I had to do some quick googling to get all of the characters names straight, but otherwise picked it right back up.
The Finance Minister’s story line went in a slightly different direction than I expected, given where we last saw him.
Smith’s son is featured early on, but then not seen again. Was anyone else surprised to find out why Smith had given his wife a gun?
The other thing that was interesting is that we apparently have 2 men in high castles. Both sides are trying to use the films to figure out what to do next.
I finished it last night. While I enjoyed it I do have some concerns with the direction the show took this season. I’ll wait for everyone to catch up before I post about it.
Just watched episodes 2 & 3 last night. I can tell I’ve got Star Wars on the brain these days. My wife and I were watching it, and there was a part where someone said something to Frank like “You only care about yourself and not doing the right thing?” And Frank basically said “Yeah, that’s right.” I turned to my wife and said, “He’s Han Solo.” Then later in the episode,
the Resistance team was rescuing the people from the factory being put on the bus for execution, and Frank was waiting in the taxi, but then the rescue went sideways-- when Frank saw what was going on, snuck in behind the hostage situation, picked up the gun and shot the Japanese cop, I said “And there’s Han swooping in during the Battle of Yavin.”
I also think this season was better than the first.
What’s interesting is the implication that there aren’t just multiple timelines (which we knew and is basically the entire premise of the series), but that each timeline is malleable. That the Man in the High Castle (if it actually is Stephen Root) can help shape the future he wants out of many options possible.
It’s also interesting that if you take the whole concentration camp thing out of the equation, you can portray the Nazis as the good guys. I mean, you may not like the world set up in this universe, and you may disagree with a lot of the ideals and lack of freedom…but i do think they’re trying to portray a reality that isn’t that much different from our own…or that much worse.
I understand why you might think that but I fully disagree. Living in Naziville is not so bad if you are white and healthy. If you aren’t one of those things the state will murder you and your friends and neighbors will cheer them for it. There’s a great scene in the first season where the small town sheriff talks about how the rending plant burns the drags on society night and day. It was horrifying how casual he was. Why do they decide those people have nothing to add to society or contribute? A white Aryan Nazi loses some freedom; everyone else loses so much more.
Separate from that, I do have a question: I know this is my fault for not paying attention to every episode as much as I should have but I think I missed confirmation of who actually poisoned Hitler. Was it really Joe’s father or was he another fall guy?
Other thought: I understand it comes right out of the original novel but I am not sure I like the whole shifting Parallel universes aspect of this. I think it would be a better show if it was just a straightforward story set in another world.
I’m not entirely certain that the series has a clear story arc that is going to be resolved to my satisfaction but hey! I’m going along for the ride and enjoying it.
A couple of things that occur to me.
It is interesting to see how the concepts of Speer et al look when properly rendered on screen, impressive to say the least (and oppressive by design…but so it goes with all empires I think).
Also, Rufus Sewell looks far, far better in Nazi regalia than he should be comfortable with.
Lastly, for all the button-pushing, box ticking hotness of the various beautiful young things, I think Helen Smith is the one that most likely to provide a blitzkrieg in bed, plus I suspect she’d provide a stunning breakfast in the morning. If loving a nazi-supporting master-race aryan goddess is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.
No, they occurred and were mentioned a few times in the series.
I thought it was Heydrich who was planning on killing Hitler (while Wegener actually went to try to do the act itself). Joe’s father is Heusmann, unrelated to both.
The ‘shifting’ between parallel universes is unique to the show.
The novel had Tagomi vaguely perceive an alternative San Francisco and Juliana believes that “Inner Truth” is that Japan and Germany lost WW2 (after being told that The Grasshopper Lies Heavy was written with help from the i Ching). And the Allied victory in “The Grasshopper Lies Heavy”, which was a book rather than films in the novel, had an entirely different ‘alternate history’ where the US and UK ended up in a Cold War.
There are some great Easter Eggs in the miniseries for history buffs.
The school that John Smith’s son attends is the “Fritz Julius Kuhn” school, which is named after the leader of the Pre WWII pro-Nazi organization the German-American Bund.
General Onoda appears to be Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese officer who (in our timeline) was the last holdout Japanese soldier who refused to surrender and hid in the jungles of the Philippines for 29 years until the 1970s. (He died at the age of 91, honored by Japanese militarists, in 2014) In the mini-series timeline, he apparently came out of the jungle (or the Japanese successfully conquered the Philippines, and there was no need for him to hide) and was eventually promoted to General.
I also enjoy the Easter eggs. In season one the airport we call JFK was also named after a well known at the time American fascist whose name escapes me but I Googled it at the time.
I just finished season 2 today. Really enjoyed it.
Some random observations:
During season 1, I was a bit bored with Frank’s story, but I found him more compelling this time, alas. I wonder if we will continue to follow the adventures of Ed and ‘Bob’.
I’ll probably rewatch the whole thing. I want to see Juliana’s first meeting with Stephen Root again, to see how well his treatment of her jibes with their meeting at the end.
Alexa Davalos is terrific. I been a fan of hers since her few appearances in Angel, though she’s been in relatively few projects it seems. I hope this leads to even bigger things for her.
One thing I wondered–when Tagomi goes to the other universe, what happens to the ‘consciousness’ of the Tagomi from that universe?
I thought we were lead to believe that he had jumped off a bridge but his body never found. I gathered that he was a drunk, broke the cup and left the house. Julia followed him but lost him around the bridge in the fog.
Quimby wrjote: "I also enjoy the Easter eggs. In season one the airport we call JFK was also named after a well known at the time American fascist whose name escapes me but I Googled it at the time. "
My impression, based on Tagomi’s talk with his assistant, is that you can only travel between realities when your copy is dead where you’re going. That’s based on the coincidence of both of them meeting that criteria, which I admit is thin.