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drunkill
Sep 25, 2007

me @ ur posting
Fallen Rib

Facebook | Twitter | Wikipedia (Show) | Wikipedia (Novel) | IMDB

:siren:Season 2 information in the second post - Season 2 is released 16th December, 2016.

The Man in the High Castle is a dystopian alternate history television series created by Frank Spotnitz (X-Files) and produced by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) for Amazon Studios. The series is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by American science fiction author Philip K. Dick. The story is an alternate history of the world in which the Axis powers won World War II. The United States has been partitioned into three parts: The Japanese puppet state of the Pacific States of America, which comprises the former United States west of the Rocky Mountains; a German puppet state of the Greater Nazi Reich that comprises the eastern half of the former United States; and a neutral zone that acts as a buffer between the two areas, called the Rocky Mountain States.

The show has been in development for a number of years at a number of venues.

In 2010 it was announced that the BBC would co-produce a four-part TV adaptation of The Man in the High Castle for BBC One together with Ridley Scott. In February 2013, Scott and Frank Spotnitz had taken the project to SyFy. In October 2014 filming began on the pilot of the show for Amazon Studios.

The pilot debuted on January 15, 2015 and was Amazon's "most-watched since the original series development program began." On February 18, 2015, it was announced that it has been picked up for a season of 10 episodes to be released November 20, 2015.

Synopsis posted:

It's 1962, the Allies have lost WWII; America is divided, the east is the Greater Nazi Reich and the west, the Japanese Pacific States. Amidst this oppression there is new hope - films that seem to show a different world. When her sister gives her a film and is then murdered, a woman comes to believe the films hold the key to freedom and becomes obsessed with finding their mysterious guardian, The Man in the High Castle.


Cast:

Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) is a young woman from San Francisco who is outwardly happy living under Japanese control; she has become an expert in Aikido and is friendly with Japanese people living in San Francisco.


Frank Frink (Rupert Evans) Frink works in a factory creating fake pre-war antiques that are prized by Japanese collectors, while on his own time he creates artistically brilliant original jewelry shunned by Japanese culture. Juliana's boyfriend.


Ed McCarthy (DJ Qualls) works in a factory in San Francisco with Frank Frink, creating fake antiques that are purchased by Japanese tourists eager to possess a piece of American history from its glory days.


Mr. Tagomi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America.


Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente) the cold and calculating head of the Kempeitai (Secret Police) stationed in San Francisco.


Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank) a new recruit to the underground American Resistance movement in New York.


John Smith (Rufus Sewell) a ruthless SS Obergruppenführer (equivalent to a lieutenant general) investigating the Resistance in New York.



Trailers:
Official Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzayf9GpXCI
Believe - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQhXKW5SwGA
Defiance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9LKv_r5mxU
What If? - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzz_6dmv03I

Promos:
A New America - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjs8xVaAC98
Pledge Of Allegiance - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVlKXAHOkuM

Extras:
What If? 'Behind the scenes/making of' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx3VWr2RGpE
Opening Title Sequence - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIDKPydxAFM

Photos:



Episodes:
The Man in the High Castle will debut its entire 10-episode first season on Amazon Prime Nov. 20. The Pilot is available to watch for free on Amazon, the second episode has been free to watch on certain weekends since October.

1 - The New World (Pilot) | Jan, 15
2 - Sunrise | Jul 13 (Comicon) Oct 24 (Amazon)
3 - 10 | Nov 20

X-O posted:

:siren: Netflix Amazon Rules Update! :siren:

OK, here's what we're going to try as a test. Some people are not happy with the go-wild aspect of the Netflix threads so we're going to try a different approach. If you have general thoughts on the show that's fine. If you are doing specific reactions to episodes they will go into labeled spoiler tags with the episode you are on or have completed for the first 72 hours. If you haven't gotten to that episode then don't click on the spoiler. And now an example post:

So far the show is good. I enjoy this show so far through episode 10. It is a fine television program.

1x10
The thing that happens in this episode certainly happened. And how it tied back into what they were saying in episode 3 was definitely a cool thing. I think the villain that appeared in this episode and did the villainy thing was bad. He should be punched by Hitler and have to go to jail.

