Man In The High Castle Is Still The Worst Alternate History Show Ever (Video Essay)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- My first video about this was bad. Here is a better one. My thoughts still haven't changed on this show btw.
Man in the High Castle is a strange world, on the one hand the book is good and the world building is utterly fantastic with good antagonists John Smith and Inspector Kido but fails with it's messy plots and horrible main protagonist Julianna Crane.
Chapters:
0:00 - Prologue
0:40 - Intro
1:26 - Characters
3:30 - (Lack Of) Plot
5:33 - Rushing
6:47 - Epilogue & Outro
#videoessay
#essay
#film
#tv - ภาพยนตร์และแอนิเมชัน
These uniforms and john smith carried me through 39 episodes
fair
Hugo Boss made a really snappy uniform for sure.
Gotta love John Smith. Shooting himself was totally lame. Of course, I guess he knew some bullet somewhere had his name on it!
IO would have loved a show only about the take over of America by the nazis. what a waste of potential
@@lindalaceyblevins5527Pretty much. Juliana was going to kill him if he didn't.
I could not care less about the resistance, multiple timeliness, or Joe's family problems at all. I liked all of John Smith, his family drama and conflicts with German High command then his rise to power. I liked the political tension between the Germans and the Japanese. I read once that this show should've been an Alt history version of Game of Thrones entirely centered on politics and secrecy, with no resistance or timelines and I totally agree. It would've been cool if Juliana was a woman trying to survive in Japanese controlled America and using her intelligence and savvy to rise to influence in a nation that treats her as a second class citizen due to her race.
Yeah I watched the show thinking Smith was the main character
John Smith is the only reason I continue to watch!
They missed the chance to make an absolute belter of a show for utter drivel
Bad book then@@BeauOneil
yeah but so what it was terrible@@BeauOneil
Kido and John carried that show imo... i always got bored if somebody else had the scene
Thats the problem with making characters too smart when they aren’t the main character. Shows like house of cards and breaking bad work because the main character is the one who is either plotting and scheming or is incredibly intelligent, it makes sense why they get more victories. Juliana is not shown to make intelligent decisions besides having heart which means that it is hard to justify her success over the two smartest characters in the show.
Seems like it worked in Star Wars, though… Luke and Juliana have kind of a similar dynamic, don’t you think, with a bunch of interesting, more active/plotting characters revolving around them@@TheRealSeaCrab
Honestly I might just make a whole follow up video again if I have to, but all I can say is that I disagree right now. While they seem similar Star Wars and MITHC have a lot of differences that nullify any kind of dynamic they might have shared. Character growth, development and character trio is something that is radically different when you switch from feature length to long-form. Juliana and Luke are also different. Luke is an essential character, if you were to cut him out of the movie you'd lose the point. It's his movie. Juliana may seem like an essential character but if you try to explain the context of the story, she really doesn't have to exist if you want the story to move forward. Sure episodes would have to change their plots but it's nothing drastic. The plot of Star Wars Episode 4 ends with Luke taking down the Death Star, he was the only one able to do so because he was the only one who could use the force of the core character group. Juliana is a girl with a film. It's not like she is the only one who has it, she isn't. The nazis, Resistance, and Japanese all know about the films and are in pursuits to acquire them, Nothing changes if Juliana is removed besides the show removing the content of the B and C plots of every episode to remove her.
In short, Juliana is surrounded by a stronger cast of characters with no reason to be the main character nor is she essential for the plot to move forward. Luke Skywalker is an Essential Character with major stakes in the Star Wars saga and has major plot points revolve around his impact on the intergalactic civil war including its ramp up and its conclusion.
Those are interesting points, thank you.@@TheRealSeaCrab
I thought Man In The High Castle was good at first. It had a strong start. But then they messed with the Alternative timeline crap and it fell apart. I loved the story telling political turmoil and alternative history telling. Then the alternative time travel happened.
They absolutely overextended, I personally think that they did it in the first place with the trade minister to progress a plotline rather lazily. Then were forced to continue with it since you can't just IGNORE what the alternate timeline was. I just think there was very little point to most of the alternate universe plotlines besides drawing parallels, thanks for watching man.
@@TheRealSeaCrab No problem. Thanks for making the video!
