The Man in the High Castle

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Season 1
Season #: 4, 3, 2, 1
User Score
7.3

Generally favorable reviews- based on 360 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 273 out of 360
  2. Mixed: 34 out of 360
  3. Negative: 53 out of 360
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User Reviews

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  1. raiderro
    Oct 22, 2018
    3
    The concept was awesome but the budget was minimal I'm assuming. Midway into the second season and all we've seen of this feared "resistance" is a handful of characters. It's not very believable! A lot of realities have been ignored here which makes the show somewhat disregard the realities and invalidates the whole possible outcome of the second world war and the occupation of America.The concept was awesome but the budget was minimal I'm assuming. Midway into the second season and all we've seen of this feared "resistance" is a handful of characters. It's not very believable! A lot of realities have been ignored here which makes the show somewhat disregard the realities and invalidates the whole possible outcome of the second world war and the occupation of America. The idea was awesome, execution not so much. But this is America, try to make a show too intelligent and you'll be cancelled after one season, keep that in mind!… Expand
  2. goodterling
    Jun 13, 2016
    2
    Every aspect of the show--from the music, to the soft, fuzzy look, to the slow dialog, to the pacing--seems calculated to put you to sleep. I have to constantly remind myself that everything is NOT supposed to be a dream sequence, because that's the visual language they're using for every scene. And this is coming from someone who loves other slow burn shows like Hannibal. The acting isEvery aspect of the show--from the music, to the soft, fuzzy look, to the slow dialog, to the pacing--seems calculated to put you to sleep. I have to constantly remind myself that everything is NOT supposed to be a dream sequence, because that's the visual language they're using for every scene. And this is coming from someone who loves other slow burn shows like Hannibal. The acting is good, Rufus Sewell is great, but they somehow managed to transform this compelling concept, skilled actors, and great production value into an incredibly boring product.… Expand
  3. Broyax
    Mar 28, 2019
    0
    Bien que le livre qui ait inspiré cette série soit moyen (et pas forcément très inspiré, hélas) il dépeint avec une précision glaçante ce monde alternatif au sein duquel les forces de l'Axe ont remporté la guerre et conquis l'intégralité des Etats-Unis, désormais partagés entre le Japon impérial et l'Allemagne nazie...

    Cette nouvelle géopolitique a bien été décrite par Philip K. Dick et    Bien que le livre qui ait inspiré cette série soit moyen (et pas forcément très inspiré, hélas) il dépeint avec une précision glaçante ce monde alternatif au sein duquel les forces de l'Axe ont remporté la guerre et conquis l'intégralité des Etats-Unis, désormais partagés entre le Japon impérial et l'Allemagne nazie...

    Cette nouvelle géopolitique a bien été décrite par Philip K. Dick et s'il est au moins une chose dont peut se targuer la série, c'est justement cette étrange ambiance de l'Amérique occupée. Le premier épisode de la série est déjà d'une mollesse sans précédent mais il faut bien un temps d'exposition pour nous plonger dans ce monde inédit...

    On note déjà des comédiens uniformément mauvais et un scénario bancal... et les épisodes suivants ne font que confirmer cet enlisement de l'écriture et une adaptation complètement à la masse (en dehors du cadre général bien sûr). S'il ne se passait pas grand-chose dans le livre, on atteint ici des sommets dans l'inaction et les bavardages incessants, les clichés et la somnolence.

    Et lorsqu'il arrive éventuellement un truc, c'est tout simplement invraisemblable et bien ridicule. En fait, les dialogues laissent toujours à penser qu'on va assister à quelque chose mais qui soit n'arrive pas, soit débouche sur un pétard mouillé. Les épisodes qui durent une heure donnent l'impression qu'ils en durent trois... et tout ça pour de la merde finalement !

