https://www.hbo.com/hbo-news/the-plot-against-america-david-simon
We also have the cast list on IMDb as well as on set photos... Thoughts and opinions?
We also have the cast list on IMDb as well as on set photos... Thoughts and opinions?
HBO's The Plot Against America
- Thread starter Danthefan28
- Start date
I guarantee you someone in this is gonna say something along the lines of "Make America Great Again".
And at the end of the final episode an announcer will proclaim, "...And remember folks, a vote for Elizabeth Warren is a vote against fascism!" - I don't mind people using art to express their political views, but there comes a point when it is no loner entertaining, and it just turns into a shrill lecture. Yeah I got it already, orange man bad, but can we please get back to some quality thought provoking entertainment?
Article on Gamespot about the new HBO series:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hbos-the-plot-against-america-reimagines-wwii-with/1100-6472780/
Looks interesting, not that long to find out.
Nice that Alternative History stuff is getting made.
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/hbos-the-plot-against-america-reimagines-wwii-with/1100-6472780/
Looks interesting, not that long to find out.
Nice that Alternative History stuff is getting made.
kholieken
Banned
And yet large number still shout "Jews will not replace us", maybe entertainment need more obvious and more " in the face" about "Nazi is bad" lesson. Some anvil need to be dropped, continuously.
Though that argument depends on the property in question having nothing going for it besides the lecture. If it’s entertaining and well-acted as well as that, I can stand being lectured.
Like: I rolled my eyes when the villain in Black Lightning said ‘Let’s make America great again’, because it had all the subtlety of an anvil. But I didn’t mind when something similar was done in Legends of Tomorrow - because there it was funny (Gorilla Grodd tries to assassinate Obama while he’s still a college student, and beforehand says ‘It’s time to make America Grodd again’
) as well as being political.TL; DR - that stuff gets annoying after a while when it’s all the show or whatever has to lean on or when the message is just there, with no frills, even if it’s a message you agree with. But if the show’s entertaining besides that, and presents the message in a good and not too anvilicious way? Then we good.
Though that argument depends on the property in question having nothing going for it besides the lecture. If it’s entertaining and well-acted as well as that, I can stand being lectured.
Like: I rolled my eyes when the villain in Black Lightning said ‘Let’s make America great again’, because it had all the subtlety of an anvil. But I didn’t mind when something similar was done in Legends of Tomorrow - because there it was funny (Gorilla Grodd tries to assassinate Obama while he’s still a college student, and beforehand says ‘It’s time to make America Grodd again’
TL; DR - that stuff gets annoying after a while when it’s all the show or whatever has to lean on or when the message is just there, with no frills, even if it’s a message you agree with. But if the show’s entertaining besides that, and presents the message in a good and not too anvilicious way? Then we good.
Aw, that's disappointing. I was even considering finding the book and read it.
I was hoping there wouldn't be any SJW themes/ Wokeness involved in the show.
They pretty much did a little bit of that in TMITHC, especially during season 4.
I used to be ecstatic about shows/movies being adapted, but now it's almost expected for them to be politicized, regardless of necessity.
Why not just wait for it to come out? If it’s good then even if one’s not a fan of ‘wokeness’ (myself, I happen to like greater diversity and socially progressive messages but they need to be done well and not just as a token thing) one can appreciate acting, writing etc.
While I think it’s necessary to have more than the message for a show, avoiding it because ‘wokeness’ seems weird. If it’s well-acted and well-written, that’s the main thing, and if it isn’t then it’s not worth watching whether it’s’woke’ or not.
The book was more a reaction on 9-11, the consequential changing attitude towards muslims in parts of the population and mostly on the possible consequences of the patriot act. As it was published in 2004 i consider this book pre-woke. When it came out it wasn't really considered hip. I read it and i personally would give it a 7.5 out of 10. For a one time trip to alternate history the writter didn't do a bad job. The timeline is the weakness, but how he translates it to ordinary lives is very good.
I remember wanting Kassandra to stab Kleon for saying "I will make Athens great again!" in AC: Odyssey but the game wouldn't let me. Yet.
As for the novel, I remember reading it when it came out and was a bit underwhelmed. Especially with how the timeline snapped back into the real world at the end.
As for the novel, I remember reading it when it came out and was a bit underwhelmed. Especially with how the timeline snapped back into the real world at the end.
Another Alt History TV series not coming to dvd, and I've got the novel too at home.
LW
LW
In that sense, it's easier to read the book as just one kid's nightmare of being thrust from childhood into the problems of the adult world than it is to read it as any kind of actual alternate history, so that snapping back is appropriate for waking from a nightmare.
I am choosing to base my assumptions on the show based on my view of the book and the general trend of adaptations of books (especially AH books) being at least slightly worse than the books (Man in the High Castle being the most recent example of this, as it kind of lost its footing once it had lost source material for its final season).
The big concern I have is the book was only ever decent IMO. I put it on a bit of a pedestal for a long time because it's the book that introduced me to alternate history that wasn't just the CSA mockumentary, but having considered the book since I have come to the conclusion it was heavy-handed and at times did not do the research-for instance having Burton K. Wheeler become Lindbergh's VP when Wheeler was a progressive Democrat isolationist though he may be and furthermore have him be authoritarian. Additionally the novel has everything resolve itself way too neatly (FDR just comes back in 1942 and gets to be president again because reasons and then history just returns to normal).
So needless to say I am not optimistic that the HBO series will be good, even without taking into account the current socio-political climate that will likely make this come off as overly preachy (and while saying anti-Semitism is bad is obviously a good moral, I don't think being heavy-handed and unsubtle about that point is actually helpful).
The big concern I have is the book was only ever decent IMO. I put it on a bit of a pedestal for a long time because it's the book that introduced me to alternate history that wasn't just the CSA mockumentary, but having considered the book since I have come to the conclusion it was heavy-handed and at times did not do the research-for instance having Burton K. Wheeler become Lindbergh's VP when Wheeler was a progressive Democrat isolationist though he may be and furthermore have him be authoritarian. Additionally the novel has everything resolve itself way too neatly (FDR just comes back in 1942 and gets to be president again because reasons and then history just returns to normal).
So needless to say I am not optimistic that the HBO series will be good, even without taking into account the current socio-political climate that will likely make this come off as overly preachy (and while saying anti-Semitism is bad is obviously a good moral, I don't think being heavy-handed and unsubtle about that point is actually helpful).
That is not going to help the show, I agree, but I think the biggest risk the show faces is it is working with a source material that to begin with was just kind of OK. Any adaptation (most likely) can only be as solid as the material it comes from and often it is of a lower quality.
I think they might scrap that ending if only so they can try to milk the show for more than a season.
The answer is simple: who says they won't resort to that? If they really wanna milk this series thinking it can be their Man in the High Castle, HBO very easily could just make Plot Against America a Holocaust in America story-it would not be original or all that good in all likelihood (I could see them doing the Holocaust-in-America plotline while still having the Walter Winchell 1944 presidential bid plotline still happen), but it's very possible.
The more I think about this the more I realize I am less confident in this adaptation being good than I am in the Steins;Gate live-action adaptation being good and the latter is an anime live-action adaptation.
In the book, the closest Lindbergh gets to an American Holocaust is an 'Americanization program' that sends young Jews to live in Christian households in the American heartland for a few months. It's kinda voluntary I think (albeit having the goal of weakening the Jewish identity of American Jews) and the narrator's brother gets sent on that program and comes back with a fondness for bacon, a southern twang in his dialect and a disdain for his family's 'insular Jewishness' or something like that.
No yeah I know that.
It’s just I expect the series to go beyond the book for ‘resonance’/shock and horror