Yeah the Trademinster part was terrible. But the Nazi parts I found interesting and enjoyable. Especially with the backroom deals and plotting Hitler's downfall.
I think they could have done better with the show. Like maybe show us how the average American feels and thinks about the iron fisted rules of the Nazis and Japanese leadership while showing us how people like John Smith think and feel about there position in the power structure.
I heard they did that on purpose because people wanted more of it too badly so they had to put an end to it
I thought it had a slow start and picked up after s2
I did not like crossing over from universe to the next at all. It was a good what if moment at the beginning.
I spent the whole first 3 seasons just hoping Tagomi gets his happy ending, and gets to right his wrongs, only for him to be killed offscreen in S4 E1, and them dump a bunch of new characters on me who I don't care about, and don't even like, and was supposed to root for them. Just...why?
I agree. I actually loved the show for the first two seasons, somewhat enjoyed the third season. I was really excited for season 4. But it felt like a completely different show, even more so than season 3. Tagomi getting Thanos snapped was the last straw. I switched it off after that. Once he died, the show died for me as well.
Right?! I was so annoyed that Tagomi just... randomly vanished from the show with some off-screen death.
This show makes the BCR and resistance so boring and unlikable that towards the end of the show, I was rooting for John Smith to do more badass things (even if he was an evil Nazi).
I always thought the resistance was unlikable. Heh.
Just finished the show. The writing for the BCR characters was so . . . . so bad. And the acting only highlighted the dumpster-fire writing. The whole BCR plotline took me right out of the whole thing. The performances were typical cardboard-cutout over-wrought acting. "Being super duper serious all the time" is not "good acting."
The resistance were the villians
@@User-1683x2 Nazi's represent!
long live john smith...
I felt the 3rd and 4th season indicated that Amazon had second thoughts and didn't really want to commit to this show because in order for it to be effective it was going to have to get ugly and they couldn't have that. The finale felt like they just wanted to kill it and punch out as quickly and painlessly as possible.
They originally Planed five seasons but didn't get the Budget. So they rushed the End.
There was gonna be at least a 5th season. Interviews show that the scriptwriters were notified on DAY 1 of production (writing) that there would be only a fourth and final season. They crammed everything into it, unfortunately.
yeap... amazon f..k up. they wanted out..
They don’t have second thoughts. After the second season the guy in charge got fired during the me too movement and the third and fourth season prove that.
@@ramonrivera533Kinda sad since they could have had a good ending and kept bragging that's what it was, but they ended up being lazy and inconsiderate. Total ruin of a good series. Sometimes it's better to give people something unique and sensical that the author failed to provide rather than staying true to the source material, especially if the story is loosely based on and/or even remotely diverged from the books. I would have been happy if they bombed the tunnel...
Sure it got bad towards the final series but it’s definitely not the worst
I am a pretty avid critic and I absolutely loved every second of this series. Most expensive series ever made. Not CGI crap. Real director and real money based off a real story by Philip K Dick. Extraordinary imo.
@@BeauOneilthat's the peaky blinders defense good cenimentrpahy and acting is the bar at most. It doesn't make a good show.
@@user-jc8ez9iw2j well some love it and other's don't so I guess everything is relative
@@user-jc8ez9iw2j Peaky blinders wasn't based on a real experience that is a phenomenon I am obsessed with as well. Philip K Dick is scifi. Not everyones cup of tea.
@@BeauOneil peaky blinders has inconsistent haven your cake and eat it too writing, it's not the universes Problem
The last scene made absolutely no sense to me.
It was one of the worst endings ever!!!
Rufus Sewell (john smith) and his family dynamic, his work, were the best parts.
Basically all the early good parts then it becomes unrealistic sjw swill
Wed all be Nazis if we lived in Germany at the time we did, this show implies otherwise.
A small sunset of people quietly housed uden
This main character would not have been one of those people, she likes being admired loving herself.and thinking she's doing the greater good. All thing Nazi Germany believed they were
Especially the masses without access to classified government documents and acts
She would have believed those re education camps were really re education camps to make the uden more tolerant of her and the life they live. Those uden better check their privilege!
Wed all be N***s if we lived in Germany at the time we did, this show implies otherwise.
