A Way Out

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.

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.

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.