The Man in the High Castle on Amazon Prime

Does it address more about the former US-ie the situation for black people ?

No but I bet we will get more information in future seasons. The prelude to the last episode of the season showed the atomic bombing of Washington D.C. from John Smith PoV. That and some other off hand remarks gives me the feeling we will be getting more of his backstory in future seasons.
 

Faeelin

Banned
Three episodes in to Season 2, and the biggest problem I have is that it's boring. Nice visuals, and it's always good to see Stephen Root, but I just cannot get into it. So, so slow. Everything just seems so lethargic.

This show always has a ton of padding, alas.
 
How does a victorious Imperial Japan not develop nuclear weapons by the early 1960's? Ignoring how unbelievable and ASBish the show is, the idea Japan wouldn't be conducting nuclear tests by the mid 50's at the latest just reeks of plot convenience.
 
Quick question to people who have seen all of season two: is Italy, or the general situation in Europe, mentioned at all?


Nothing is mentioned if I remember in the book Ireland for example was just classed as "other" they don't mention if it was taken over or not but the map above does show its been taken over I can't see Italy being conquered though unless the war went somehow worse in this timeline than it did in otl for the Italians.
 

Skallagrim

Banned
I must say I simply love this series. A lot of work went into creating all of it, and just looking at the result, any flaws can be forgiven. Yes, the maps have some imperfections like old capitals and borders unrealistically remaining. I'm told the various Japanese-language signs are poorly spelled. The set designers were a bit too swastika-happy. It's a bit unrealistic to believe that Japan would not be looking into atomic weapons by this point. And yes, the series does have more padding than I'd have allowed if I were in charge of such things. (And I'd also add that in no actual case would the Germans name their empire the "Greater Nazi Reich". They never called themselves nazis! If they wanted to truly integrate other white peoples, and not call it "German", they'd have likely gone with "Greater Aryan Reich".)

But so what? It's engaging, provoking and mainstream AH. For that alone, it must be commended. If the above are the major points of criticism, that says a lot about how great a show it really is.


Does it address more about the former US-ie the situation for black people ?

It never really talked about what happened to minorities in the former US.

Without actually spoiling anything, the topic is mentioned off-hand and indirectly in a S2 conversation. Reference is made to "pre-Reich exterminations" in America, and this is then specified to refer to the Indians. This at least implied that there were also later exterminations. No reference to the reinstatement of slavery or anything like that is ever made, so I'm kind of guessing that the entire non-white population of Nazi-held North America has been exterminated.


Quick question to people who have seen all of season two: is Italy, or the general situation in Europe, mentioned at all?

Nothing is mentioned if I remember in the book Ireland for example was just classed as "other" they don't mention if it was taken over or not but the map above does show its been taken over I can't see Italy being conquered though unless the war went somehow worse in this timeline than it did in otl for the Italians.

Italy simply being pushed over and forced to be integrated into the Reich is actually rather realistic. After all, in this world, every enemy existing at that point has been defeated. The nazis are exploiting former Russia, Canada, the USA etc.

It's rather like Hitler to decide that everything within reach must be integrated into the New Order. If Italy gets uppity, it simply gets forced into compliance by far superior German military power. Italy needed the Germans to bail them out in Greece in OTL. How much trouble is a victorious Hitler, without any other foe to worry about, going to have when it comes to marching all over Italy? It simply gets integrated into the Greater Reich, which is multi-national "Aryan" instead of just German anyway, at that stage.
 
My cover of the series' world. I've mostly stayed true to the show's maps, down to fiddling with GProjector to convert the Mercator into Robinson projection, but I've changed a few things. The "Greater Nazi Reich" name for the Nazis in North America makes no sense, so instead I changed things around so that there is a National Socialist empire theoretically governed from Germania, but is in truth run by local National Socialist parties (not branches of the NSDAP, which is a German organization) and is distinct from Greater Germany proper. I also added an independent allied Italy and Spain, although their existence as independent states is questionable in the series. And I gave the Germans Antarctica because, while Antarctica is labeled neutral on the show's maps, I have a hard time not believing that Nazis in the show wouldn't take it. I also haven't finished season two, so I may change a few things, such as Atlantropa. That was a complete shot in the dark; if I managed to make the mark, tell me.

TheManIntheHighCastleFinal.png
 
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Zachanassian

Gone Fishin'
So, over the past few days, I watched all of Season Two. I enjoyed it, a great deal more than Season One, which felt like it had no idea where it was going. Still, they could have probably made Season Two five one-hour episodes instead of ten, cut out 50% of the stuff they put in there, and it would have been a lot better. There were a lot of plot threads that never really developed into much—Frank Frink's entire plotline, from the Yakuza to the Resistance, was probably the most blatant example of this; him and his buddies could have been left out altogether and nothing would have changed—but I still greatly enjoyed this season. Though, there was also a sense of the writers were purposely pushing several characters to the sidelines so that Season Three can be much tighter.

Also, as an aside, Vox called MitHC the "worst show on television" while Slate declared it to be the "second-best show Amazon has ever made".
 
Explain your theory? Smith doesn't seem like a Jew to me

Nothing conclusive, but:

1. It's stated in one of the last episodes that the Smiths have hid some of their genetic history.
2. When in charge of the American version of Auschwitz in Cincinnati, he apparently drank a lot to deal with it.
3. Less relevant but: a) his military records may have been destroyed in the atomic attack on DC, enabling him to fake some things (where better to hide from the wolves than in the wolfpack?); b) he seems utterly normal in '45 from what we've seen; c) he and his family don't exactly look like blonde haired, blue eyed Aryans; d) he's clearly no true believer in Nazi genetic doctrine.
 
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