A small sunset of people quietly housed uden
This main character would not have been one of those people, she likes being admired loving herself.and thinking she's doing the greater good. All thing N*** Germany believed they were
Especially the masses without access to classified government documents and acts
She would have believed those re education camps were really re education camps to make the uden more tolerant of her and the life they live. Those uden better check their privi*ege!
If there ever was room for a remake. The story has endless possibilities
Friggin' HATED Juliana. Her sister gets murdered in front of her face and she doesn't cry, scream, choke back tears, NOTHING. She looks as upset as if she'd just stubbed her toe. But then she watches the film reel and suddenly she's sobbing and human. I didn't like her from that moment and I never liked her throughout the show. She's too busy sleeping around (hello Frank, hello Joe, hello Wyatt) and stubbornly refusing to listen to reason from anyone (seriously, how often does she run off to do something reckless and dangerous because "I hAvE tO dO tHiS") and speaking in this super quiet, raspy, whispery "I'm such a badass chick, if I spoke at full volume you'd all die from my badassness" voice.
I loved the drama within John and Helen's marriage and family, the acting was amazing. I also enjoyed the stories of Tagomi and Kido. Childan was a great character. The settings were cool, the costumes were awesome. That's about all I can say for the show. The whole focus on the films, Hawthorne, the portal... it never made any sense. The obsession with the films just didn't feel logical at all. The idea of people being able to "travel" between parallel worlds by force of will was kinda cool, but quickly became irrelevant as the show stopped focusing on it and it was back to obsessing over the portal. The last few episodes were all over the place and nothing made much sense. Characters' personalities completely fell apart (seriously, John, you were the new American Fuhrer and you could've remade the whole country and you were just like "Hurrrr, yeah, let's bomb the whole west coast for... absolutely no reason"). Joe's sudden turn on Juliana made no sense; they went from passionate reunion to suddenly hating each other, because... ? No reason given. I can only guess Joe's actor was like "Yeah, I'm done with this show, it's becoming awful" so they had to kill him off fast. So many plot holes and threads left dangling in the wind. I kept hoping that somehow the main characters who'd lost someone would rejoin them in the alt-world (Juliana would go find Trudy and Joe and Tagomi, etc).
Juliana wasn't sleeping around. Frank was literally her boyfriend (hence why she slept with him...) and then her story diverged from his. They both thought each other were dead. Because of this, Frank slept w/the Japanese gal. Joe, who slept with that one German gal (who later slept w/the journalist, who herself was in an open relationship w/her husband), then sleeps with Juliana, who, mind you, they (her and Joe) had sexual tension going on for almost 3 seasons...then she ends up having to kill Joe...
Frank and Juliana, who are now both single, later find out that each are alive. Still having that spark, they rekindle their relationship for one night before departing ways. Then Frank dies. Meanwhile, Juliana stays in an alt universe for a year while recovering. Though she meets a guy there and is even pressured to date him, they remain friends. When she returns to her universe, she later meets back up with Wyatt (they met before she disappeared in the alt universe) and the two of them initiate a relationship that holds steady through the end of the series.
Please tell me how that is "sleeping around"? Maybe you are confusing all the other characters, many of whom (all men) slept with prostitutes (Robert, Kido) or people they literally just met (Frank meeting the Jap gal, Ed meeting the cowboy, etc). Juliana knew each of the guys for a while before sleeping with them. But...why should it matter? Why should the rules be different for her? Why does Juliana, who is not the only woman on the show who has sex nor the only one to have sex with more than one perosn over the course of the show, the one who bugs you? Why do you view her so derogatorily compared to the other characters?
Juliana is legit the most annoying character in the whole series.
Cody explained this and I found it astonished how they fuckdd up the plot. Along with Juliana's fumbleness to fuck everything up
If you thought Juliana was bad as the heroic lead of a show- wait 'til you see 'The Acolyte's Osha...
They got the worst scenes but they got the greatest military uniforms
The show may or may not be garbage. I have no idea. I do know who wrote the book though. The father of the simulation theory, Philip K Dick who also wrote Minority Report, A Scanner Darkly, Blade Runner, Total Recall, and The Adjustment Bureau.
Dude knows how to write.
The worst? There were other shows like that?
For all Mankind. Hunters. 1983. Hollywood.
