The Man in the High Castle (Amazon Prime)

zoogs

zoogs

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If you guys have Amazon prime, give The Man in the High Castle a look. It's a 10-episode run (for now) and it is *sublime*.

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It's a Ridley Scott/Frank Spotnitz adaptation of the 1962 Philip K. d!(k book (above) and is getting extremely good reviews for its exquisite depiction of a chilling alt history world. That in itself would make for a relatively boring show, but the plot is driven (in part) by supernatural elements -- a hunt from all sides for mysterious, alternate reality depicting films.

I think that's what really allows this to shine; a compelling reason for the narrative but with "exploration of alt history", rather than the mystery of the plot, as the main focus of the show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDKPydxAFM

^ Also, I love this haunting rendition of Edelweiss for the title sequence. Very hopeful for a season 2.

 
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We just finished it last night. It's really good. I haven't seen anything announced for the second season yet.

 
I had seen the ads for this series and I must say, I find the production and symbolism of this show a tad bit disturbing. In fact, I find the ongoing apparent fascination of Nazism--Nazi movies, books etc-- in the USA somewhat disturbing. I mean, Nazism died with Hitler in WWII, right? Wrong. Not to belabor the issue, but post WWII Nazism basically went underground, were dispersed globally(Ratline) and many Nazi scientists and SS were imported into the USA(Operation Paperclip): see NASA, see CIA/Allen Dulles/Reinhardt Gehlen, see Bormann capital network. There's this idea of the "Fourth Reich", the undying desire of underground Nazis to take over the world. Well, like I said, I won't belabor the point, but books have been written:

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In this explosive exposé, the legendary Jim Marrs explores the frighteningly real possibility that today, in the United States, an insidious ideology thought to have been vanquished more than a half century ago is actually flourishing. At the end of World War II, ranking Nazis, along with their young and fanatical protégés, used the loot of Europe to create corporate front companies in many countries, worming their way into corporate America. They brought with them miraculous weapons technology that helped win the space race. But they also brought their Nazi philosophy based on the authoritarian premise that the end justifies the means—including unprovoked wars of aggression and curtailment of individual liberties—which has since gained an iron hold in the "land of the free."

Jim Marrs has gathered compelling evidence of the effort that has been under way for the past sixty years to bring a form of National Socialism to modern America, creating in essence a new empire-or "Fourth Reich"!
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http://www.amazon.com/The-Rise-Fourth-Reich-Societies/dp/0061245593

The Nazi Hydra in America reveals the dark secrets of the fascist influence in the USA. While Eisenhower's troops defeated The Third Reich on the battlefields of Europe, the war against fascism was lost on the home front, to the very cadre of American plutocrats who built and paid for Hitler's war machine. In fact, the fascists won WWII, because they ran both sides. After the war, they recouped Nazi assets to lay the foundations of a modern police state, complete with controlled corporate media.
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http://www.amazon.com/Nazi-Hydra-America-Suppressed-History-ebook/dp/B006WSJLEU/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1449684572&sr=1-6&keywords=american+hydra

 
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I enjoyed it a lot. I find well-done alternate history stories very interesting. Some are saying this or that just couldn't have happened, but when you are rewriting history I don't have a problem with unlikely things coming about.

 
Yeah, probably a lot of things couldn't have happened, but overall it's a well-imagined world. In their history, FDR was assassinated (in 1933?) and there's an extended Americas campaign extending past 1950, and culminating in nuclear strikes. That's room for a lot of divergence.

A large part of it is just exploring how people "get on" with things, and how injustices can become tolerated norms.

Two articles for those of you who are done with the series, that I thought were very good:

DW: Why 'The Man in the High Castle' is more relevant than ever (This is Deutsche Welle, a German broadcaster)

Vox: Q&A w/ 'The Man in the High Castle' showrunner Frank Spotnitz

 
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GSG5545 said:
I'm interested to see where the 2nd season goes. The book is only 239 pages. I'm assuming their out of source material now
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You're right; it's a very short book. Even in the first season they departed from it significantly to make a TV show out of it, so I'm not too worried about where they'll go next. I don't think the Resistance is even present in the book.

 
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