The Man in the High Castle (TV Series) A Way Out (2015) User Reviews

Nearly perfect...except for the Hollywood trope.

[bnevs18 · 9/10 · 6 December 2015]

This series revolves a lot around common Hollywood themes...and the further it strays from them the better off it is.

First the good, surprisingly, there are no black and white characters...not even Hitler! Hollywood demands that Hitler die, even though we are rooting for him to live (the fact that we are rooting for him is a sign that the series is doing its job). The one nitpick is that it would have been far wiser to have the gun in Hitler's office not loaded (Hitler knew he was coming to kill him). Furthermore, the chief inspector is alternately willing to sacrifice his life for the state, but then immediately willing to sacrifice an innocent's life for his own.

Now the meh...the cliffhanger wasn't really a cliffhanger for those of us who read the book...it works great for those not familiar with it, but for those of us who have read it, the fuhrer decision is the real climax. Now, this series seems ready to set out from the book, for better or worse. This will probably become another forgettable show as the PC police ("How can you have Hitler be anything but a cartoon villain?") and network heads get a hold of it...but it has the potential to be a transcendent show.

And finally, they did give in to the Hollywood trope of the woman doing the moronic thing for unrequited love. It seems in TV that there is a requirement for there to be a love triangle (or quadrangle), and instead of following all that is sane, Juliana lets him go. Just once id like to see a woman on television not "give in" to her "heart"... "What have you done?" Indeed.

Every man for himself ... and his people

[boygavcp · 10/10 · 25 November 2015]

In this episode, we learn the stories of every "villainous" characters in the most heroic ways. Begin with Obergruppenführer John Smith, he is the man of his family, when it comes to the moment when he may not come back, first thing first, his family. And the man of his nation, the patriot of the Nazi Reich, he does what he has to, for his Fuhrer, for his country. To inspector Kido, the angry man who always does everything seriously. Why? also for his country, the man knows what is needed to be done, and he pulled off what was necessary to prevent a war where his nation will certainly loose. Those are the men who we have been viewing as bad people, but in the end, it's just that we have been seeing it from the wrong angle. Just a minor talk about Rudolph and the Japanese Trade minister, they both have their sad stories, and they both have their depths shown in this episode. This, by far, is why The Man in the High Castle is one of the best shows around.

Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa's finest piece/please put a red shirt on Juliana

[kasiaduesseldorf · 9/10 · 25 December 2020]

I'm incredibly happy to see Tagawa finally landed an important part in a production of supreme quality. Before that he'd been wasting his acting talent and striking physique mostly for garbage flicks, or ended up in cameo-like minute roles that didn't allow him to show what he's got to offer. I hope his future career will be better managed from now on. As to the plot, I myself don't cosider myself particularly insightful or smart, but how dumb and naive that Juliana girl is just defeats me. And she doesn't learn from her own mistakes over and OVER again, and in result pretty much screws everything up for the resistance. Honetly, even a semi-intelligent person would start off by dumping her sister's satchel in the nearest standing garbage container, and from there it just get worse and worse. Also, I can't seem to comprehend why the resistance member don't see that in order to help their cause they should've shot her long time ago.

Season 1: Pacing and character an issue, getting interesting too late in the game even if it does get interesting

[bob the moo · 2 July 2016]

The hook to the story is intriguing and, although I have never read the source material, it was interesting enough to make me get this show. The novelty of the concept does deliver at first, and mostly it does throughout, but it is not enough alone. There are arresting moments throughout this season, and events in the final third dis draw me in, but mostly it is a show that risks losing the viewer by virtue of how long it takes to get where it is going.

For the majority of the season, we are following the characters while they link to the 'bigger picture' narrative. This would be fine of course, however the characters are mostly pretty thinly drawn and lacking in real reasons to like or dislike them. This changes a little bit in the final third perhaps, but that means for 7 hours we are following scenes that are often less than compelling, and not really adding as much as you would want. There is a certain drabness of tone to the delivery too; I get that they were going for a somber darkness, but at the same time it saps the pace of the show even more – not something it can afford.

The ideas of the general conclusions around the final episodes are maybe enough to draw me back if there is a second season, but it does feel like too little too late in offering this. Otherwise, it is poorly paced, and doesn't have the substance to draw you into the characters in the way that it sorely needs to get from one event to the next on the way to really getting to the more interesting stuff late in the game.

oh, Karl :-)

[badiconproductions · 10/10 · 3 March 2018]

Great show and enjoyed every twist you made available. I'm a bit bummed out when you eliminate great interesting characters as Karl Müller (Raresh DiMofte) for instance because I wanted to see more of his story as well. Too quick to leave the stage. He was a greedy - ruthless - pseudo-businessman who wanted more than following orders from Berlin. the shooter's story is always juicy. max rating for your work

Engaging Entertainment

[IPyaarCinema · 9/10 · 2 February 2023]

The Man in the High Castle is an extraordinarily well-acted drama, based on the Phillip K. Dick novel of the same name. Their perspectives are unique and interesting, and are what move the show forward in terms of both plot and general regard. I absolutely loved this show. I thought it was beautifully shot and flawlessly executed. The tension was always high, and you could always feel the stakes for the characters.