Season 1 and 2 were okay but I felt like the last season was absolutely garbage.
I loved John Smith
Was that part of the Sim City soundtrack you used in the background of the video? 🤔
Juliana crane is the most worst written character I ever see in my life, after s2 I skip all scenes that she appears.
I don’t think I know one person that wasn’t rooting for the antagonists lol
I was not
thats what happens when you surround yourself with white nationalists
That's incredibly concerning
The point of the filler is to immerse you in a world under axis control.
Alright but you can't deny the Nazi scenes where they destroy the statue of Liberty and some other scenes are sensational. And even the Japanese withdrawal scenes were sensational.
I didn’t deny that, if you watched the video i mentioned it in passing
What do you think the left is actually DOING NOW?
I feel like this show just didn’t know what it wanted to be after season 2 since you can really tell from the tone of season 3 and 4. Season 3 had to many ideas in it so that caused a massive amount of aimlessness. Season 4 was just (literally any other word for unsatisfactory) in every way. As much as I enjoyed seasons 1 and 2 they had a few minor problems, like how they tried to make the resistance to likeable (season 2 kind of gets a pass with the reprisals but still). Why should I root for a faction that gets innocent people killed and they should not even have the ability to win against two superpowers that control most of the world (looking at you BCR).
The last issue I have with the show is just that it thought it was smarter than it really was, mainly how they handled the multiverse aspect. The multiverse was fine in concept but man it became way to important past season 2, like why is Juliana so important in the multiverse, why is there a portal in the 1960s and why should I even care that there is other worlds out there. Probably one of the most disappointing series that I have ever watched.
The problem was it's constant showrunner turnover. Halfway through season 2, showrunner and series creator Frank Spotnitz walked away after a heated argument with Amazon over the direction of the show. The rest of season 2 was run by the producers and the remaining writers. Who apparently ran the show "like a republic" (whatever that means lol). For me the first two seasons are the best, they're not exactly the most well written and the characters do dumb things, but it had a established tone. Fantastic world building IMO. Season 3 had Eric Overmyer as showrunner and he was more into character development and spending time watching the characters grapple with the consequences of those decisions. Then you have season 4 which was run by showrunner David Scarpa, and he just went nuts with whatever Phillip K dick was smoking and introduced a host of random plots that weren't there before. Then he ended it with a host of dangling threads cause he felt leaving a pile of questions open and letting the fans draw their own conclusion was in the spirit of Phillip K Dick. The end result is a show with a MASSIVE identity crisis, with multiple showrunners creating their own version of the show without putting much consideration into the continuity of previous seasons.
Love how in the end the nazis in germany are still in power and the americas that could not stand upp againts the american army would get bulldozed. The only thing that happend was that other dimension people came there witch would not change a thing.
Lol "witch"
They would probably be be insane rather soon, being in an alternative universe where everyone they know/knew are different personalities.
I don't agree with the "nothing happens" criticism. I like slower paced stories which can build tension.
That being said, I only watched the first season because that was the book. The other seasons are not connected to the book. And I, as a general rule, do not agree with writers adding on to another writer's work.
Ending was garbage , Julia was a bore
i went from “i disagree, the man in the high castle isn’t that bad” to “the more that i think about it, the more you’re right”
Okay, so I've read the book. Now, to be fair, I haven't watched the show, but from what I've heard, this doesn't follow the book at all, and that kinda disappointed me. I know the show is loosely adapted from the book, but still, you had a really good book to adapt into something unique and... you didn't miss the mark. There was no talk about resistance, not a thing about multiple timeliness (other than that weird moment with Tagomi in the park, but I may have misread that), and adding that is kinda taking away from what the book was.
The thing that stuck with me the most about the book was how everyone was so... go with the follow of things. I mean how they (seemed) okay with the Germans having control over America. The only time anyone ever had ideas of rising up against the Nazis was Frank, but over time he gave up and described it as "an embarrassing high school memory" or something like that. That kinda stuck with me of how casually he described it; not a faulty dream, not a losing war, not a terrible idea, just an embarrassing memory. NO MAN! It's not embarrassing, any sane person would do that!
