The Man in the High Castle (TV series)

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The Man in the High Castle is an American dystopian alternate history television series, produced by Amazon Studios, Scott Free Productions, Headline Pictures, Electric Shepherd Productions, and Big Light Productions. The series is based on the 1962 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. In the series' alternate version of 1962, the Axis powers have won World War II and divided the United States into two puppet states: the Greater Nazi Reich and the Japanese Pacific States. The series follows characters whose destinies intertwine after they come into contact with a series of propaganda films that show a very different history from their own.

Premiering in January 2015, the pilot was Amazon's "most-watched since the original series development program began". The next month, Amazon ordered episodes to fill out a ten-episode season, which was released in November to positive reviews. A second season of ten episodes premiered in December 2016, with a third season announced a few weeks later, to be released in 2018.

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Synopsis

Season one

The central characters are Juliana Crain, Frank Frink, Joe Blake, John Smith, Nobusuke Tagomi, and Takeshi Kido. The series takes place in an alternate 1962.

Juliana Crain is a San Francisco woman who becomes entangled with the resistance when her half-sister Trudy is killed by the Kenpeitai just after she gives Juliana a film reel that contains newsreel-style footage. Entitled The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, it depicts an alternate history in which the Allies won World War II and Germany and Japan were defeated. It is part of a series of similar newsreels being collected by someone referred to as "The Man in the High Castle". Juliana believes the newsreel to reflect some sort of alternate reality and that it is part of some kind of larger truth about how the world should be. Her boyfriend, Frank Frink--who keeps his Jewish roots hidden to avoid extradition and death at the hands of the Nazis--believes that the newsreel has no relation to real-life events. Juliana learns that Trudy was carrying the film to Canon City, Colorado, in the Neutral Zone, where she was going to meet someone. Juliana decides to travel there in Trudy's place to find out what her half-sister's mission was. When she arrives in Canon City, she encounters Joe Blake.

Joe is a 27-year-old New Yorker, who is a double agent working for the Nazis under Obergruppenführer John Smith, a former US Army officer who joined the Nazis and rose through the ranks to become a senior officer in the SS. Joe is pretending to be a member of the resistance while he searches for the resistance contact in Canon City, which is Juliana, who replaces Trudy.

Nobusuke Tagomi is a high-ranking Japanese official, the Trade Minister, in San Francisco. He meets in secret with Nazi official Rudolph Wegener, who is traveling incognito as Swedish businessman, Victore Baynes. Tagomi and Wegener are both concerned about the power vacuum that will exist when the Reich's Führer, Adolf Hitler, either dies or is forced to step down because of his worsening Parkinson's disease. Wegener explains that Hitler's successor will want to use the Reich's nuclear bombs against Japan to gain control of the rest of the former United States. Currently, however, Japan and the Third Reich are engaged in a cold war that is full of tension but no open warfare, with the Japanese lagging behind the Germans technologically.

Frank ends up being arrested when the Japanese and the Nazis become suspicious of Juliana's activities. Not having the information they seek, he is unable to give the Japanese what they are looking for. They kill Frank's sister and her two children in retaliation, using their Jewish heritage as an excuse for their executions. This leads Frank to plan to kill the visiting Japanese Crown Prince and Princess, but he ultimately decides against going through with his plan.

Season two

The second season broadly encompasses Frank's decision to forgo his hesitancy and relative pacifism and become a committed member of the American Resistance to the Japanese Empire inside the Pacific States. He eventually participates in a successful terrorist bombing of a central-command building of the Pacific States government in Downtown San Francisco. The attack kills many members of the Japanese military and other top-level leadership.

Juliana Crain claims asylum in the Nazi Reich by using its San Francisco Embassy so that she can escape Japanese soldiers who hold her responsible for at least one murder. John Smith, seeing that her asylum claim is unlikely to succeed, steps in to the interrogation room and assumes command of her claim himself, ensures that it goes through, and takes her to New York without Joe Blake's knowledge. Joe discovers that he was a product of the Lebensborn programme and is the sole biological son of a top-ranking Nazi official in Berlin, Martin Heusmann. Eventually, Joe reconciles with Heusmann on the personal level and then becomes second-in-command of the Chancellorship after Hitler dies. the Nazi leadership in Berlin grants Heusmann the Reich's title of Acting Chancellor, which they do quickly and almost by default.