    Et dire qu'ils ont étalé ce remplissage de conneries sur 3 saisons déjà, ça laisse pantois... Finir la première est un exploit, alors se taper les deux autres... au secours ! Immense déception donc.    … Expand
  4. 7blAGqV8SCJjw
    Nov 22, 2015
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This review contains spoilers, click expand to view

    This show has to be one of the most profoundly disappointing productions in recent years, and there have been a lot of disappointing productions. Philip K Dick wrote a wonderful alternative history that allowed the reader to imagine very dark events, but the show has done little to build on the original premise. The characters’ internal motivations largely make no sense, responding half-heartedly to acts of horrific barbarism. It feels like the script leaves no room for authentic emotion, focussing instead on having the characters do whatever it takes to move the plot along. For example, the protagonist (Juliana) continually acts in a grotesquely irresponsible way. Even after her boyfriend’s family has paid with their lives for her actions, he still stays loyal, never once lashing out with the anger that would naturally result from seeing your sister, niece, and nephew gassed because of Juliana’s mistakes. She repeatedly betrays his trust, only for him to react as if there’s no injury. Moreover she lies about her work for the resistance with a psychopathic ease. She similarly takes advantage of the loyalty shown her by the trade minister.

    On the other end of the spectrum DJ Qualls’ Ed McCarthy suffers from the lack of any consistent personality. He vacillates from resolved to weakling, from astute to naive, without any explanation. The scenes between him and Rupert Evans’s Frank Fink are some of the most trying in the show. The writers bypass the much-needed work of establishing the parameters of McCarthy and Fink’s friendship, skipping to an awkward dynamic whereby McCarthy persistently pesters Evans to undertake or avoid a course of conduct. Yet it’s clear that McCarthy’s simply there to provide rhetorical counterpoint at times when Juliana is out of town and thus unable to debate Frank. The show runner never establishes why McCarthy does any of what he does. Also, the character fluctuates dramatically, in one scene acting from extreme fear and risk aversion, while suddenly shifting to volunteer to take major risks for the leading couple of the show. Such change could be the product of an interesting narrative arc, in which McCarthy came to see the importance of their work for the resistance, but the show never explains his shift. Rather, he’s just scene to flip personalities.

    Setting aside the writing and character development, the show’s cardinal flaw is that it misses the opportunity to explore the more nuanced ways that an occupation of the United States might have affected the trajectory of our economy, culture, etc. For example, in the Japan-occupied zone, nearly all the Japanese characters speak perfect english, but the Americans only speak a smattering of Japanese. This makes little sense. Given the Japanese policies in other occupied territories (such as Korea and parts of China), one could only expect that the Americans of the pacific states would be forced to speak Japanese and adopt Japanese cultural practices. Here, we see nothing of the sort, aside from the occasional Judo class or a character saying Arigato as a rhetorical flourish. Why, for example, do Japanese characters adopt the attired of the Americans, and not the opposite. On the economic front, why is America largely unscathed by war and able to achieve the same level of economic development that we achieved as a victorious post-war nation. Rather than flush out any of these points, the show seeks just to set the stage for lots of fighting/action. It’s a shame.    … Expand
  5. ninjamammoth
    Jun 13, 2016
    0
    Guys don't bother, this show is horribly boring and filled with plot holes. The main characters seem to act without thinking about the consequences. Show is just utter crap, i don't get all the great reviews surrounding this series. No one in the series seems to act but just worry and worry about what is about to happen. Long and draggy screen time. Juliana is annoying as hell btw.
  6. vgithaca
    Dec 7, 2015
    3
    I wish I had read the reviews (bad ones, for some reason amazon and netflix shows tend to have a lot of good reviews) before wasting the weekend hoping something will happen in the show.

    3 points are mostly for the first episode. It seems like it took them 2 weeks to make the first episode and2 week to make the rest 9. The show stretched so far that it felt like the Nazi's were    I wish I had read the reviews (bad ones, for some reason amazon and netflix shows tend to have a lot of good reviews) before wasting the weekend hoping something will happen in the show.

    3 points are mostly for the first episode. It seems like it took them 2 weeks to make the first episode and2 week to make the rest 9.

    The show stretched so far that it felt like the Nazi's were starting to torture me instead of the characters. Mediocre acting and so many stupid (or lazy) plots.