That being said, the show is good entertainment with good characters and an interesting premise. I found myself badly wanting to watch 1 more episode, and saddened when I was done with them all. And that's exactly what you want from television. Engaging Entertainment.

Not a satisfying season finale

[zahorskyakos-97981 · 6/10 · 7 August 2020]

DISCLAIMER: The first section are my spoilery thoughts of the episode. The second section is about the season as a whole

After getting my hopes up by the great 9th episode, this conclusion felt like a letdown. Smiths arc in this episode is very disappointing. Basically everything is confirmed to be orchestrated by the OberSTGruppenFührer (I forgot his name already lol, Hayndrich or whatever), and this takes all the charm off of this nearly season-long arc. I mean the Resistance at this point feels like a complete and utter joke, they cannot raise but 10000 yen, but a random dude with a random sell to some rich dudes pulls in 80000 yen? What the hell?! The best they got are the two leaders from SF and Canon City for an operation of this magnitude, whereas at the beginning of the season there were a lot links in the chain, the attack on Smith was carried out by a bunch of men, not to mention the first scenes with Joe, a whole workplace was on with resistance... Juliana in this episode was really annoying. Going from OMG Joe is a Nazi who will kill us, we MUST escape to putting Joe on the ship they were supposed to leave with?! There simply was not enough development of their relationship in the season, hell, they characters were not shown and expanded in a satisfying way. Frank is the most well written of the protagonist trio, and I am very surprised by this statement, given the first half of the season this really surprises me. Also the arc of Kido was really stupidly ended. He was ready to stab himself, when his apprentice walks in with the proof? What?! Shouldn´t he announce that he has failed, and then commit sepuku? If he had already announced his failure, he should carry out the act... That scene was very forced. And for last but not least: the shameless cliffhanger ending scene with Tagomi makes zero sense, was not foreshadowed in any compelling way, it really is just a shocker, you can almost hear the creators saying: interested what is happening? Come back next year! Well, I will, but I am disappointed. If the second season will not improve considerably, I will not follow through with all four seasons.

This was a rather mediocre season. The premis of the series is quite interesting, and luckily the first few episodes do not do a lot of exposition dump, the infos are rather well fed to us, mostly show dont tell (particularly true with Pacific States scenes). After the more plot- and mystery heavy first 4 episodes the pace is somewhat slowed down (which I don´t mind personally, I loved to explore the life in the New America), and by the end of the season speeded back up. Yes, the pacing is weird, but the charm of the Pacific States is undeniable. The cherecters are a bigger problem. Juliana and Joe are both very hollow, Frank gets better as we go along, Tagomi, Smith, Kido are exceptionally good. I hope thet the writing of the characters improves, because either the plot or the characters will need to carry the worldbuilding (which is the main highlight of season one, but will cannot be done solely for the sake of worldbuilding). So overall: lot of potential, execution needs improvement.

Season One Review

[southdavid · 6/10 · 25 June 2020]

Amazon Prime's first prestige drama, as far as I can remember, was "The Man in the High Castle" an alt-world science fiction thriller that I've finally sat down and started to watch.

Set in an alternate universe where the Nazi's won World War 2 and divided control of the United States with the Japanese, some 10 years later small resistance groups try to fight back against the two oppressive powers. When her sister, who is one such fighter, is killed, Juliana Crane (Alexa Davalos) risks her life to complete her mission which involves taking a mysterious film to the neutral zone. A film that shows a world where the Allies won and Hitler was defeated.

"The Man in the High Castle" is an expertly, and expensively, realised world. The first season focuses a lot of its story around San Francisco, where Japanese culture has been pervasively interwoven into the American society. This is where Crane is brought into the freedom fighter fold following her sister's murder at the hands of the Kenpeitai (Japan's military police). From the other side of the country, in a Nazi led New York, Joe Blake is tasked with infiltrating the resistance but his resolve is tested when he falls for Juliana. Sitting over all of this, you have escalating tensions between Japan and the Nazi party which threaten to boil over into a war that the Japanese won't be able to win.

I'm a quarter of the way through the series at this point, and though I don't hate it, I already feel like I'm watching it out of a sense of obligation rather than that much genuine enjoyment. I'm not sure exactly what's not clicking, maybe it's a pacing issue, maybe there's too many little diversions that haven't paid back into the main story (yet, anyway). I'm going to keep going though.