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The Man In The High Castle, Season 1 is a compelling watch despite stumbles

The Man In The High Castle, Season 1 is a compelling watch despite stumbles

The Man In The High Castle, Season 1
Created by Frank Spotnitz
Released November 20th, 2015 by Amazon Prime

Over the years, many works of legendary author Philip K. Dick have been adapted for the screen. The latest adaptation comes to the small screen courtesy of Amazon Prime, whose newest original series brings his novel The Man In The High Castle from the page to the screen. Developed by Frank Spotnitz, the show’s first season presents a lot of fascinating ideas, and is worth a watch despite some missteps in characterisation.

The show’s exploration of the uneasy alliance between Japan and Germany, and how it develops over the course of the season, makes for a fascinating watch. The unequal power balance between the two Axis powers is made very clear, along with the revelation that both groups are very well aware of it, right from the pilot. The development of it over the course of the season, from the attempted assassination of the Japanese Emperor to the research into the bomb conducted by both powers, is one of the strong aspects of the season, bringing to mind the similar strife both the US and the USSR faced in the ensuing decades following World War II, where both powers had also aligned with each other. Despite playing in the background for most of the season, the news that the Japanese intended to build their own version of the bomb from Wegener’s blueprints offers some exciting possibilities for Season 2, especially with the apparent departure of one of the few voices of reason in Tagomi.

The internal strife between both the German powers and the Japanese powers is similarly compelling. The attempted assassination of Obergruppenführer Smith in the second episode makes for an exciting sequence, and the uneasy nature of having to support a lesser evil to ensure a greater threat does not come into power is revealed well over the course of the season, particularly after the writers explore the depths of Smith’s villainy. While Hitler and his group manage to squash the rebellion at the end of the season, as Ed points out, it’s apparent that the German leader himself is ill in some form, and it won’t be long until an attempt to overthrow him is successful. This is likely to have several ramifications, not only for the existing German power structure, but also for the uneasy alliance with Japan, the people of both the occupied and unoccupied parts of the US, and for the High Castle rebellion, who is unwittingly working for the German leader at this point.

Speaking of the rebellion, the exploration of how tyranny breeds rebellion and extremism is an interesting aspect of the season, especially in how it’s personified with Juliana and Frank. The first half of the season deals with this idea in a very compelling fashion, indicating how the chain reaction of events and responses not only ignites rebellion, but strengthens its cause, as the Japanese police’s killing of Trudy sparks Juliana’s desire to see the film and take Trudy’s place in the High Castle rebellion, while the police’s pursuit of Juliana leads them to torture Frank and kill his sister and her children, leading to his desire to assassinate the Emperor. The second half of the season, however, seems to oddly drop these threads in an unsatisfying manner, as the writers seem unsure of what to really do with Juliana and especially Frank following their transitions after the former’s return from Cannon City and the latter’s escape from the Emperor’s assassination attempt. While Juliana’s storyline continues to be interesting with her discovery of the mass graves and the government monitoring, much of it seems created from a need to have her involved in the story, as the rebellion drives her actions, and Joe Blake in turn pushes her back in after getting caught himself by Smith. With her eyes having been opened after what she sees in the films and Cannon City, there’s not much active work on her part to try and find out more; instead, she becomes somewhat passive, and drives the story simply by knowing the right people, whether it’s Trudy’s rebellion contact, her stepfather, or Blake himself. Her reluctance to get involved seems to come out of nowhere, as does her sudden thought that Trudy might still be alive, and both seem like wheel-spinning until the plot can advance without being interesting stories on their own.

The Man in the High Castle s1

Juliana, however, doesn’t become as redundant a character in the second half of the season as Frank does. After his inability to go through with the assassination of the Emperor, the character seems to nearly lose all purpose, with his anger against the Japanese power not getting addressed again. His desire to reconnect with his Jewish roots in the wake of his sister’s death is not given more than an episode’s worth of attention, and most of his story subsequently deals with Juliana’s work with Joe and the rebellion, as well as his attempts to escape. Frank does transition from compelling character to seemingly needless obstacle, a regrettable turn considering the potential, but hopefully the show’s second season picks up on his loathing of the oppressive power, especially with Ed’s arrest for a crime that even Frank is innocent of.

The second half of the season also suffers from a few other issues, mainly in its treatment of Inspector Kido. The characterisation of Kido stands in stark contrast to Obergruppenführer Smith, as both individuals are painted as tyrannical members of tyrannical groups who are nonetheless put in difficult no-win situations. With Smith, however, the show indicates that he’s stuck in a power struggle and grappling with the idea that his son will be forced into a lethal compliance with the system he’s enforced and defended to others, including Wegener. With Kido, on the other hand, there’s no similar understanding of his actions. Not only does he not show any remorse for the idea that he may have driven Frank to extremism by killing his sister, nephew, and niece, all of whom were innocent, he continues to pursue Frank even after knowing he’s innocent. While the idea that Kido is ultimately a coward who doesn’t want to commit seppuku due to his failure is right in line with his characterisation, the score and manner in which Kido is lit in his seppuku scene seems to suggest that he’s a hero for not turning in the Nazi agent, which undercuts the threat he poses to Frank and Ed despite knowing they’re both innocent. The writers’ attempt to make Kido sympathetic despite his tyrannical actions is the biggest misstep of the first season.

Despite the issues, however, the show makes for a fascinating watch. The numerous performers, from leads such as Alexa Davalos and Rufus Sewell, to supporting players such as Carsten Norgaard and Brennan Brown all work excellently, with Davalos in particular carrying the show in fine form, even when the writing for the character falters. The reveal of Hitler being the individual helping the rebellion is a twist with a lot of potential, and continues to leave open the idea of where the films are coming from, as well as where Tagomi finds himself in the season’s closing moments and how he gets there. The unoccupied territory, despite Juliana and Joe spending a large part of the season there, remains a frustratingly unexplored enigma, and the character of The Marshal feels like an addition for the sake of additional drama where none was needed, but the area itself remains intriguing, particularly in the rules it follows, and hopefully the writers revisit and delve deeper into the mechanics of the region in the show’s second season, particularly with regards to small details such as their use of Marks over Yen. There’s a lot of potential for the series in Season Two, should it get one, and despite the missteps, it’s a fine first season of what will hopefully be a exciting series.

B_rating

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