The 1x10 is just the episode you're up to. You can write all about episode four if you want, but if you let something slip that came out later and you forget and it maybe happened in episode six that's why you still put episode 10 and not episode 4. Get it? Hope it works. And if not sorry!
:siren: Addendum: Try to keep major book plots in spoiler tags, we don't know the full extent of what the show is using or discarding from the novel just yet :siren:

Posters:


Info:
Filmed primarily in Seattle (standing in for San Francisco and New York); Roslyn, Washington (standing in for Colorado/Neutral Zone) and Vancouver (various)
Some scenes filmed in Berlin and around Germany.

Rotten Tomato score: 96% out of 24 reviews so far.

drunkill fucked around with this message at 13:24 on Dec 4, 2016

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drunkill
Sep 25, 2007

me @ ur posting
Fallen Rib

Season 2

Season 2 of Man in The High Castle begins streaming on Amazon Prime on the 16th of December, 2016.

Season 2 Trailers
Official Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1plFJD4RtU
History - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmvbIFQj3gQ

Season 2 Official Teaser - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YekQIyZdmVo

drunkill fucked around with this message at 13:32 on Dec 4, 2016

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE
Mar 31, 2010


We FINALLY get to burn the cripples and the infirm!

Hemoglobin
Jan 13, 2010

come pick my roses~
I AM MUCH EXCITE FOR THIS SHOW.

stev
Jan 22, 2013

Please be excited.



Coincidentally the book's next on my to-read list. Are the first few episodes of this any good? (Is Amazon's stuff in general any good? I never hear anything about it other than it exists).

Lechtansi
Mar 23, 2004

Item Get
So far the first two episodes have me hooked. I don't know how amazon runs their series, but hopefully its similar to netflix in that the season will have a nice beginning, middle, and end (which is my favorite thing about it, compared to episodic shows) and they can keep up the quality.

I also appreciated the PKD aspect (ep1 spoiler) us watching them while they watch a film from our universe

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009

Steve2911 posted:

Coincidentally the book's next on my to-read list. Are the first few episodes of this any good? (Is Amazon's stuff in general any good? I never hear anything about it other than it exists).

Haven't watched ep2 yet, but the pilot is probably the strongest pilot Amazon have had since they started making original content. It got like 10 times the response any other pilot of that season did, and is the first Amazon show to have ANY buzz since Transparent.

X-O
Apr 28, 2002

Long Live The King!

Steve2911 posted:

Coincidentally the book's next on my to-read list. Are the first few episodes of this any good? (Is Amazon's stuff in general any good? I never hear anything about it other than it exists).

Mozart in the Jungle was my favorite TV show of last year period. And Alpha House and Bosch were good. And of course this looks fantastic. But that's pretty much the only shows I've liked. Though I have not watched Hand of God or Red Oaks other than the pilots which I did like. Just haven't gotten around to them yet.

Gaz-L
Jan 28, 2009
I keep meaning to watch Alpha House because I love John Goodman, but :effort:

X-O
Apr 28, 2002

Long Live The King!

John Goodman is a national treasure and we should cherish every time he graces a screen with his presence.

Call Me Charlie
Dec 3, 2005

by Smythe
The Casanova pilot was pretty decent. It went from what you'd expect to some weird version of Salo. The idea of a born lover, going against his nature to gain power, in a horrific society is an interesting one.

(but Sneaky Pete is loving garbage)

Gaz-L posted:

I keep meaning to watch Alpha House because I love John Goodman, but :effort:

Watch Treme instead. He did a good job in season 1.

Call Me Charlie fucked around with this message at 06:14 on Oct 25, 2015

Lycus
Aug 5, 2008

Half the posters in this forum have been made up. This website is a goddamn ghost town.
ep 2: Now, did the undercover Nazi go to save Juliana because the film immediately filled him with the spirit of Uncle Sam and he doesn't want to be a Nazi anymore, or did he just do it because he has a crush on her and is later gonna try to convince her to become a Nazi? I got the impression at the time that it's the former, but the latter would be way more interesting to me.

Frank. :(

drunkill
Sep 25, 2007

me @ ur posting
Fallen Rib
I noticed a few things when looking for photos or taking my own screenshots from the two episodes or trailers to add to the OP:
  • The Nazi (presumably the SS HQ) building is where the UN buildings is in New York.
  • The airport with the monorail is named after George Lincoln Rockwell, founder of the American Nazi Party.
  • They renamed the San Francisco airport since the pilot first went up in January; it used to be the Hirohito International Airport, now the Pan Pacific International Airport.

