TV Show Review: The Man In the High Castle Season 1

The Man in the High Castle is an Amazon Original streaming show set in the early 1960s. It shows an alternate reality in which the Axis powers won World War II and essentially took over the world. In this reality, Hitler is still alive, ruling from Berlin, and the United States is divided between German rule (occupying everything East of the Rocky Mountains) and Japanese rule (everything West of the Rocky Mountains). The Germans have imposed their system of Aryan dominance on their portion of the U.S., and the Japanese have instituted their caste system. The Germans and the Japanese have what can only be described as an uneasy and untrustworthy alliance, and the Americans are basically indentured servants of the Japanese or (the ones who have not joined the Reich) living under the heel of the Nazis. Of course, there is are resistance groups that are trying to take down both Empires. There is also a sci-fi element (which you would expect from Ridley Scott), which highly suggests the existence of alternate dimensions or realities, where history plays out differently, including as we know it, in which the Allies won the war. This is mostly shown by videos put out by the titular Man in the High Castle, showing different versions of history than the one the characters live in.

The series stars Alexa Davalos (probably best known for her role on the series Angel) as Juliana Crain who has ties to the Pacific coast resistance, Rupert Evans as her boyfriend Frank Frink, Rufus Sewell as John Smith, a leader of the Nazi Reich in New York, Luke Kleintank, DJ, Qualls who plays Frank's best friend and co-worker, Ed McCarthy, Joel De La Fuente as the head of the Japanese police force, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the Japanese trade minister, and Brennan Brown as an antique dealer.

The series is very well-written and acted. The 10-episode season is paced very well and does a good job establishing the characters and telling some, but not all, of their various backstories. It is a show in which the characters are almost all morally gray, with no absolute good guys or bad guys (at least in the main cast). The writers do a good job making even characters like John Smith, who is clearly on the side of evil have a human side. There is a lot of violence, swearing, and some sexual situations and nudity (although not a ton). So, it is definitely not something that you would want young kids watching.

Unfortunately, for those of us who still prefer physical DVDs or Blu-Ray discs to streaming, this is one of the series that Amazon only streams and has not (and likely will not) release on physical media. So, if you want to watch it, you either have to be a prime member or pay Amazon to stream it. So, if you are a prime member or are willing to pay to watch it, and are looking for a good drama/thriller it is a great series, and definitely worth checking out.