The Man in the High Castle TV series

[Brian G Turner]

Amazon Prime have done a TV pilot for Philip K Dick's The Man in the High Castle.

Am planning to look at it soon - anyone else seen it yet?

More here:
http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/01/16/the-man-in-the-high-castle-review

 

[ctg]

I have seen the pilot and it's good, although I don't know the original work. I haven't read it even though I have read quite a bit of PKD's work. It is very believable. Masterfully crafted, but there's only pilot episode that leads two main characters to meet each other.

So, not knowing if it's actually faithful adaptation to the original prose is a bit difficult, but I expect that there's going to be a number of people, who's going to at least acquire the original piece if they like the pilot as much as I do. So there.

I liked it, but I'm still a bit sceptical on how this is going to turn. Will Amazon be a good producer?

 

[Cli-Fi]

I have seen the pilot and it's good, although I don't know the original work. I haven't read it even though I have read quite a bit of PKD's work. It is very believable. Masterfully crafted, but there's only pilot episode that leads two main characters to meet each other.

So, not knowing if it's actually faithful adaptation to the original prose is a bit difficult, but I expect that there's going to be a number of people, who's going to at least acquire the original piece if they like the pilot as much as I do. So there.

I liked it, but I'm still a bit sceptical on how this is going to turn. Will Amazon be a good producer?

It was definitely something I've never seen on TV...I mean on the internet before. I like that it was completely original and will definitely work great for amazon's streaming platform. I wouldn't be shocked if it doesn't get two seasons, but a mini-series will be just fine for me. Very interesting concept.

 

[markpud]

I should check out the pilot. I saw a trailer (more of a clip I think) and it looked intriguing... Well constructed alt-history is always fun !

 

[BAYLOR]

Looks very promising.

 

[ctg]

I was waiting for the second episode and as it was nowhere to be seen, I went and looked for an episode list and found this:

Amazon Studios works a bit differently than other television channels. They produce pilot episodes of a number of different prospective programs, then release them and gather data on their success. The most promising shows are then picked up as regular series. The Man in the High Castle is currently under review so whether it will be picked up as a series is not yet known.

I hope it'll get picked up.

 

[Toby Frost]

I thought this was pretty decent, and made the book come alive pretty well. The look of the novel is very well reproduced, and the details – a game show contestant in German uniform, the Japaneseing (if that’s a word) of San Francisco, and so on – gave it a 3D quality and helped gloss over the fact that the world of the novel isn’t a very convincing one (not, say, compared to the same situation as Fatherland). Making the mysterious book into a film was a good idea visually. I would be interested to know how the more esoteric elements of the novel would be dealt with on screen in later episodes, because the story is as much about the idea of discerning reality as it is about convincingly depicting an Axis victory.

 

[ctg]

Philip K. Dick adaptation, The Man In The High Castle, has been picked up for a full season by Amazon Prime Instant Video...

It was Amazon Original Series' most-watched pilot, and now it's received a full series order. Celebrations are in order for writer Frank Spotnitz and director David Semel's take on Philip K. Dick's The Man In The High Castle.

The alternate history drama, adapted from Dick's 1962 novel, is one of the winners of the online streaming service's popularity contest in which Prime membership gives customers the power to vote as to which shows are greenlit.

Set in an alternative universe in which the Allied Powers lost WWII, The Man In The High Castle has espionage, global conflict and political intrigue in spades. It also has the bonus of Ridley Scott executive producing alongside The X-Files and Hunted writer, Frank Spotnitz.

You can read our thoughts on the pilot here, an hour of drama that our reviewer thought had the potential to become "as compulsively watchable as conspiracy-minded The Americans with the supernatural trappings of Lost". The first episode starred Rufus Sewell, Alexa Davalos, Luke Kleintank, Rupert Evans, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Joel De La Fuente and more.

Also commissioned by Amazon in the same haul are the US version of Mad Dogs, kids' series Just Add Magic and The Stinky & Dirty Show, documentary show The New Yorker Presents. A second season of the superlative Transparent is also on its way.

Subscribers can expect to see the new shows later this year and in early 2016.