Lycus posted:

ep 2: Now, did the undercover Nazi go to save Juliana because the film immediately filled him with the spirit of Uncle Sam and he doesn't want to be a Nazi anymore, or did he just do it because he has a crush on her and is later gonna try to convince her to become a Nazi? I got the impression at the time that it's the former, but the latter would be way more interesting to me.

Frank. :(

Episode 2
Joe is questioning everything, the film would be too hard to fake and something must be going on. I'm guessing he just wanted to save her so he could ask questions about the film, since his handler wouldn't talk about it.

When Franks sister's family went into the room I thought the plastic covers were for a firing squad that'd be on the other side of the wall. I didn't expect it to be Zyklon-D.
:(

thedaian
Dec 11, 2005

Blistering idiots.

Steve2911 posted:

Coincidentally the book's next on my to-read list. Are the first few episodes of this any good? (Is Amazon's stuff in general any good? I never hear anything about it other than it exists).

While I don't know how the rest of Amazon's original stuff is, this series is really great. The best parts are all the worldbuilding they do. Little minor things like comments about how the hospitals burn their infirm every week/month.

As for episode 2: Holy poo poo. :(

I don't have anything else to say.

They've done a really amazing job adapting the book into a tv series.

JainDoh
Nov 5, 2002

Omar strollin'
Production values are really low, they skimped on their 3d budget considering they need to use it constantly; a lot of really blatant greenscreening and whatnot.

That said, I enjoyed the first 2 eps a lot more than I thought I would and am eagerly awaiting more.

Sleeveless
Dec 25, 2014

by Pragmatica

Lechtansi posted:

I also appreciated the PKD aspect (ep1 spoiler) us watching them while they watch a film from our universe

I never read the book but I wasn't expecting what appears to be parallel universes and communication/travel between them to be a thing in the show, let alone featured so prominently and as it has been with the film reel from our world being the focal point of everything that has happened so far.

thedaian posted:

While I don't know how the rest of Amazon's original stuff is, this series is really great. The best parts are all the worldbuilding they do. Little minor things like comments about how the hospitals burn their infirm every week/month.

That may be my favorite moment of the show because of how quick and casual it was, not even a musical sting or dramatic pan as they talk about it over sandwiches.

Croatoan
Jun 24, 2005

I am inevitable.
ROBBLE GROBBLE
Wait so is the pilot the same thing as episode 1, before episode 1 or edited in a way so that it's different than way back in January?

X-O
Apr 28, 2002

Long Live The King!

Croatoan posted:

Wait so is the pilot the same thing as episode 1, before episode 1 or edited in a way so that it's different than way back in January?

The first episode is largely the same as it was earlier this year but they reshot a couple scenes and changed some of the smaller details in wide shots. Story wise it's the same.

bring back old gbs
Feb 28, 2007

by LITERALLY AN ADMIN

X-O posted:

The first episode is largely the same as it was earlier this year but they reshot a couple scenes and changed some of the smaller details in wide shots. Story wise it's the same.

Is there a blog that covers the changes? I find that stuff really interesting.

X-O
Apr 28, 2002

Long Live The King!

32MB OF ESRAM posted:

Is there a blog that covers the changes? I find that stuff really interesting.

No clue. I just happened to watch the first episode again and noticed a couple of shots changed. Most noticeably when Juliana goes to visit her mother that entire scene was reshot with a different actor playing her step-father(?) in a completely different looking house. I believe they reshot all the scenes on TV that people were watching that involved Hitler, like in the bar when Frank and his work buddy were talking.

Episode 2 belongs to Rufus Sewell. He plays menacing and ruthless really well. I'm loving the cast of this show pretty much top to bottom.

Shageletic
Jul 25, 2007

Steve2911 posted:

Coincidentally the book's next on my to-read list. Are the first few episodes of this any good? (Is Amazon's stuff in general any good? I never hear anything about it other than it exists).

I watched both episodes. The dialogue is clunky, and how much info they need their characters to spew can be distracting. But its a fairly unique story, told with astonishing production quality (how are they pulling this off on TV, retro America with fascist flourishes, and not coming off as cheap I have no idea), and some great actors (Rufus Sewell is a beast), so it's definitely worth a try.