    I should have stuck with watching Seinfeld (hmmm.. ) reruns!    … Expand
  7. luton
    Feb 25, 2016
    3
    A dull plot with nothing more than flat characters for an otherwise potentially good (yet not in the slightest original) idea. The viewer gets the impression of almost 0 research having been put into this film. It completely pandered to a an uneducated US-american audience, fails to explore the other winners of the war (Britain and Russia), fails to connect from end of the war viaA dull plot with nothing more than flat characters for an otherwise potentially good (yet not in the slightest original) idea. The viewer gets the impression of almost 0 research having been put into this film. It completely pandered to a an uneducated US-american audience, fails to explore the other winners of the war (Britain and Russia), fails to connect from end of the war via comprehensible causal relations (militarily, economically, logistically, politically, etc.) to an occupation of North America, etc. There's also no effort to integrate proper linguistic immersion, which would have happened (everywhere an occupying force goes, it spreads its language, whether a British, American, Japanese, German, Russian, Spanish, etc.). In short, this series is so lacking, it's something a pupil could come up with at school, but nothing of the calibre, one would expect from the film industry. I ceased watching after a few episodes, I simply could not put up with this rubbish. Visually, if you turn off the sound, the series seems nice. Oh, one other thing: they sing Edelweiß... (in English!) as the title song… despite the song being österreichisch. (Facepalm!)… Expand
  8. cpontier77
    Nov 22, 2015
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I very much wanted to like this series. It is so ambitious and (considering it's an Amazon headliner) during production possessed all the resources it would have needed to succeed.

    Acting was poor. Characters were thin and hard to relate to. Their emotions were poorly conveyed and their motivations were unclear. Someone close to the main character and she is essentially fine. She decides to do something and people close to her get hurt. Does she not have a heart? Or does she lack a brain?

    The entire universe that they create is laughable. As other users have pointed out, everything was stamped with a swastika. Likely because everyone constantly forgets they are being controlled by an outside power. For approximately two decades. Fat chance. Many objects/structures/vehicles were old/seemingly dysfunctional/generally crap. Yet the Germans had "superior tech" in this reality. Did they want to occupy and work hard at maintaining control in the United States just to turn it into a dump and laugh at it from Berlin? Everything within 2 episodes has cost a whole number in whatever the local currency was. 3 Yen for medicine, 2 Marks for food. 3 Marks for something else. So, no smaller denominations to pay for smaller purchases? That totally makes sense. On and on, the list of these inconsistencies grows as I begin episode 2.

    What I disliked the most was the cliché choices for environment designs. Anyone that has played Fallout or Bioshock will gag at how hard they try to replicate the vibes those games created.    … Expand
  9. real022
    Dec 27, 2015
    0
    This is so bad. Have not seen something as bad as this show for a long time.
    Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiid.
  10. sulli219
    Dec 3, 2015
    0
    Had to turn it off after about halfway through the first episode, there was no entertainment value to the show. The idea of the show seemed good but it completely failed.
  11. Alex_ser
    Nov 26, 2015
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I never wrote reviews before. But. This series is so laughable, that I felt obliged to.

    My main issue with it - alternate reality? Really? Yes, I've read the book and found it rather pretentious, but adequate for its time. And I had a flimsy hope that this show will be concentrated more around setting itself and less - around pseudo-philosophical rubbish.

    But no. Four main storylines. Three end nowhere and the last one...

    They kill Japan prince and it changes nothing.

    They can't kill Hitler, so it changes nothing too.

    Main heroine lets the main hero slip away. Great ending! So he just dissapears and the rest of them just standing there, whatching him. Breathtaking.

    And that last one, Alternate reality one. The ultimate ending. So if you are really, really, really want to go to another reality - you just have to wish it! Really, really hard. And - why not? You can be there.

    What a waste of time! It has more or less original setting - true, but the rest... I understand why it was the big hit in 1962. Before postmodernism and all that. But now? When we have all kinds of that stuff up to a pop-culture "icon" "Matrix".

    Stop beating the dead horse. Or, at least, try to make a zombie out of it. It might be fun.    … Expand
  12. Mike_M
    Dec 9, 2015
    2
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. High production values. Decent pilot and premise. Terrible writing and acting.

