What To Expect From The Man In The High Castle TV Show

The future of television is slowly rearing its head towards subscription streaming services a few degrees at a time. It now makes much more sense for fans of TV to pay a little every month to access a whole library of shows and films than it does for us to cough up for a DVD every time we want to watch a new series.

Netflix have been quick to take this one step further, steadily launching their own array of original programming. Amazon Prime, its biggest competitor, has been slower off the mark, which makes its upcoming adaptation of The Man in the High Castle so intriguing.

While Netflix can already boast some serious additions to the cultural Zeitgeist (House of Cards, Orange is the New Black, Daredevil) Amazon have so far only managed to penetrate popular culture with the Golden Globe winning Transparent. The Man in the High Castle though, seems almost perfectly designed to grab our collective attention.

Here’s why:

It’s based on a classic of sci-fi literature
The Man in the High Castle is written by one of the grandfathers of modern science fiction, Philip K. Dick. When it came out in the 1960s it even won a Hugo Award, which probably meant more then than it does these days. The book practically put the alternative history genre on the map in literature.

As we currently live in a ‘golden age’ of television showrunners have had to work harder and harder to offer quality drama. If Amazon’s adaptation doesn’t shy away from the complex themes Dick’s work explored they might just have a contender on their hands. The trailer released at Comic-con certainly gives cause for optimism on this front.

The premise is simple: we all know that the axis powers (Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan) lost the second world war to the allies. But what if they had won? What if they’d invaded America and split it between them along the Rocky Mountains? How would history have played out?

There are Nazis
Nothing gives the good guys a free pass more than the bad guys being Nazis. It’s basically why there are so many first person shooter games about the Second World War – we feel okay shooting them because they’re fascist war criminals.

Admittedly, Philip K. Dick seems to have infused his novel with a little more depth than that. Rather than just getting shot at, the Nazis in this show will hopefully provide some complex villains who we can enjoy hating. Rufus Sewell, who plays a Nazi in the show, is frequently cast as the bad guy, but he doesn’t get enough credit for bringing likeability to some of his characters. Don’t be surprised if you secretly enjoy him being on screen.

There are big names attached to the project
Rufus Sewell isn’t a Hollywood star, but he is a well-respected actor who lends his credibility to the show. He’s not the only one, though. It can also boast Blade Runner director Ridley Scott as an executive producer and X-Files alumni Frank Spotnitz as its main writer.

Meanwhile, the cast is fleshed out by Hellboy’s Rupert Evans (who has a history in the Royal Shakespeare Company) and Clash of the Titans’ Alexa Davalos.

It’s a historical period drama
Everyone loves a costume drama, don’t they? People can’t get enough of Downton Abbey, and Cillian Murphy’s electric performance in Peaky Blinders has made it unmissable.

The Man in the High Castle will be chock-a-block with old timey clothes, cars, hairstyles and other fashions. People seem to love that sort of thing, but here it’ll get twisted on its head. Will styles and culture be different thanks to the influence of fascism in the show’s alternative timeline?

Will popular music have followed the same trajectory as in our history, with the evolution of rock n’ roll? The show is set in 1962, a year before The Beatles released their first album, Please Please Me. Will this still be a thing in the show?

The Man in the High Castle is set to premiere on November 20th this year in what looks to be one big Netflix-style mega drop.