Hitler's death is abruptly pinned upon Japanese spies, and Heusmann suddenly announces on television that the Japanese agents who, he claims, assassinated the Führer will be brought to justice by any means necessary, including war. John Smith is the only high-ranking Nazi official to be suspicious of the nature of Heusmann's sudden announcement. To understand why it has happened, he interrogates another high-ranking Nazi, Reinhard Heydrich, who reveals a far-reaching conspiracy led by Heusmann that is designed to result in a Nazi nuclear onslaught against the Japanese Empire that will kill tens of millions of Japanese, decimate their Empire, level Tokyo, kill the emperor, and force the surviving Japanese to absorb themselves into a global Nazi Reich. John Smith undertakes carefully-calculated stealth actions to disrupt and dismantle the Heusmann conspiracy and finally travels to Berlin and informs Heinrich Himmler, the Nazi Reichsführer, who is not involved, of the existence of the conspiracy. Audiotapes, together with physical and written evidence that reach too deeply within the existing Reich's power structure to be dismissed as hearsay, are handed personally by Smith over to Himmler, who then leads Smith and several of his closest Berlin subordinates in to the late Hitler's office, which is occupied by the Acting Chancellor. He arrests Heusmann for high treason and the murder of Hitler, detains Joe along with Heusmann, and then addresses the Volkshalle, packed with hundreds of thousands of Reich civilians and uniformed stormtroopers. Nixing the speech declaring war, which would have been delivered by Heusmann, Himmler instead informs the Reich of Heusmann's conspiracy and of Smith's exposure. The entire Volkshalle erupts in to a celebratory mood that is marked by repeated mass Nazi salutes of Himmler's men, in general, and then of Smith, in particular.

The season ends with Himmler and Smith implicitly assuming command of the Reich, and an implied new era of peace and tranquility between the Japanese Empire and the Greater Nazi Reich. Juliana Crain continues to live out her asylum claim inside New York Nazi territory, and the final few minutes of the final episode of the second season show Trudy (or an alternate-universe version of her) alive and well. In a basement somewhere, Smith is given access to a room filled to bursting with reels of films that were watched by the late Führer.

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Cast

Main

• Alexa Davalos as Juliana Crain, a young woman from San Francisco who is outwardly happy living under Japanese control. She is an expert in aikido and is friendly with the Japanese people who live in San Francisco. Her mother harbors hatred of the Japanese, who killed Juliana's father during the war.
• Rupert Evans as Frank Frink, Juliana's boyfriend. He works in a factory, creating replicas of prewar American pistols that are prized by the Japanese. On his own time. he creates original jewelry and sketches. When Juliana vanishes just after the police kill her sister, Frank is taken into custody, which is particularly dangerous since he had a Jewish grandfather and would face execution if that is exposed. His experience with the Japanese causes him to turn against the state.
• Luke Kleintank as Joe Blake, a new recruit to the underground American resistance, but he is actually an agent working for the SS, under Obergruppenführer John Smith. He transports a copy of a reel of the forbidden film The Grasshopper Lies Heavy to the neutral Rocky Mountain States, as part of his mission to infiltrate the American resistance.
• DJ Qualls as Ed McCarthy, Frank's co-worker and friend. He closely follows politics and cares very much about Juliana and Frank's well being.
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Nobusuke Tagomi, the Trade Minister of the Pacific States of America. His true loyalties are ambiguous throughout the first season.
• Rufus Sewell as John Smith, an SS Obergruppenführer who is investigating the Resistance in New York. He is a natural-born American who had served in the US Army Signal Corps. He lives a comfortable suburban life with a wife and three children. It is implied that he embraced Nazism because he grew up in poverty as a result of the Great Depression.
• Joel de la Fuente as Chief Inspector Takeshi Kido, the ruthless head of the Kempeitai stationed in San Francisco.
• Brennan Brown as Robert Childan (season 2; recurring season 1), an antique store owner who makes secret deals with Frank.
• Callum Keith Rennie as Gary Connell (season 2), leader of the West Coast Resistance movement and enforcer for Abendsen.
• Bella Heathcote as Nicole Dörmer (season 2), a young Berlin-born filmmaker who crosses paths with Joe.

