On a whim I decided to start watching The Man in the High Castle, a TV series from Amazon Studios. The show is based on legendary author Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name. I’m not sure why it took me this long to start watching it. The premise of the show is based on alternate history fiction, with the pivot point being the outcome of World War II. If there’s a specific genre that really gets my engine revving, that would be it. For example, I read Fatherland in like two days.
The first episode got me hooked immediately. The depiction of the United States in post-war 1962, divided amongst Japan in the west and Nazi Germany in the east, was fascinating. The Nazis managed to drop a nuclear bomb on Washington. They assaulted American beaches and forced America to capitulate. In the intervening years, Nazi technology progresses at an impressive rate. All those German scientists that were divided between the US and the Soviets never left. Faster than sound passenger jets are now commonplace, in 1962 mind you.
The real kicker though, the main plot device, is the titular man in the high castle. He is the individual who purportedly makes propaganda films, highly illegal in the Greater Nazi Reich. The audience is shown one of these films. It is familiar because it’s footage from victory celebrations from various countries: Churchill standing proud, the Marines raising the flag over Iwo Jima, confetti in Times Square, the famous sailor kissing the nurse. Most people believe these films are highly skilled fakes, somehow made in secret. Then, one character, mysteriously drops a hint that these films are not doctored or faked in any way. How could this be?
Well, that’s as far as I got. Now if I wasn’t working, I’d binge watch the whole first season plus as much of the second as I could, just like I did Daredevil. Alas, I do have a job and I need to be there, so I get maybe one episode done a night. The weekend is coming up though. Maybe it’ll be a good time to watch the sunrise again.