The Man in the High Castle - Anybody else watch it? Thoughts?

[Gman]

I thought the 1st season was interesting but lost interest after a few episodes of the 2nd.

Same here.

[Martinjmpr]

I thought the 1st season was interesting but lost interest after a few episodes of the 2nd.

I cheated and looked up the Wikipedia entry that has plot synopses and now I have even less interest in finishing it. You can only play "which side is this person on" for so long before you get to the point of saying "you know what? I don't even care now." And TMITHC seems to do that with almost ALL of the main characters (Juliana, Joe, Kido, Smith, etc.) It starts off as interesting but with no "payoff" or resolution it just gets tiresome.

I'm not sure anyone could have done better. Maybe if they hadn't cribbed the title and the premise from a Philip K. Dick novel and just struck out with something new it might have been better but who knows. You can only take that premise so far before it becomes ridiculous.

[Martinjmpr]

I think what finally did it for me was the scene in Ep 10 where Juliana and Frank are watching one of the films and they see Frank being executed by Joe in the film.

Seems silly and kind of ridiculous. Billions of people in the world and they just happen to see a film that has two people they know in it? That kind of coincidence just smacks of lazy, sloppy writing to me.

For that matter, 10 episodes in and these films that are the "macguffin*" in this series have yet to be explained, not only where they come from but why they are significant. Is there some secret "resistance" plan? If so, what is it?

I mean, I get keeping some details cryptic and unknown - that often happens in good fiction. But dang, we're 10 episodes in and I honestly have no idea what is going on with the resistance. What are they doing? What is their master plan?

Then there's the way they concluded ep. 10 with trade minister Tagomi waking up in an alternative universe where the allies WON the war? This is where it veers off into cheesy sci-fi land.


* In fiction, a MacGuffin (sometimes McGuffin) is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself

[RblDiver]

I enjoyed it (total side note, it was funny seeing the guy who'd played the part of Shang Tsung, the bad guy in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, as an old mild-mannered Japanese trade official). The last season was a bit odd, but still interesting. Spoiler alert:





...an already "What if" show becomes even more "What if."

[Doc45]

I’m another who bailed after season 1. I never read the book but probably will-besides I’ve spent too much time in front of the idiot box this year.

[Manster]

I watched it all while I was in the hospital. When you?re on pain killers, it?s really good.

[Great-Kazoo]

I watched it all while I was in the hospital. When you?re on pain killers, it?s really good.

Can't even relate to this at all

[fj605]

We watched the series. Some parts were better than others. I thought the first couple seasons were better than the last season. I'd watch certain episodes again but not the whole series.

[Little Dutch]

We just got Amazon prime and have been watching season 1. I remember when this first came out, because I read the book probably 40 years ago.

In fact, the first teaser trailer I saw when it came out that just showed New York city under Nazi rule, my first thought was "Hey, that seems very similar to 'The Man in the High Castle'" before I saw the name of the show.

Anyway, we got to episode 10 and I doubt we'll go any further. I can tell the wife is losing interest and honestly so am I.

Here's the problem as I see it: A PREMISE is not a PLOT. TMITHC has a great PREMISE - "What if the axis powers won WWII?" But where do you go from there? A premise by itself isn't enough. There has to be a story, and characters you care about.

The plot seems almost incomprehensible and vague. I understand that some of the ambiguity is intentional (is Joe a real Nazi or is he pretending to be a Nazi?) but there has to be some kind of "payoff" for viewers to stay interested.

The funny thing is I remember there wasn't much of a story line to the book either (it's not a long book, and I was trying to figure out how they got a whole mini series out of a short book like that.)

So that's my take. Interesting premise, and nice visuals of Nazi/Japan occupied America, but there's just not much story or character development to make it interesting. I'd give it a C+ and it only gets the plus for the imaginative visual imagery.

Interested in hearing anyone elses thoughts on TMITHC.

Also any recommendations for good dramas on Amazon Prime?

I didn't read any other replies here, but I did read the book and watch a few of the episodes of the miniseries. I was not overly impressed with either. I suspect the whole thing may have been more interesting to the 60's era audience.

[JTP80]

I read the book back in the 90's in my 10th grade lit class, and I had been excited about the premise as history surrounding the world wars had fascinated me even back then. I remember being disappointed in how disjointed it was, and the series reminded me of that again. There were great moments in the series, but more spots that either didn't make sense or disappointed. Though I will say that most of the acting itself was decent considering what they had to work with. The actress playing Juliana did really well considering how much that character gets bounced around.