Sure the book does have some hope, but to me, the biggest takeaway was how calm people were with the Nazis, seeing these people casually live under the flag of the Reich, like it's nothing. I hope I'm getting across what I mean correctly; to shorten it, I find it fascinating and terrifying how the people are so calm being under the Nazi's rule.
(PS: Does anyone feel like the book had a more morally grey stance when it comes to portraying both sides? Sure the Nazis are this horrid machine of chaos that killed all of Russia and turned North Africa into a literal corpse pile; but when we met Riess, he ain't burning puppied or laughing like a made man and killing Jews, he's just going about his day, reading the newspaper, dealing with jerk superiors, like a person.)
Maybe the author was a white supremacist? Or had unrealistic views of what Nazi America would look like? Or simply had an uneducated background in history? I mean, the Nazis wanted to get rid of anyone not part of the master race! They didn't stop mercilessly killing and experimenting on humans until other countries literally stopped them!
Either way, it sounds like the showrunners had literally no reason to stay true to the ending of the book when they changed the story itself so greatly anyway.
The book is much better. And very different.
Very true
The book is only a hundred pages long no ? Or did i miss the other opuses in the series ?
It's roughly 250 pages depending on format. Short book, but not a novella. @@akiraraiku
I was fully expecting John Smith to make a 180 at some point, like he was not indoctrinated as a child, he knew that the Nazi believes were not set in stone. And then he killed Himmler and I was like „yes, he’s gonna dismantle it all“, since he met his friend he sent to the camp in the Alt World and saw what could’ve been….only for him to double down on the whole Nazi thing? like???? Why?
Also like, what happened to Ed? He just like doesn’t get mentioned anymore. Did he just live happy ever after with his boyfriend?
I didn’t give a fuck for the whole Juliana plot. She was annoying af.
Because nzais are cool, you dorq
Juliana being flawed is what makes the show interesting imo. If she did everything perfectly that would be ridiculously unrealistic.
She seems like cardboard cut out character which I is what the narrator of this video is getting at.
Do you understand the difference between "perfect" and "likable"?
Sure but there were moments in the show where she was literally given the BEST AND EASIEST choice but she still did a full 180 from it
Couldn’t disagree more… I loved this series and was bummed when it ended.
To each their own
I loved the series along with Juliana Crain. I thought her character was amazing
@@bigspartanmanshould have been titled "Juliana Crain and her Interdimensional sexcapades"
Loved the series, hated the ending.
A main character does not need to be likable, they need to be interesting. Nightcrawler is a perfect example.
I just want to know what song is being used in the first 12 seconds.
All the music used in the intro is from the video game Castle Crashers, the first 15 seconds of the video is the song Vain Star, right after that when the actual narration starts contains the track Flooded Castle, and the intro/title sequence is Sand Castle Crashing.
@@TheRealSeaCrab Thank you! I hadn't heard that track in years, and I knew it sounded familiar. Definitely a fitting selection thematically to apply here.
It was IMHO good for MOST part until it took a very confusingly weird turn for the worse towards a real DUD of an ending. Oh well
How about Hunters? Was it any good?
Haven’t seen it yet. Probably won’t but I might get around to it at some point if enough people want to see my take on it.
thanks man, you might have saved me lots of time! I made it all the way to s1e4 and found myself randomly skipping ahead...
also - I don't think a german contolled part of the usa would use imperial units. no sir! neither would the japanese sector. in any universe.
My biggest disappointment with the show is the absolute LACK of other perspectives from all around the world, we barely get any information on what happened or the state of the rest of the globe and how it was affected by naz1 and japanese occupation. We basically NEVER get out of the US, it had UNLIMITED potential, especially because it was an alternate timeline and i believe it was wasted entirely. By the end i was bored endless with the entire focus going to the United States
The final show was a complete disaster.
How to make High Castle the perfect show:
1: Change the film reels into plans for deposing the Reich. It'll give the Resistance equal motivation to secure them, and the Nazis equal motivation to destroy them
1.5: On top of that, throw away the whole alternate universe shit. This is not Fringe, it does not need to be in there
2: Remove the BCR in its entirety. If you think for one second the Nazis would allow a group of non-German Communists to exist anywhere near their borders, you're clinically insane
3: Center more of the story around John Smith. Juliana was an okay character initially necessary for the plot, but she should've died off within the first Season
(Optional) 4: Show more flashbacks of the direct aftermath of the US surrender. Them just starting the show smack-dab in the middle of the occupation with no context or pretext was a bad writing choice
This is a really solid idea, good thinking!