I just hope the show isn't a unceasing heaping of awful things happening. That could get old pretty quick. And the fact that this might be a multi-season arc for a pretty compact plot (I've read the novel) might cause problems down the road.

Moltke
May 13, 2009
Glad to see that Lou Avery is still a piece of poo poo in this alternate TV history.

Moltke fucked around with this message at 03:49 on Oct 26, 2015

LegendairyBovine
Oct 6, 2014
Did Jeff Bezos cameo in episode 2 or am I insane? If it was indeed him in the book shop that was fairly funny considering how Amazon got its start.

X-O
Apr 28, 2002

Long Live The King!

LegendairyBovine posted:

Did Jeff Bezos cameo in episode 2 or am I insane? If it was indeed him in the book shop that was fairly funny considering how Amazon got its start.

No. I can't think of his name but he's a character actor that's been in a poo poo load of shows and movies.

thedaian
Dec 11, 2005

Blistering idiots.

Sleeveless posted:

I never read the book but I wasn't expecting what appears to be parallel universes and communication/travel between them to be a thing in the show, let alone featured so prominently and as it has been with the film reel from our world being the focal point of everything that has happened so far.

This is probably the biggest difference between the book and the series so far. In the book, the McGuffin is a book, not a film, and there's not really any implied parallel universes or anything. It's just a work of speculative fiction that some guy in the neutral zone wrote. In the Amazon series, the film reel comes across as a full on parallel universe artifact, especially given how nearly impossible it would be to fake a film in the 60s. Of course, if they had kept it as a book in the Amazon series, it wouldn't work as well. I'm interested in seeing the explanation for the origin of the film reel.

Shageletic
Jul 25, 2007

thedaian posted:

This is probably the biggest difference between the book and the series so far. In the book, the McGuffin is a book, not a film, and there's not really any implied parallel universes or anything. It's just a work of speculative fiction that some guy in the neutral zone wrote. In the Amazon series, the film reel comes across as a full on parallel universe artifact, especially given how nearly impossible it would be to fake a film in the 60s. Of course, if they had kept it as a book in the Amazon series, it wouldn't work as well. I'm interested in seeing the explanation for the origin of the film reel.

Wasn't the "thinness" of the world's setting a big theme of the book though? It's been ages since I read it, but I thought the implausibility of that universe, compared to the one we currently reside in was the thing driving the plot?

ded
Oct 27, 2005

Kooler than Jesus

HUGE SPACEKABLOOIE posted:

We FINALLY get to burn the cripples and the infirm!

Thats called Tuesday.

feedmegin
Jul 30, 2008

Shageletic posted:

Wasn't the "thinness" of the world's setting a big theme of the book though? It's been ages since I read it, but I thought the implausibility of that universe, compared to the one we currently reside in was the thing driving the plot?

I'm pretty sure one of the protagonists in the book explicitly briefly sees a vision of our universe (or one a lot closer to ours).

Unkempt
May 24, 2003

...perfect spiral, scientists are still figuring it out...

feedmegin posted:

I'm pretty sure one of the protagonists in the book explicitly briefly sees a vision of our universe (or one a lot closer to ours).

Yeah, the Japanese trade mission guy. (Was he a spy? can't remember.)

Also, in the book, the world described in the book-within-the-book, where the Germans lost the war, isn't the same as our world either.It's got a huge powerful British empire in the 60s for one thing. Whereas the film in the TV show seems to be ours.

GABA ghoul
Oct 29, 2011

holy poo poo, i'm watching the crap out this show, when i get home.

Shageletic posted:

Wasn't the "thinness" of the world's setting a big theme of the book though? It's been ages since I read it, but I thought the implausibility of that universe, compared to the one we currently reside in was the thing driving the plot?

if i remember correctly, authenticity is portrayed almost like a meta-physical thing in the book. people feel, that the world around them is somehow wrong , but they can't put their finger on what exactly is wrong. at least not in detail.

i don't think there is any parallel universe stuff in the book and our world isn't even mentioned once. looks like amazon is making up a completely new plot for the series. calling it now, season 5 is about bizarro landings in bizarro-normandy. season 6 ends with the occupation of bizarro-berlin by american bizarro-GI's :shittydog:

GABA ghoul fucked around with this message at 17:10 on Oct 26, 2015

Ofaloaf
Feb 15, 2013

thedaian posted:

While I don't know how the rest of Amazon's original stuff is, this series is really great. The best parts are all the worldbuilding they do. Little minor things like comments about how the hospitals burn their infirm every week/month.

