The Man in the High Castle – and the Philip K. Dick novel on which it’s based – asks, What If the Axis powers had won World War II? The story gives an America divided in two. The eastern half is now the Greater Nazi Reich. The west coast is the Japanese Pacific States. A neutral zone runs the length of the Rockies. A straight, healthy, white American can live quite happily in the Greater Nazi Reich, as long as they’re comfortable being Nazis. Americans are definitely second-class citizens in the Japanese Pacific States, and they are treated as such and worse. I believe the more pressing question is, What If you saw your country change from Freedom to Fascism? What If you grew up in that world? Would you be strong enough to stand up for what’s right? Would you even know what’s right?
In the third season of The Man in the High Castle, the cold war between Japan and the Nazi Reich is getting warmer. The Nazis have employed an unofficial oil embargo on Japan, reeking havoc with the economy on the west coast. Meanwhile, Japan has developed the Bomb, which they believe will restore balance to the world. This season has all of our characters trying to maintain balance in a world that’s so off-kilter it shouldn’t even exist. There is at least one parallel universe out there, which you and I can consider ours. The Allies won the war and history progressed as we know it. The Nazis want to conquer this sister universe, the Resistance wants to achieve it, and the Japanese have a curious fascination with it. It is possible to travel from one Earth to another, but only if your counterpart on the other side is dead. Balance must be maintained.
The Man in the High Castle is smart. It demands your attention and it doesn’t talk down to you. The writing on this series is as good as anything you’ll find on television, and it’s better than most. The art direction is incredible. The Nazi Reich is covered with monolithic, gray slabs, some of which seem to go on forever. Whenever the show takes us to the Reich, the colors are so grey and muted, there are times it looks black and white. The Pacific States on the other hand – the Land of the Rising Sun – is bright and colorful, but much more seedy. Everything looks like it’s covered in dust in the Neutral Zone. What I get most from this series is that it’s not simply an adaptation of Dick’s biggest selling novel, it’s a story that the creators feel it is necessary to tell.
My favorite thing about the series is its cast. This is probably the best ensemble you’ll find on television. With the Resistance we have Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) who still has not come to realize how important to the overall story she is. This series would not work at all if Davalos were not so remarkable in it. Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa plays Trade Minister Nobusuke Tagomi. Tagawa is outstanding. The Trade Minister is a Traveller between the two worlds and he seems to understand that our world is the way things are meant to be. Leading the cast of Nazis is Rufus Sewell as (eventual) Reichsmarschall John Smith. Sewell might be the best thing about the series. Smith is completely loyal to the state. But he’s seen the other side through smuggled reels of film. His son is alive on the other side. His son who happily turned himself over to the state for the crime of muscular dystrophy and was destroyed for it. DJ Qualls is also great as Ed McCarthy, the sweetest guy in this awful world, and I really enjoy William Forsythe’s take on J. Edgar Hoover. Then there’s the Man in the High Castle himself, the wonderful Steven Root. I’ve loved him in everything I’ve ever seen him in. Actually, there’s not a weak link in this cast.
And my question is still pressing. Would we do anything if we saw or country turning into a fascist state? Would we even notice? Did Germany in the 1930’s see what was coming at all. People who thought they had life-long friends were suddenly shunned and worse by them. John Smith grew up in a pre-War America, yet seemingly had no qualms about joining the Nazis once they won. I have to think we’re better than that, but those Germans probably thought they were too. Why didn’t they immediately turn their backs on a man who campaigned on a platform of hatred and bigotry? A man who showed open contempt for the disabled, for homosexuals, or for anybody who didn’t measure up to his standard of beauty? A man who constantly threatened other nations without reason? Surely, once they heard he was separating families and caging innocent children, they would have rebelled, right? But they didn’t. Of course, nothing like that could happen here. I have to believe we’d see it coming.
The Man in the High Castle is streaming on Amazon Prime.