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-man...n-in-the-high-castle-gets-a-full-season-order

 

[ctg]

And it's back after a long wait. The series continues from where it was left and it's as beautiful as it was in the first time around. But if you'll watch it episode at time, you might feel a bit disoriented, because there's not much to explain on how this parallel world came to be. I feel that the "film" is at the moment a McGuffin and there's much more to it than what narrative suggest.

 

[Droflet]

I've seen the first two episodes and am intrigued. Love the nastiness between the Germans and Japanese. Looking forward to seeing how this works out. In November. Sigh.

 

[Lawrence Burton]

I managed about twenty minutes of the first episode, but it just looked like a lot of other things to me. As with many adaptations of Philip K. Dick, it didn't seem to have much in the way of a sense of humour, which is a fairly integral element to his fiction. It was probably a great series, but it wasn't for me. To be honest I wish they would leave the poor guy alone.

You probably don't even want to know what I think of Blade Runner.

 

[Kylara]

Pilot was excellent, have yet to find the continuation episodes. Been waiting for the rest to happen with quiet anticipation. Very high production cost and they really went all out with the worldbuilding in the pilot

 

[ctg]

As with many adaptations of Philip K. Dick, it didn't seem to have much in the way of a sense of humour, which is a fairly integral element to his fiction.

I read that they intentionally changed some things to make plot devices work in the play. Are there any of his stuff that has been faithfully adapted by the producer? I don't know.

 

[BAYLOR]

I read that they intentionally changed some things to make plot devices work in the play. Are there any of his stuff that has been faithfully adapted by the producer? I don't know.

Good question.

 

[Droflet]

Pilot was excellent, have yet to find the continuation episodes. Been waiting for the rest to happen with quiet anticipation. Very high production cost and they really went all out with the worldbuilding in the pilot

According to IMdB we'll get the rest on 28th November. Why the hold up? Meh.

 

[ctg]

Heading to Amazon Video shortly is the full series of The Man In The High Castle. The show is based on a novel of the same name by the mighty Philip K Dick, and it earns further nerd points for being developed and written by Frank Spotnitz.

Amazon is putting on a very special event next Monday, 9th November, where the second episode of the show is being screened, followed by a full Q&A in person with Spotnitz himself and some of the cast (we'd wager someone will ask an X-Files question or two).

It all starts from 7.00pm.

Furthermore, it's being held at the Imperial War Museum. And we've got tickets to give away!

To recap, you'll get:

* To see the second episode

* To go to the Imperial War Museum

* To see a Q&A with some really quite brilliant people

Fancy a pair of tickets? You just need to send a Tweet to @denofgeek with #HighCastleGeek and #HighCastle in there too. You need to be following us, and we'll be contacting the winners before the end of the week.

All episodes of The Man In The High Castle premiere on Amazon Prime Video from November 20th

http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-man...an-in-the-high-castle-special-screening-event

 

[Lawrence Burton]

I read that they intentionally changed some things to make plot devices work in the play. Are there any of his stuff that has been faithfully adapted by the producer? I don't know.

A Scanner Darkly stuck pretty close in terms of theme, general feel etc. Last time I mentioned this anywhere (just to pre-empt any potential repeat of the same), some person (distinguished earlier by just having stated that Blade Runner was the book Philip K. Dick hadn't been good enough to write) came back with 'no point in adapting if you're just going to make a slavish copy of the original' which I'm fairly sure is just one of those things people say because they've heard it said before and haven't actually considered the point, to which I would ask, why not just making something original with no bearing on previously existing material in that case?

All of which is just me thinking aloud here. Obviously some adaptations will work better with changes made according to the medium, so very possibly this was one of them, as you suggest.

 

[Kylara]

I will second the a scanner darkly film as being the best adaptation of his work in a recognisable form. I love that film, and the cell shading just visualises his concept and the feel of the book so well. Blade runner missed my favourite concepts out

 

[Perpetual Man]

I've just watched the pilot and quite enjoyed it, enough to make me watch some more.

I'm not familiar with the original either, and although it is probably worth adding to the old 'to read' pile it would just be another brick in a wall that seems to only grow.

 

[Idoru]

I've watched both episodes so far available and really enjoyed them. I haven't read the source material, so I've no idea how it measures up. So far the series seems to be well acted, well written and really beautifully shot. Looking forward to the rest of the series.