Recurring

• Carsten Norgaard as Rudolph Wegener, a disillusioned high-ranking Nazi official who trades secrets with Tagomi.
• Rick Worthy as Lemuel "Lem" Washington, the owner of the Sunrise Diner in Canon City and member of the Resistance.
• Camille Sullivan as Karen Vecchione, a leader of the Pacific States branch of the Resistance.
• Lee Shorten as Sergeant Hiroyuki Yoshida, Inspector Kido's right-hand man.
• Arnold Chun as Kotomichi, Tagomi's assistant.
• Hank Harris as Randall Becker, a member of the Pacific States branch of the Resistance.
• Christine Chatelain as Laura Crothers, Frank's sister.
• Allan Havey as the Origami Man, a Nazi spy sent to Canon City to eliminate members of the Resistance.
• Burn Gorman as the Marshal, a bounty hunter searching for concentration camp escapees.
• Shaun Ross as the Shoe Shine Boy, a young albino man living in Canon City.
• Rob LaBelle as Carl, a bookstore clerk in Canon City who is revealed to be a concentration camp escapee, David P. Frees.
• Geoffrey Blake as Jason Meyer, a Jewish member of the Resistance.
• Michael Gaston as Mark Sampson, a Jew who is living in the Pacific States and is Frank's friend.
• Louis Ozawa Changchien as Paul Kasoura, a wealthy lawyer who collects prewar American memorabilia.
• Tao Okamoto as Betty, Paul's wife.
• Daisuke Tsui as the Crown Prince of Japan
• Mayumi Yoshida as the Crown Princess of Japan
• Amy Okuda as Christine Tanaka, an office worker in the Nippon building.
• Bernhard Forcher as Hugo Reiss, the Nazi ambassador to the Japanese Pacific States.
• Aaron Blakely as Erich Raeder, an SS-Sturmbannführer working with Smith.
• Hiro Kanagawa as Taishi Okamura, the leader of a Yakuza based in the Pacific States.
• Stephen Root as Hawthorne Abendsen/The Man in the High Castle (season 2).
• Sebastian Roché as Reichsminister Martin Heusmann (season 2), Joe's estranged father and a high-ranking member of the Reich.
• Cara Mitsuko as Sarah (season 2), a Japanese American Resistance member, Frank's confidante and a survivor of the Manzanar concentration camp
• Tate Donovan as George Dixon (season 2), a mysterious friend of the Crains.
• Michael Hogan as Hagan (season 2), an ex-preacher and leader in the San Francisco Resistance.
• Tzi Ma as Rikugun-Taish? Hidehisa Onoda (season 2), a leading member of the Japanese army.

John Smith's family

• Chelah Horsdal as Helen Smith, John's wife
• Quinn Lord as Thomas Smith, John and Helen's son and the eldest child. A member of the Hitler Youth, it is later revealed that he has inherited a form of muscular dystrophy from his father's side of the family.
• Gracyn Shinyei as Amy Smith, John and Helen's daughter.
• Genea Charpentier as Jennifer Smith, John and Helen's daughter.

Juliana Crain's family

• Daniel Roebuck as Arnold Walker, Juliana's stepfather and Trudy's father.
• Macall Gordon as Anne Crain Walker, Juliana's mother who is still bitter about losing her husband in World War II.
• Conor Leslie as Trudy Walker, Juliana's half-sister who is shot dead by the Kempeitai. However, she is shown alive at the end of the second season.

Nobusuke Tagomi's family

• Yukari Komatsu as Michiko Tagomi (season 2), Nobusuke's wife.
• Eddie Shin as Noriaki Tagomi (season 2), Nobusuke and Michiko's son.

Historical characters

• Wolf Muser as Adolf Hitler
• Ray Proscia as SS-Oberst-Gruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich
• Keone Young as Gensui Shunroku Hata
• Kenneth Tigar as SS-Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler (season 2)
• Peter Anderson as Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Minister of Propaganda (season 2)
• Lisa Paxton as Eva Braun, Hitler's wife (season 2)

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Episodes

Season 1 (2015)

The pilot and the second episode were screened at a special Comic-Con event. The season premiered on November 20, 2015.

Season 2 (2016)

The second season was released on December 16, 2016.

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Production

In 2010, it was announced that the BBC would co-produce a four-part TV adaptation of The Man in the High Castle for BBC One together with Headline Pictures, FremantleMedia Enterprises and Scott Free Films. Director Ridley Scott was to act as executive producer of the adaptation by Howard Brenton.

On February 11, 2013, Variety reported that Syfy was adapting the book as a four-part miniseries, with Ridley Scott and Frank Spotnitz as executive producers, co-produced with Scott Free Prods., Headline Pictures and Electric Shepherd Prods.

