4 ms·

Man in the High Castle was a bit of a let down. It didn't have the ambiguities of the book that made the alternate history complex and interesting. The TV sho

Man in the High Castle was a bit of a let down. It didn't have the ambiguities of the book that made the alternate history complex and interesting. The TV show was too much of a comic book with nice sharp moral edges.

hkmurakami 9y ago
Never read the book (been meaning to!) but thought their cinematography was solid, and that the supporting cast puts on a strong performance. Agreed though that the protagonists' arcs are very cliche and flat.
- moomin 9y ago
  Oh seriously, there were 100 great performances in TMITHC, but there were two aching voids where the lead characters should have been.
- rangibaby 9y ago
  The book is pretty ...out there. It’s certainly not what I was expecting but it was interesting.
  - uptownJimmy 9y ago
    Ha! "Out there" is just par for the course with PKD.... Read "A Scanner Darkly", if you haven't already. That's one of the supreme weird tales.
    - e12e 9y ago
      Or "Martian timeslip". In fact "blade runner" is a pretty poor adaptation of the book (but a great film, imo). I'm not sure most of pkd would benefit too much from a "direct" film adaptation... I loved the man in the high castle for many of the changes and the overall style - but it seems the writers got a bit lost trying to round off the open ended story and fill in some blanks. Small wonder, considering the book.
    - falsedan 9y ago
      Most of PKD's stuff has a similar level of weirdness: paranoiac uncertainty in reality. They are fantastic at that. VALIS is on another level: PKD had a mental breakdown, thought a interstellar intelligent pink light told hime about his son's hernia, and wrote a book about the other things the light told him.
ghaff 9y ago
I like the MITHC series. But I admit that I have gone from must-see-TV to I'll get caught up one of these days.
s_kilk 9y ago
Not sure I agree, I thought High Castle did a decent job of undermining notions of historical and moral determinism, in that it manages to get the audience rooting for Obergroupenfurher Smith by the end, blurring the moral lines a fair bit.

hkmurakami 9y ago

Never read the book (been meaning to!) but thought their cinematography was solid, and that the supporting cast puts on a strong performance. Agreed though that the protagonists' arcs are very cliche and flat.

moomin 9y ago
Oh seriously, there were 100 great performances in TMITHC, but there were two aching voids where the lead characters should have been.
rangibaby 9y ago
The book is pretty ...out there. It’s certainly not what I was expecting but it was interesting.
- uptownJimmy 9y ago
  Ha! "Out there" is just par for the course with PKD.... Read "A Scanner Darkly", if you haven't already. That's one of the supreme weird tales.
  - e12e 9y ago
    Or "Martian timeslip". In fact "blade runner" is a pretty poor adaptation of the book (but a great film, imo). I'm not sure most of pkd would benefit too much from a "direct" film adaptation... I loved the man in the high castle for many of the changes and the overall style - but it seems the writers got a bit lost trying to round off the open ended story and fill in some blanks. Small wonder, considering the book.
  - falsedan 9y ago
    Most of PKD's stuff has a similar level of weirdness: paranoiac uncertainty in reality. They are fantastic at that. VALIS is on another level: PKD had a mental breakdown, thought a interstellar intelligent pink light told hime about his son's hernia, and wrote a book about the other things the light told him.

ghaff 9y ago

I like the MITHC series. But I admit that I have gone from must-see-TV to I'll get caught up one of these days.

s_kilk 9y ago

Not sure I agree, I thought High Castle did a decent job of undermining notions of historical and moral determinism, in that it manages to get the audience rooting for Obergroupenfurher Smith by the end, blurring the moral lines a fair bit.