I've enjoyed all the first 3 seaons of TMITHC, but this season is like all these long shows trying to find a way to tie itself up into a story with an actual ending. I don't see an ending in this series at this point. Does that mean they did a poor job or it, or they will have another season?
What do you think? Did S4 mean anything to you? Did it make sense?
It certainly didn't have an ending as disappointing as "Game of Thrones," but I have to admit I'm disappointed. It feels like there are things they were tying to set up that just didn't pan out they way the producers had hoped. The total absence of trade minister Tagomi (brilliantly played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) feels like an unplanned absence that the showrunners are coping with, rather than anything they intended. Also, there is the film of Luke Kleintank's Joe Black shooting Julianna Crane in the portal tunnel complex -- a film which ultimately seems to signify nothing -- that makes the series look like the writers and producers either lost the actors and had to make alternate plans, or else they are just taking an unexpected sharp turn, for the sake of subverting expectations, even if that makes no logical sense. (Spoiler alert!) When Julianna killed Joe Blake in season three, I rather expected that the film would be explained somehow by the alternate universe Joe Blake stepping in somehow to create what looked like Julianna's execution, but actually turned out to be part of the hereoes' plan to defeat the Axis -- or at LEAST a possible Axis-triumphant future they somehow definitely avoided (if the future is not set). Instead, it feels like this season ignores Joe Blake ever existed at all. It feels like they planted clues that a clever viewer might possibly anticipate, and then were unable to deliver because of unexpected production difficulties or actor unavailability; to then they did something else and claimed that was the plain all along. As a result, the ending doesn't feel natural. And while I said, it isn't nearly on a "Game of Thrones" level of stupendously awful disappointment, it is still somewhat unsatisfying.
>> The total absence of trade minister Tagomi (brilliantly played by Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) feels like an unplanned absence that the showrunners are coping with, rather than anything they intended.
That was certainly one big factor ... why the hell did they build up such a great character, and then just kill him off like they did? That really made me mad. It doesn't seem like the actor died or anything.
There was also a really good scene in the book where Tagomi's office is rushed by Nazis that I was hoping would make it into the series.
I think the obvious finale to compare it with is exactly that ... Game Of Thrones. Maybe The Man In The High Castle was not as big and important a production, but there were some similaries, and they both created their own worlds.
I think what they did with TMITHC was worse than GOT because at least GOT pulled everything together into a kind of explanation where TMITHC just made it worse.
And where did this BCR come from? It seemed like they were the only people interested in fighting the Pons. The whole scene with the American flag was there just as a political move by the shows writers.
The white American army defectors wanted to return the U.S. back to what it once was which the American flag represented.
America in the 40's would mean oppression, second-class citizenship, lynchings, etc. for black people like in the BCR which is why they didn't want to return back to it and rejected the flag.
The series is extremely expensive to produce. Initially it was an edgy out there series that gained attention and subscribers for Amazon prime. But ratings dropped after first season and new competition from Disney changed priorities. They tried to kill it after S3 but I think Ridley Scott who us very powerful in Hollywood convinced them to try to tie a bow on it and end it. It easily can go on but I think it was a decent ending. Now sometimes things are canceled and take a life of its own in syndication or viral pass along such as Star Trek and be revived at some point. I have no inside knowledge and this is opinion only.
It was a poorly tied bow. If they cannot do a final season well they should not do it at all. Star Trek was over 50 years ago, nothing really since it like that.