Since
I have binged through its first season, not too long after it was released, I’d
like to offer a public service by giving a take on the show. The marketing and
advertising for “High Castle” positioned the series as an alternative history
story about what the world would be like if the Nazis and Japanese won World
War II. This idea has been tackled in other incarnations before, namely the
Robert Harris novel “Fatherland” and a cable movie that was made from that
book.
Alternative
history stories, however, are really more concerned with – or should be about –
what the politics, society and characters’ lives end up being like in a reality
that could have happened, but never did. “High Castle” is different than that,
and as a result may end up being disappointing to alternative history fans
drawn in by its premise as it was promoted. The DNA of its story comes from the
sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick, whose mind-bending works have been adapted for
film and TV with varying degrees of success.
“Blade
Runner,” “Total Recall” and “Minority Report” are all based on Dick’s fiction
and share certain similar plot developments in which certain actions can open
up or lead to different outcomes in fantastic or unreal fashion. “High Castle”
is really more about this kind of storytelling than about making the
alternative history seem believable or rooted in a new reality.
A
prominent element in trailers for “High Castle” is the existence of bootleg
newsreels that show the Allies winning the war. One thinks that explaining how
these newsreels came to be or what they mean would figure prominently in the
series, but it ended up being almost a soap opera masquerading as a thriller or
spy story, with intrigue around one character, and whether he is a double
agent, or whether his sympathies lie with the Nazis or a resistance group. This
goes on for the first six or seven episodes until the Phillip K. Dick sci-fi
elements really start to kick in, revealing the series’ real intentions.
I’ll
try to tell this part without spoiling anything. I’m not even sure I fully
understood all the twists or the mechanics of the plotting, but the concern
over the newsreels does re-surface in terms of another character, a Nazi
officer who is going to betray his comrades and attempt to assassinate Hitler
(still in power in the early 1960s, but aging and vulnerable, or so we think).
Suffice to say, pre-cognition (a prominent idea in “Minority Report”) comes
into play, leading to a different outcome than we expect. And, in parallel, one
of the powerful Japanese characters (who control the western half of the former
United States), finds himself suddenly in an alternate reality brought on by
the actions of that rogue Nazi in the east.
In
short, “High Castle” really should be thought of as a Phillip K. Dick
mind-bending sci-fi story, with a very slight alternative history veneer lacquered
on top of that.