My favorite little worldbuilding detail is that everything's switched over to the metric system. Just look at the newspaper in the OP-- "THE WEATHER- Sunny and Hot- high 37° low 22°". If you look at road shots, you'll see signs posted along rural roads stating a speed limit of "100", which is ridiculous for mph but fair enough in kph.

Jose
Jul 24, 2007

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster and writer
Just watched the first 2 episodes and i'm looking forward to the rest.

Fateo McMurray
Mar 22, 2003

Part of me hopes Amazon releases an episode every weekend until they drop the entire thing. Some sort of testing weekly releases for digital instead of all at once and how people like it.

Lycus
Aug 5, 2008

Half the posters in this forum have been made up. This website is a goddamn ghost town.
They don't have to experiment, Amazon originally did weekly releases. They switched to all-at-once.

sat on my keys!
Oct 2, 2014

thedaian posted:

This is probably the biggest difference between the book and the series so far. In the book, the McGuffin is a book, not a film, and there's not really any implied parallel universes or anything. It's just a work of speculative fiction that some guy in the neutral zone wrote. In the Amazon series, the film reel comes across as a full on parallel universe artifact, especially given how nearly impossible it would be to fake a film in the 60s. Of course, if they had kept it as a book in the Amazon series, it wouldn't work as well. I'm interested in seeing the explanation for the origin of the film reel.


Could it not be that the film reel is from their world, where the Allies were winning the war (and the reels hadn't been shown to the public yet), but the Nazis and Imperial Japan created the atomic bomb first? I've read too much "Nazis win" alternative history but in a lot of it the Axis builds the bomb first and nukes DC, London, and Moscow and then Bad Things Happen.

akulanization
Dec 21, 2013

bartlebyshop posted:


Could it not be that the film reel is from their world, where the Allies were winning the war (and the reels hadn't been shown to the public yet), but the Nazis and Imperial Japan created the atomic bomb first? I've read too much "Nazis win" alternative history but in a lot of it the Axis builds the bomb first and nukes DC, London, and Moscow and then Bad Things Happen.


For the nazis to bomb DC they would have to have already won the war pretty much. Either by somehow developing an ICBM in the forties (which would have required allied landings to fail and a victory on the eastern front) or by getting a bomber over the target (which would require the destruction of the American and British navies). Also the nazis basically didn't have a functioning atomic bomb program for a number of reasons.

Regy Rusty
Apr 26, 2010

bartlebyshop posted:


Could it not be that the film reel is from their world, where the Allies were winning the war (and the reels hadn't been shown to the public yet), but the Nazis and Imperial Japan created the atomic bomb first? I've read too much "Nazis win" alternative history but in a lot of it the Axis builds the bomb first and nukes DC, London, and Moscow and then Bad Things Happen.


If that were the case the film would just be a part of history. There'd be no reason for Hitler to be so terrified of it unless it represented something that could potentially change things.

feedmegin
Jul 30, 2008

akulanization posted:

For the nazis to bomb DC they would have to have already won the war pretty much. Either by somehow developing an ICBM in the forties

This bit isn't all that implausible, actually, since it's basically a scaled-up V2 -

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregate_%28rocket_family%29#A9.2FA10

Moltke
May 13, 2009
In this universe it already happened, so the how is kind of moot. Any explanation of how the Germans supposedly won ww2 won't make any sense to anyone who's ever watched the history channel, so I hope that they never bother trying. It's not necessary to enjoy the current story.

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Open Source Idiom
Jan 4, 2013
I hope the show goes all out on the parallel timeline plots -- if only so we can have the Nazi's punch a hole into a universe where Rome never fell, and we can finally have the two biggest clichés of alternate universe stories duke it out on screen.

Actually, I'm really excited for this, even though it's absolutely not going to do that. It's got a great setting, a good cast... I'm glad to see Joel de la Fuente's still acting, even though he's unrecognisable from his Space: Above and Beyond days. And I don't think I've seen Alexa Davalos in anything (good) since The Mist.

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