Spike tv be live "HOLD MY BEER"
If she does not allow him to escape the world gets destroying in nuclear war.
Respectfully, I think the alternate timeline and multiverse was a key theme in this show. For me, I felt it brought up philosophical issues of what people are really capable of and how the choices you make define who you are.
It wasnt needed as being a show about an alternate history of the U.S. geared towards americans already familiar with the history of the normal timeline already addresses that. Making it a point to showcase the differences so overtly was pointless.
For me was a good series
My all time favorite series. There won't be another like it. It cost twice as much as the Game of Thrones to make. It didn't make it's money back because ppl don't have taste any more. By far the best series and unique and set, acting, cast were all amazing
I searched up this video cause there was a extremely awkward lgbt scene in season 3
This was rhe best show ever
This show actually made it hard to like the resistance when the resistance were the guys we were supposed to be rooting for😂
i stayed for john smith he was the best in that entire show 😭 everyone else was boring as hell (i liked kido and tagomi too john smith was just the most interesing)
I love the final scene. At so many points they mention that there world is drawing the travellers in because of the extreme suffering and death in this universe. The endless nazi killing, the Japanese war in Manchuria… This universe is so dark and evil that it threatens the existence of the multiverse. The travellers are introduced in the very first episode, suggesting that they have been planting the seeds to heal this universe and set it down a path to prevent disaster. The ending to me is a nod to the conclusion of that plan. Was it morals, faith, or destiny that drove these actions… who know/? The ending shows people from across the multiverse coming to fill the void left by the mass killings of the Nazi & Japanese. The show ends on a critical moment, Japan has left the western states to a free black people, the east is now free from European & nazi rule. This moment allows us to think of the future outcomes and speculate on which path this universe will take.
Fuck if you have the time and intelligence to dedicate to this show I guarantee that you will love it.
I can’t believe this “essay” doesn’t mention destiny or fate. Just take a second to look at the key characters:
1. John Smith, in one universe he’s a nazi leader, one who keeps stumbling into schemes that push him higher and higher up the ranks, so much so that he has no idea who he is or what he fights for. In the last episode when he realizes he has lost his family, he lose everything and suddenly realizes who he has become… and well 💥🤕
2. Juiliana: she’s always surrounded be people pushing different points of view, Kido, John, Joe, Frank …. Truly she could have made a choice to take any path. However, instead she happpens to witness her sisters murder, introducing her no only to the rebellion, but to the idea of alternate realities. From then on it is one event after another always somewhat driven by something out of her control.
There are also countless other examples:
Himler: failed chicken farmer to Leader
Thomas: healthy in one universe, destined to die in this one
Frank: failed artist, who’s art becomes a driving piece of pro freedom rebellion.
If you can say one thing about this show, it’s that it makes you consider the importance of fate vs actions.
I dislike the ending. Nothing is solved with shuffling people around different universes. First they will be missing in their original universes and the suffering will spread. Secondly they are still them so they are no clones replacing their alter egos and they themselves will most likely want to be in their original habitat. Even for a "good cause" everyone they knew will be weird and completely different persons. It is kind of a more totalitarian idea which surpasses the one depicted in the series. People are just pawns you can move around for the better good.
It’s a great alt universe show, it just used the alt universe at a terrible ending.
Without the alternate world crap and a more politically driven script the show could've been a masterpiece.
All dialogue feels like it was written beforehand. Can you imagine talking like the main characters? I wasn’t expecting Der Untergang, but it wasn’t even as good as the Rommel movie.
The end definitely felt rushed. They needed a happy ending of sorts (Nazi collapse), but didn't even begin to construct a realistic story for how that would happen. I was expecting that it would end with the Nazis still in power, the resistance defeated and John Smith going off to the alternate timeline to live out the rest of his life as a salesman - without the power and wealth he had in this timeline, but with the thing that really mattered - his family. I think that would have been a more philosophical end.
