MovieChat Forums > The Man in the High Castle (2015) Discussion > I have seen the first three episodes so ...

I have seen the first three episodes so far.

posted 8 years ago by ComicsRules
8 replies | jump to latest

I have loved every minute of it but confused about the films. Is this some kind of alternate universe or what? I'm very confused on how they had it in the book.

[–] Justincblount 8 years ago

Unfortunately, that's exactly what it is. Alternate universe crap. Pity.

[–] ComicsRules 8 years ago

Actually it's not crap I love it

[–] Justincblount 8 years ago

Just saying the words "alternate universe" makes me cringe. I wanted this show to take itself seriously.

[–] NotASpeckOfCereal 8 years ago

I like to call it alternate reality. You can call it alternate universe. Some call it an alternate timeline, but the 'alternates' don't seem like the past or future, just an alternate version of the present.

It's not crap. The other user thought it was going to be something different than it is I guess. Why he continues to hang in this forum even though he decided long ago that didn't like this story, I don't know.

This is an excellent show. Note that the show has long since deviated from the book, so whatever you hear about that, realize that this show is only loosely based on the book and is not supposed to be a faithful adaptation.

Also: some folk were unhappy with how season 2 started out sort of 'slow' (as they call it). Most agree that it eventually picks up and it really ends on a bang. But many others never felt it was slow -- it's really just development of a story that is more complex than the book. Since it's being told in long form (an ongoing series rather than a single film or a short mini-series), they're taking their time to develop it well.

Not that is without faults, but is still some of the best television out there.

RIP IMDb message boards!

[–] Justincblount 8 years ago

I like everything EXCEPT the alternate realities. If they gave a realistic explanation for the tapes, I'd be all for it. Example, "we" won the war but decided Germany had a good idea killing millions of people, so we decided to change the narrative and force everyone to accept it, so the next generation would believe it. If anyone admitted the truth, they get thrown in concentration camps. So a plausible conspiracy. Using meditation to go to an alternate "timeline" and bring back a film is not plausible. It's stupid. I still rated this a 9/10 by the way, and have every right to post.

[–] NotASpeckOfCereal 8 years ago

Using meditation to go to an alternate "timeline" and bring back a film is not plausible. It's stupid.

I'll just point out one last time that the show never told us how someone crosses from one reality to another.

You're assuming meditation from a scene of a single person who crossed over after meditating.

That's hardly a compelling conclusion, especially one strong enough to inform others with as fact. We don't know the mechanics of how one crosses over.

I hope you don't watch any Marvel films -- there's a whole BUNCH of stuff that happens there that isn't really plausible.

RIP IMDb message boards!

[–] InfiniteMonkeysTyping 8 years ago

Using meditation to go to an alternate "timeline" and bring back a film is not plausible. It's stupid. I still rated this a 9/10 by the way, and have every right to post.

Considering it is based on an all-time classic science fiction novel of the same name written by one of the all-time legendary authors of science fiction (Phillip K. Dick), the show should at least generally adhere to the premise of that novel -- and it does, including using meditation to visit alternate realities.

Granted, the show is quite different than the novel, but the basic premise is the same -- i.e., people living in a reality where Germany and Japan won WWII, and there be glimpses of an alternate reality in which the Allies won WWII instead.

There are no films in the book showing people this alternate reality, but rather the description of the alternate reality in which Germany and Japan lost WWII is found within a book (a book-within-the-book) named The Grasshopper Lies Heavy -- a book that is very popular among the people living in the Japanese-controlled pacific States, but is banned in the German-Controlled American Reich.

In Phillip K. Dick's novel, Abendsen (The Man in the High Castle) uses the I Ching to meditate similar to the way Tagomi does so in the TV series, and is able to travel to the alternate reality, also similar to Tagomi's TV character.

What Abendsen sees in that alternate reality is what he writes about in his Novel The Grasshopper Lies Heavy -- which people thought was a work of fiction. That book-within-a-book in Dick's novel is what is analogous to the films in the TV series.

...So being a fan of the science fiction book on which the TV show is based (I first read it 35+ years ago), I have no problem with the idea of traveling between alternate realities using meditation. The Book and series differ on which characters do this and to what extent, but the general idea is fine with me.

[–] ariff-wm 8 years ago

How dare you sir. I use meditation to go to an alternate timeline all the time.