What a fantastic show The Man in the High Castle is! This is an Amazon Prime Original and one of the best to have that title. Now, before we get into this, I am going to try and be as cryptic as possible here as the less you know about this show, the more fun you are going to have with it.
How to Download The Man in the High Castle
You can download or stream the film from a digital platform. Click on the Download button at the end of this review and make your choice. Check out also other Amazon original TV shows, for example – The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, The Boys, or Reacher.
The Movie Review
While watching The Man in the High Castle, I had the same kind of feelings as I had when I watched Lost back in the day. I could not wait for the next episode to see what would happen next and the show does a fantastic job of making you want to keep on watching. There are four seasons comprising of 40 episodes so it is not too big of a commitment.
Before I saw the show, I knew the basics of it. The idea of the show being set in an alternate reality where the combined forces of the Nazis and Japan won World War II was something I found very interesting. However, the execution of this premise is something that truly blew me away.
The more I think about it, the more The Man in the High Castle is becoming one of my all time favorite alternate history shows! US President, Teddy Roosevelt is assassinated in 1933 which starts a chain of events that leads to the Allies losing World War II. This is just so fascinating to watch, but while this was the catalyst for the events we find the show in, the setting is actually the early 1960s at the start of the show.
The main setting of the show is the USA which is spilt into three parts. The Eastern part of the USA is led by Hitler and his Greater Nazi Reich. This Nazi America is pretty brutal, New York is the capital and they are still persecuting those that are different. They are technologically advanced though with stuff like video phones and other things that were not actually around in the 60s.
The West coast of America is ruled by Japan and is part of the Japanese Pacific State. San Francisco is the capital here and I love the mixture of Japanese and American culture here. They are not as advanced as the Nazis on the East side of the country are, but stylistically, I think they have a lot more going on.
Now, tensions between these two are pretty rough, to say the least, there is a kind of Cold War thing going on here and right in the middle of the country is a neutral zone. I like the idea of this as the alliance between Japan and the Nazis was rocky at best so you always knew it was not going to last.
That alone is a great premise for a TV show, right? Well, The Man in the High Castle throws a real curveball at you by having a character called, The Man in the High Castle who has a series of films, films that one of our main characters, Juliana manages to get her hands on.
On these films is footage from other Earths. On these other Earths, the Allies perhaps won the war or are fighting back against this new order of Nazis and Japanese oppression. This leads Juliana and some others to form a resistance and try and fight back, the films ultimately serve as hope and give them some ideas about how they can fight back!
This is just great stuff all around and I think that the first season is some of the best stuff Amazon Prime has done. The second season does not quite live up to the first, but it sets things up very well. Seasons 3 and 4 are great, almost as good as the first, and by the time you watch the finale, you will have been thoroughly entertained.
The Man in the High Castle is truly amazing TV! Trust me, you are best just knowing the basics of the show before you start watching it. It really does keep you glued to the screen and wanting to see what will happen, how the characters will get out of a tricky situation, and so on.
