Producer: Amazon Studios
Writers: Philip K. Dick, Frank Spotnitz, Rob Williams, Jace Richdale, Thomas Schnauz, Emma Frost, Walon Green, Evan Wright
Actors: Daniel Percival, Brad Anderson, Karyn Kusama, Nelson McCormick, Ken Olin, Michael Rymer, David Semel, Michael Slovis, Bryan Spicer, Wolf Muser
Featuring: Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rupert Evans, Rufus Swewll, DJ Qualls, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Joel de la Fuente
Release Date: Out Now!!

I was reluctant to watch Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle, about a world where the Nazis and Japan conquered the United States of America and won World War Il. George Orwell and Franz Kafka both thoroughly explored living under a totalitarian regime. But where those writers delved into despair and futility, The Man in the High Castle, based on the Philip K. Dick novel, is instead largely about hope; a hope people can change and a better way of life, out of this alternate one, may well be possible.

The story in The Man in the High Castle is ensconced as a spy thriller and the narrative doesn’t deviate from this main plot. At issue are mysterious films made by the eponymous and enigmatic Man in the High Castle. The films present a world much different than the current reality the characters are experiencing but which the audience for The Man in the High Castle is more familiar with. There is a resistance group and it has tasked itself with finding and distributing these newsreel films of a different history and different victors them. Not that the resistance is alone in this quest, Adolph Hitler (Wolf Muser) wants them too.

Often the best stories are those where ordinary people are thrown into extraordinary circumstances, and that’s exactly what happens in The Man in the High Castle to Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos), after her sister sucks her into a life of espionage and resistance. Along the way she meets Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank), a double agent, unknown to her, working for the resistance and the Nazis. The chemistry between the two is palpable and a nice touch.

The other notable conflict resides between the occupiers of The United States of America, The Nazis Party and the Japanese military, both of whom seem keen to undermine the other at every turn; a strong sense of all out military warfare on each other never feels that far away.

With high production values, and excellent directing, writing and acting, The Man in the High Castle is a series, which keep you coming back for more. The Man in the High Castle is no tongue in cheek, winking to the audience, self-referential piece of candy-floss television. It will not do your thinking for you but neither will it beat you over the head for not ‘getting it’. The Man in the High Castle is better than that.

The Man in the High Castle succeeds in not only providing biting social commentary but entertainment too. And in a world of very high-profile television series popping up on a monthly basis, promising a lot but delivering very little, The Man in the High Castle is a very high watermark for the rest to follow.

Reviewer:Joe Lovece
Reviews Editor: Steve Hooker