On October 1, 2014, Amazon.com began filming the pilot episode in Roslyn, Washington, for a new television drama to be aired on their Prime web video streaming service. This has been adapted by Frank Spotnitz and is being produced for Amazon by Ridley Scott, David Zucker and Jordan Sheehan for Scott Free, Stewart Mackinnon and Christian Baute for Headline Pictures, Isa Hackett and Kalen Egan for Electric Shepherd and Spotnitz's Big Light Productions. The pilot episode was released by Amazon Studios on January 15, 2015. Amazon Studios' production process is somewhat different from those of other conventional 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. On February 18, 2015, Amazon.com announced that The Man in the High Castle was given the green-light along with four other series, and a full season would be produced.

Production for the pilot episode began in October 2014. Principal filming took place in Seattle, with the city standing in for San Francisco and locations in New York City, as well as Roslyn, Washington, which was the long-time shooting location for Northern Exposure. Sites used in Seattle include the Seattle Center Monorail, the Paramount Theatre, a newspaper office in the Pike Place Market area, as well as various buildings in the city's Capitol Hill, International District, and Georgetown neighborhoods. In Roslyn, the production used external shots of the Roslyn Cafe which featured prominently in Northern Exposure along with several local businesses and scenery.

In April 2015, filming took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the downtown area of West Georgia Street, along the promenade of the Coast Capital Savings building. In May and June 2015 filming also took place at the University of British Columbia. Exterior shots of Hohenwerfen Castle in Werfen, Austria, were filmed in September 2015 for the tenth episode of the first season.

Amazon announced that they were bringing on new executive producer and showrunner Eric Overmyer for the third season to replace Frank Spotnitz after his sudden departure from the show during the middle of the second season.

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Reception

The first season received acclaim from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an approval rating of 95% based on reviews from 58 critics, with an average rating of 7.54 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states,

By executive producer Ridley Scott, The Man in the High Castle is unlike anything else on TV, with an immediately engrossing plot driven by quickly developed characters in a fully realized post-WWII dystopia.

Metacritic gives the first season a score of 77 out of 100, based on reviews from 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Meredith Woerner from io9 wrote, "I can honestly say I loved this pilot. It's an impressive, streamlined undertaking of a fairly complicated and very beloved novel." Matt Fowler from IGN gave 9.2 out of 10 and described the series as a "a superb, frightening experience filled with unexpected twists and (some sci-fi) turns". Brian Moylan of The Guardian was positive and praised the convincing depiction as well as the complex and gripping plot. The Los Angeles Times described the pilot as "provocative" and "smartly adapted by The X-Files' Frank Spotnitz". The Daily Telegraph said it was "absorbing" and Wired called it "must-see viewing". Entertainment Weekly said it was "engrossing" and "a triumph in world-building", cheering, "The Man in the High Castle is king."

After the season, Rolling Stone included it on a list of the 40 best science fiction television shows of all time.

Amazon subsequently announced it was the service's most-streamed original series and had been renewed for a second season. The second season was met with mixed reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gives it an approval rating of 63%, based on reviews from 19 critics with an average rating of 6.86 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states,

Although its plot is admittedly unwieldy, The Man in the High Castle's second season expands its fascinating premise in powerful new directions, bolstered by stunning visuals, strong performances, and intriguing new possibilities.

Metacritic gives season 2 a score of 62 out of 100, based on reviews from ten critics.

Accolades

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Advertising controversy

As part of an advertising campaign for the release of the first season, an entire New York City Subway car was covered with Nazi and Imperial Japanese imagery, as seen in the show, including multiple US flags with the Nazi eagle emblem in place of the 50 stars and multiple flags of the fictional Pacific States. In response to criticism from "state lawmakers and city leaders", the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) released a statement saying that there were no grounds to reject the ads because the neutral content subway ad standards prohibit only advertising that is a political advertisement or disparages an individual or group. MTA spokesperson Kevin Ortiz stated, "The MTA is a government agency and can't accept or reject ads based on how we feel about them; we have to follow the standards approved by our board. Please note they're commercial ads." Spokesperson Adam Lisberg said, "This advertising, whether you find it distasteful or not, obviously they're not advertising Nazism; they're advertising a TV show."

After complaints from New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, initial reports indicated that Amazon pulled the advertisement from the subway. It was later announced that it was the MTA, not Amazon, that pulled the ad because of pressure from Cuomo.

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See also

• Fatherland, 1994 TV film
• SS-GB, 2017 TV series

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References

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External links

• Official website
• The Man in the High Castle on IMDb

Source of article : Wikipedia