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Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:44 pm
by Herdanos
It's an Amazon Prime exclusive (dat free trial! :toot: )

Having read the book, I was very excited for the series when I first saw the trailer (I think it was before Star Wars) and have recently been watching the series. It's different to the book, which is good as it makes it much less predictable, although the starting situation is the same and many of the same characters appear and events occur.

Anyway, I've seen seven episodes of the ten so far and I'm really enjoying it. I thought Rupert Evans was great at the end of the sixth episode (where they're saying a prayer for his sister and her children) and Rufus Sewell, the guy who plays Smith, is just perfectly cast. He just looks like an evil bastard. Was disappointed to see that the 'Marshall' hasn't been killed off yet but I live in hope. The guy who plays the antiques dealer looks like a Kevin Spacey lookalike. Cannot unsee.

Re: The Man In The High Castle

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 1:45 pm
by OrangeRKN
The book is amazing and I really want to see the series, but I don't have Amazon Prime and will continue to actively avoid using it so I'm holding out on a DVD release :(

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:00 pm
by TigaSefi
Someone said it entirely possible to watch the first show and the last show and miss nothing in between!

Re: The Man In The High Castle

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:02 pm
by Death's Head
OrangeRakoon wrote:The book is amazing and I really want to see the series, but I don't have Amazon Prime and will continue to actively avoid using it so I'm holding out on a DVD release :(

Can you not get a free month of Amazon Prime (a trial). I did this over Christmas and watched this then. :datass:

Very enjoyable and leaves me with a quandary when season 2 starts....

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:05 pm
by Cal
I tried reading the book a while back. Dreary is not the word. In the end - and I rarely do this - I just gave up and started reading Gore Vidal's 'Lincoln' instead. That's better!

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:09 pm
by Oblomov Boblomov
I finished it the other day. It keeps getting better and by the end I was hooked.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 2:17 pm
by OrangeRKN
Cal wrote:I tried reading the book a while back. Dreary is not the word. In the end - and I rarely do this - I just gave up and started reading Gore Vidal's 'Lincoln' instead. That's better!


Now I understand why people always say you're wrong

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:40 pm
by Alvin Flummux
I'm reading it right now, actually. Pretty good stuff so far.

How close is the show to the book? I saw the pilot and have noticed a few big differences, but how does the rest of the series compare? Without spoilers if possible. :)

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:42 pm
by Herdanos
Alvin Flummux wrote:I'm reading it right now, actually. Pretty good stuff so far.

How close is the show to the book? I saw the pilot and have noticed a few big differences, but how does the rest of the series compare? Without spoilers if possible. :)

IMO, they've gone down a different route by having the same characters, same starting scenario, and some of the same events occurring during the show's run, but there are differences - a few characters are slightly different, some have different relationships to others than are in the book, some are a different good/evil alignment, etc. - so it's more 'inspired by' the book than a faithful adaptation. Which is good because they're going for a second season! :toot:

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 3:49 pm
by darksideby182
Watched it over Xmas surprised how good it is and the theory works well.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 6:52 pm
by <]:^D
i want to watch it but hard to find the time when we're all in. dont want to to watch it by myself (although i will in a pinch).

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:38 pm
by Squinty
Cal wrote:I tried reading the book a while back. Dreary is not the word. In the end - and I rarely do this - I just gave up and started reading Gore Vidal's 'Lincoln' instead. That's better!


I haven't read this book, but the stuff I have read from him is sort of mixed. A Scanner Darkly is just something I could not enjoy at all. I remember reading that his drug problem was really bad around this point. His writing in that book was just hard to follow for me.

Ubik and Do Androids... are damn fine books though. I'd recommend them.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:39 pm
by Fatal Exception
I found it really strawberry floating dragged. Started off good, but too much talking and not enough about the films.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:23 am
by Poser
Loved the book. (Fascinated with alternate history stuff, TBH.)

Watched half the first episode before my strawberry floating TERRIBLE internet speed let me down. Though it started ok, I wasn't grabbed by it and haven't felt the need to go back. Didn't help that the grainy lo-res I was getting was making it hard to make out what was happening.

Also, it was all just so very serious, and I'm not in the right frame of mind for stuff without jokes at the moment. This is a fault of mine, not the series: I do understand that you can't really play the theme of occupied America for laughs :slol:

In the end, we've started watching S2 of Fargo, which is much funnier.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:45 am
by Moggy
I want to watch this as I enjoyed the book and like Poser am fascinated with alternate history but refuse to pay for an Amazon Prime sub. Next time they offer me a free trial I will binge watch it.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 10:48 am
by Preezy
I'm part of the Netflix-Only brigade so haven't seen this, but it's a very intriguing concept and I'll probably pick up the book at some point.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:05 am
by Poser
Preezy wrote:I'll probably pick up the book at some point.


I can strongly recommend going one step further and actually reading it, too.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:07 am
by Preezy
Poser wrote:
Preezy wrote:I'll probably pick up the book at some point.


I can strongly recommend going one step further and actually reading it, too.

Meh, we'll see.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 11:33 am
by Herdanos
It's a great book, one of my favourites.

Re: Anyone else watching The Man In The High Castle?

Posted: Wed Mar 09, 2016 12:07 pm
by Photek
Watched first 3 episodes on the 'never never' :shifty: (you cant get Amazon Prime in Ireland) I just can't get into it, it just looks cheap and some of the scenes are laugh out loud funny in how blatant they are about its subject matter.

Gassin the family in that room, absolutely ridiculous nod to the war, they'd have just shot them if wanted, plus leaving the brother alive makes zero sense. "are you in the resistance?" "no" ok we'll gas you sister and her kids" "but im not" ok you can go free! :fp:


For comparison, 11.22.63, although slightly diff from the book is a great book to tv show.