decent conceit.

        In general, though, I'm wary of Dick adaptations because of Blade Runner. Good film though it is, I cannot watch it without pondering how the makers left out most of the best bits of one of my favourite books (I think it's probably his best). I'd love someone to make a proper film of Androids.

        Still can't work out why no-one's attempted Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said. It's been completely in tune with pop culture for the last 25 years.

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          #5
          The Man in the High Castle

          There's a faithful if not particularly inspired comic book adaptation of Do Androids Dream..., which may be the closest you'll get to a "proper" film for a while. That said, I still think Blade Runner is the best PK Dick adaptation. A Scanner Darkly would take it if it weren't for Keanu.

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            #6
            The Man in the High Castle

            I'm enjoying this very much. I have one episode left, which I will probably watch tomorrow after I watch Master Chef Jr.

            I'm happy to know that there will be a second series. I've been talking on Twitter to the actor who plays Sgt. Yoshida.

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              #7
              The Man in the High Castle

              Not one of my favourite Dick books, but I read the producers had diverged from the source material quite a bit.

              Isn't there a US resistance in this adaptation (where there was none in the novel)?

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                #8
                The Man in the High Castle

                Yes--but I haven't read the book, so I can't speak to the divergence.

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                  #9
                  The Man in the High Castle

                  I just finished this last night, so I can finally open this thread.

                  Haven't read the book and, like GY, I wasn't connecting at all until about half way through the series. But I'm in now.

                  What a gorgeous show, too. Dying to see how / where it was actually made. I suspect BC, but not sure.

                  I agree about the pretty leads. They're a bit light-weight and the interactions and dialogue can seem a touch teen-drama at times, but I liked it in the end.

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                    #10
                    The Man in the High Castle

                    OK...so, in my anger at the way this ended, I started a thread without checking if one already existed...this was my post:

                    Really? 10 hours of genuinely good TV are distilled to one man's dream?! Really?? And this is presented as groundbreaking storytelling? I would have preferred someone stepping out of a shower and asking what all the fuss was about..

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                      #11
                      The Man in the High Castle

                      Dream? No, I don't think so at all. I think it's a parallel universe, and that's where the films come from. Some people can jump from universe to universe, but most are oblivious.

                      I've not read the book, but I think that's the key.

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                        #12
                        The Man in the High Castle

                        I read the book after watching the series, which actually increased my admiration for the adaptation- they really have 'adapted it for the screen.'

                        WOM is right about the 'alternate realities' theme that runs through the book, and the references in the series to the weapon the Nazis have as a 'Heisenberg' bomb is a hint to that.

                        It's a powerful idea, that has fuelled comics and sci-fi for decades: what if..?

                        But the great thing about this dramatization of the concept is that it makes everything contingent on very specific acts, moments in history etc and works on the premise that if history is not pre-ordained, and individuals and groups can change it, what if all those versions of reality do coexist in some multi-dimensional reality?

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                          #13
                          The Man in the High Castle

                          I hated the end too. If you just close your eyes and concentrate really hard you jump to a different reality. Fuck off. That's just such a lazy cop out even Moffat would think twice about it. A real shame because I loved the 9 hourse and 50 odd mins that preceeded it.

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                            #14
                            The Man in the High Castle

                            ooh aah wrote: That's just such a lazy cop out even Moffat would think twice about it.
                            I wouldn't have thought so.

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                              #15
                              The Man in the High Castle

                              ooh aah wrote: I hated the end too. If you just close your eyes and concentrate really hard you jump to a different reality. Fuck off. That's just such a lazy cop out even Moffat would think twice about it. A real shame because I loved the 9 hourse and 50 odd mins that preceeded it.
                              I think it's something to do with the handmade jewelry that plays an unexplained yet clearly significant role up to that point. You have to hold it in your hand or something.

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                                #16
                                The Man in the High Castle

                                So is that it?

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                                  #17
                                  The Man in the High Castle

                                  Oh, someone up there says there will be a second series.

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                                    #18
                                    The Man in the High Castle

                                    It's apparently been their most successful series, and has been renewed.

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                                      #19
                                      The Man in the High Castle

                                      Just finished this. Like others, didn't get into it until the third or fourth episode. Also disappointed with the ending but hoping a second series will revert to the alternative history angle. I was going to cancel my Amazon sub before I found out about the second series, so I hope they air it soon (only subscribed initially to watch the first series of Z Nation).

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                                        #20
                                        The Man in the High Castle

                                        Just finished today, and echo most of the above (mostly wooden but pretty leads, too much of a wtf ending, etc..)...

                                        but this is a show I have no problem watching for the production design alone. It's outright astonishing at times.

                                        Rufus Sewell and Joel de la Fuente were also doing their utmost to raise the level of performance overall. Almost everyone else paled compared to them. (The underrated DJ Qualls does a great deal with very little, to be fair.)

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                                          #21
                                          Amazon foisted one of those 'free trial months' of their Prime thing on me, and I noticed this streams for free, so I just watched the first two episodes and fucking hell it is grimdark. Crying, though to be fair I'm pretty stressed and 'Strange Fruit' (used in ep 2) always makes me cry anyway. As usual I can't sleep, so will probably do ep 3. I hardly ever like TV shows so this is quite notable. It helps that I haven't heard of anyone involved apart from Ridley Scott, who wasn't enough to put me off.

                                          two of the leads are a bit too good-looking for one thing

                                          Did you mean Frank and Juliana? It can't be Joe, he looks like a young Keir Starmer.

                                          mostly wooden but pretty leads

                                          Wooden acting is good, it's less distracting. Can't stand actors who think they're the shit, it's unbalancing. They're part of a thing, not the point of the thing (this is probably why I'm less likely to be interested if I've heard of the people in something).

                                          EDIT - since everyone else posted there's been at least one more series. I've got three more days of this free Prime thing so maybe I'll just get some weed and cane the lot. PKD would probably approve.
                                          Last edited by delicatemoth; 23-10-2017, 00:45.

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                                            #22
                                            Enjoy the first series ***SPOILER ALERT*** it's better than the second

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                                              #23
                                              I'm not going to watch series 2 but I made it through the first and enjoyed a lot of it, though it was stretched very thin at times. I find it quite intriguing when TV series use a single novel and characters as a jumping off point, it's basically fan fiction. Most of the criticism in this thread is fair, but lots of the supporting acting is fun - Frank's mate and his bitter brother-in-law, Childan, Tagomi, Heydrich, Kido, Lem... Not the Marshall though, he was the worst one. I enjoyed the actors' sometimes visible distancing when called upon to Heil. A nice diversion, though occasionally afflicted by mumbling.

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