    The pilot episode is solid, and the production values are very high. And although this might be enough to hook some people, the first three episodes are riddled with moments of terrible writing, acting or both, that grow more frequent along the way, culminating in episode 3's The Marshall character, which is laughably atrocious melodrama and seems to come from another show entirely. It's as if a generation of superhero movies (good and bad) have primed the audience/filmmakers to a point where a show with this high of a budget would dare try a character this ridiculous, and in a show that wasn't supposed to be 'camp'.

    The occasional bad shot or edit is also present in each episode, as when Julianna throws the man off of the bridge, with terrible, unbelievable action and shots; or a few edits that jump or don't match, for no particular reason.

    Altogether, this show is in a dangerous area where it starts well enough to hook you (especially if you like the alternative history/sci fi premise) but falls apart very quickly.    … Expand
  13. kirkhilles
    Jul 14, 2016
    3
    I'm certainly no critic and more of an "average guy". My wife and I are 3 episodes in and watching it sucks. Its just an excuse to show a bunch of torture and war. Normally I LOVE the possibilities of "what ifs" and "alternate realities", but this isn't it. Again, WATCHING IT sucks. I'm not saying that it isn't "critically good", but I AM saying that I don't want to see it anymore nor everI'm certainly no critic and more of an "average guy". My wife and I are 3 episodes in and watching it sucks. Its just an excuse to show a bunch of torture and war. Normally I LOVE the possibilities of "what ifs" and "alternate realities", but this isn't it. Again, WATCHING IT sucks. I'm not saying that it isn't "critically good", but I AM saying that I don't want to see it anymore nor ever again and that's rare for me.

    There's nothing to be excited about. Nothing about this seems plausible in any form. There was no step-by-step of what happened, nor anything positive about what could've happened (certainly, there had to be SOMETHING good compared to our problems in our country today). Instead, its just a dreary, everybody is going to get tortured or killed type of show. It doesn't teach me anything. It doesn't get me excited about it. Frankly, I'm not really even sure what's going on as I have no reason to really focus on it. Just a bunch of boring characters.

    Pass. Too much other great TV out there. Maybe it gets better later, but I'm done with it.    … Expand
  14. Rattazustra
    Nov 20, 2015
    0
    If you do not know ANYTHING at all about history, economics, science, politics, psychology and war, this show may be enjoyable to you. If this is not the case it is very unlikely that you will find this watchable.

    The entire setup is implausible and sloppily written and pretty much nothing makes sense. The German translations of English signs are almost all wrong and that spells    If you do not know ANYTHING at all about history, economics, science, politics, psychology and war, this show may be enjoyable to you. If this is not the case it is very unlikely that you will find this watchable.

    The entire setup is implausible and sloppily written and pretty much nothing makes sense. The German translations of English signs are almost all wrong and that spells disaster for such a production. Not because the actual text would matter, but because it is a clear sign of amateurish work and producers who don't care about their own products.

    Then there is the swastikas and the constant use of the "Nazi" term. Nazis did not call everything they did and owned "Nazi-XYZ" and they certainly did not adorn EVERYTHING with swastikas. The show however seems to think that it has to maximize the NAZIness out of even a phonebooth. "Greater Nazi Reich" is about as dumb as it comes. Nazi is short for Nationalsozialismus, national socialism, but I am sure the creators of this show do not know that. Plausible names would have been "Deutsch-Amerika", "Amerikanische Staaten von Großdeutschland", or something else along the lines. "Größeres Nazi Reich"? No, not even close. That is as if an American occupation somewhere else would call itself "Embiggened Ammie Union".

    The worst thing however is that they could not even get the concept of an occupied state right. On one hand they present everything as Nazi-occupied and tyrannical, but then they completely fail to have all the things that such systems do. Freedom of travel?! Oh, please. How infantile. No tyrannical system EVER in the entire history of mankind allowed subjugated people freedom of travel. Not even it's own citizens had such freedom. Not in the Soviet Union and not in Nazi Germany.

    Such things matter. Not every piece of it all the time, but for the eventual product.

