To remain in the Nazi-controlled territory, Juliana will have to pass a citizenship examination. Juliana (Alexa Davelos), a fugitive from the Japanese Pacific States, having somewhat improbably befriended Helen Smith, wife of John Smith, the most powerful man in the puppet regime of the American portion of the GNR, is being assisted by Thomas, John and Helen’s high-school-age son. At least one scene (in Season 2, Episode 4, “Escalation”) does bear re-watching: All of which could be brought to bear.Īnd the series has its moments. The volume of scholarly material produced on the Second World War is also far greater today than in 1962. The technical capabilities of the film and television industry have developed immeasurably since the story was written. Forty hours of television allows for a far greater dramatic scope than 240 written pages. The limitations of the novel did not doom the series. This skeletal form is very thinly covered with characters and dramatic situations. The story-in both its original form as a novel and reworked in the television series-remains largely a thought experiment. None of the passages are truly compelling. And while there are a few passages in Dick’s novel that refer to the Nazis’ global killing fields (beyond those which unfolded in the actual Second World War), their effect is strangely muted. In the case of the potential global victory of fascism, an indication needs to be provided of the catastrophe that would entail. However, for either to succeed as convincing social drama, some indication of the driving forces behind the events is necessary, as well as elementary correspondence to historical and social realities. Of course, novels and television series are not mere history lessons. There is little in the text of The Man in the High Castle that even hints at the underlying social currents that fostered the Nazi rise to power (nor the turn of the Japanese regime to imperial expansion), a defect that is not surmounted in the Amazon series. Generally speaking, the working out of the plot’s events and the various characters’ development is thin. Interesting premises are one thing, but their convincing artistic development is another. Other stories by Dick were adapted for the films Minority Report (2002) and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). What would people do if the fascists had prevailed? How would society be altered by the eventual development of robots sufficiently advanced to pass as humans? (The latter being the premise of his 1968 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? which served as the basis for the 1982 Ridley Scott film, Bladerunner). The story upon which the series was based provokes a decidedly mixed response.ĭick-a prolific writer who completed 44 novels and roughly 121 short stories before his untimely death from a stroke in 1982 at age 53-was imaginatively gifted in posing large questions. (The Smiths belong among the show’s creations they do not appear in the novel). Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Chelah Horsdal are successful in bringing to life the multifaceted roles of the Japanese Trade Minister Nobosuke Tagomi and Helen Smith, the wife of the Reichsmarschall. The efforts of the show’s creators were enhanced by strong acting, particularly from Rufus Sewell in the role of John Smith, the eventual Reichsmarschall of the American portion of the Greater Nazi Reich (GNR). They developed the show’s characters in such a way as to demonstrate the terrible logic of their transformation from citizens and soldiers in the “arsenal of democracy” to henchmen (and women) of the Nazi victors (in the show, two characters in the Japanese administration are developed, but their transformations are less pronounced). The small army of writers, particularly in the first seasons of The Man in the High Castle, displayed considerable creativity. The opening episode had the highest ratings for any Amazon premiere to date. The web television series expanded the scope of the story and the results, at least for the initial two seasons, were interesting enough to draw a considerable audience and generally favorable reviews. Dick’s The Man in the High Castle (1962) and the television dramatization that ran for four seasons (2015-19) produced by Amazon Studios. Such is the counterfactual premise of renowned science fiction writer Philip K. A resistance movement in the US faces harsh repression by the occupying Japanese on the West Coast and a Vichy-type regime on the East.Ī storyteller provides a measure of inspiration by imagining what might have happened … if the Second World War had ended with an Allied victory. The two fascist victors eye each other warily, preparing for a global showdown. Brutality and genocide have swept the globe, particularly in Africa and Eastern Europe. The year is 1962 and the United States, having lost World War II, is partitioned and occupied militarily by Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan.
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