    The behavior of the characters is even worse. If my system got murdered literally a few meters away from me, I could not even imagine reacting like the woman in the show did. Also for the amount of brainwashing that most of the characters seem to have absorbed, there was simply never enough time between 1947 and 1962. Mere 15 years are not enough to brainwash an entire nation.

    Sloppy, incorrect, implausible, incredible, badly written. The book is actually better but it is a child of it's time. It doesn't help much that the reality portrayed in the setting is factually a "false" reality. Even false realities need to make sense within themselves.    … Expand
  15. hgoldman77
    Nov 30, 2015
    0
    How could so many review this show positively? It's a preposterous premise, acted, shot and written poorly. Who the heck understands why a film would control reality? Bad.
  16. alizilla
    Jan 10, 2017
    0
    Ep 1 & 2 showed great promise , I could barley make it to EP 10.
    After watching all 10 episodes I wish I hadn't. It was almost painful to watch as the season ended.
    Quick word of warning about the vastly over the top 'average' scores shown here and other sites. Scratch the surface on the majority of the professional critic reviews who gave this show glowing 10/10 scores and you will    Ep 1 & 2 showed great promise , I could barley make it to EP 10.
    After watching all 10 episodes I wish I hadn't. It was almost painful to watch as the season ended.

    Quick word of warning about the vastly over the top 'average' scores shown here and other sites.
    Scratch the surface on the majority of the professional critic reviews who gave this show glowing 10/10 scores and you will find they only watched episode 1 / strangely some of them refer to this as 'the pilot' which I cant understand given amazon had release the first 6 episodes for review at once.

    Makes me wonder if they even watched the same show I did.. I honestly think if they watched the first series in it's entirety their scores would be massively different.    … Expand
  17. Synycom
    Oct 23, 2018
    1
    Rubbish. The plot is so internally inconsistent you have to disengage your brain. The plot has more holes and character inconsistencies than Swiss cheese, it’s laughable. Difficult giving plot spoilers as it’s the video series equivalent of a compost heap. Just keep adding **** and hoping something good comes out at the end. Save yourself, it doesn’t.
  18. Jeddaz81
    Feb 1, 2018
    2
    the atmosphere and characters (with exceptions) are incredibly shallow and uninteresting. there is no effort made to show contemporary life in America, how the occupation has come about, how the Japanese and Germans divvied up the continent. all we see is swastikas and rising suns plastered everywhere and all the characters seem to be working poor folk living in squalor. I think thethe atmosphere and characters (with exceptions) are incredibly shallow and uninteresting. there is no effort made to show contemporary life in America, how the occupation has come about, how the Japanese and Germans divvied up the continent. all we see is swastikas and rising suns plastered everywhere and all the characters seem to be working poor folk living in squalor. I think the writers tried to make it feel like life in the Warsaw ghetto, but magnified to the continental u.s. Characters are written in haphazardly, with shadowy resistance leaders moving freely and interact with ease our protagonists. it certainly moves the plot along but certainly not in an organic way let alone in a realistic portrayal of what a police state would allow. Scenes often take place in the same settings giving off a low-budget-made-for-tv movie feel. I hope they make a proper re-make of this novel soon.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

52
#52 Best TV Season of 2015
18
#18 Most Discussed TV Season of 2015
26
#26 Most Shared TV Season of 2015

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
77

Generally favorable reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 30
  3. Negative: 0 out of 30
  1. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Michael Starr
    Dec 8, 2015
    63
    The series, in large part, fails to deliver on its fascinating premise. Simply put, it’s plodding, moves at a glacial pace and overreaches with too many diffuse narrative strands.
    Read full review
  2. Sioux City Journal
    Reviewed by: Bruce Miller
    Nov 23, 2015
    80
    Directed by David Semel, the first episode (now available on Amazon) sets a visual tone that immediately sets this apart from other thrillers.... By the second episode, you’ll want to know who’s really good and who’s bad and how the latter will meet their untimely deaths.
    Read full review
  3. We Got This Covered
    Reviewed by: Isaac Feldberg
    Nov 23, 2015
    90
    The first six episodes (all those provided to press ahead of release) consistently surprise in how they deepen those characters and weave their journeys together.
    Read full review
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