Would have been really cool if they explored a denazification arc with john smith. Especially since America was so far gone by season 4 that they could have definitely explored some seriously good ideas like a civil war or building a sympathetic American staff. The idea I got from bill removing his Iron Cross was that he'd be immediately shot by the other 8 nazis in the room. So it would have been good to see john come back from his genocidal ending. To show he could be redeemed or something along those lines.
If there was a show that needs redone its this one. How a great idea just got ruined by bad acting and poor writing.
The Man in the High Castle is a show that makes you think important things are going on but at the end you're left wondering why you bothered as characters and plotlines go nowhere and some just end. I binged watched the first 3 Seasons a year or so ago but I got distracted before getting back into Season 4. I was partly put off with the ending of storylines that ultimately felt like they didn't fit with the main story and were abruptly ended - Frank and Joe. The problem was they seemed more interesting than Juliana Crane. After a time I was worried I'd be lost if I jumped back in after such a break. I wasn't sure if I wanted to rewatch the 3 seasons again to get up to speed. I finally decided to hell with it and plunged back in and quickly found I didn't need a recap as much of what happened before had little connection with Season 4. I liked the season but the last two or three episodes were so rushed - Japan abandoning the West Coast, John Smith improbably taking over the Reich, and a bunch of random people coming out of portal. The ending was so rushed and the people coming out of the portal saying nothing made no sense. Were they friends, foes, refugees? Why would they want to come to a hellhole world ruled by Nazis and Imperial Japan? It might have been a bit cheesy but having an American John Smith coming in with an Allied Army to finish WWII would have been better than interdimensional mute immigrants.
You know its kind of funny that (The New Order) a mod for a map game had a far more complex and and well written story than an Amazon tv show with paid writers.
Is that what whe’re calling hearts of iron 4 now? “Map game” hehhe
@@TheRealSeaCrab Yes, and it is better then High Castle in every possible way
I found it amusing how J Edgar was content in the nazi world. How true to life.
Meh, I liked season 1, really enjoyed season 2
Season 3 was not good and season 4 was straight garbage
the show was good enough for this guy to talk about it
I wish someone made a cut of the show without all the resistance stuff making john the main character, only way id watch it.
I find it funny that CCrab responds only to those supporting his idea
I don't usually respond to comments after a while, plus engagement :D
Thank you for the video!
I thought I was going to like it. Looked beautiful and sounded like an interesting premise. I have just a passing familiarity with the works of Philip K Dick but what I experienced of it is really interesting. The "Nazi family" could certainly provide amazing possibilities for telling stories about life in an actual, undeniably so, fascist society. Now, I'm stretching myself here, these are general impressions, I don't really know what I'm talking about.
Clarifying, I only watched the first season and thought it was not great.
Thanks for watching! The show seems to be well liked for the first season and then gets less popular as the seasons went on, interesting to find someone who didn’t like it right out of the gates!
"sounded like an interesting premise" ... so in other words, you know absolutely nothing about history and just believe the pop culture version of history.
@@thelwulfthegamer7791 Sorry, I don't know what you're saying but you sound angry. I didn't mean to offend you somehow.
@@thiagof414 if you think someone sounds angry for stating a fact then you are a pussy who needs a reality check
The premise is great, the execution was sloppily done. Take For All Mankind where it’s an alternative works where the USSR got to the moon first, resulting in an extended space race. Now it isn’t perfect, especially a certain subplot in season 2 and 3 with a particular character. But aside from that I’d say it’s pretty solid, especially since it doesn’t have the competing alternate dimension crap TMITHC did.
Sorry for a late response, I haven’t seen for all mankind but I have heard of the premise which does sound similar. I might check it out soon when I find the time
Yeah I'm 7 episodes in and the most relatable character so far is John, mostly because he lacks the stupidity everyone else around him has. Good for me that I stopped to watch reviews.
Inspector Kido made make it through the show. Juliana did not have a good story arc.
The problem with this show is the unrecoverable character of the dialogue, and its overall dreadful presentation. It’s so stiff. The entire plot progression is a “show and tell”. The irony for me is that this show as itself is so bad that it NEEDED to add in alternative timelines for it to be fucking interesting. How do you screw up making a dystopian world ran by Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany, how do you make it so fucking BORING? I’ll tell you how. You make it so that everything interesting about it is simply implied, or not important enough to be part of the plot. Any emotional nature in the show is coughed up or choked out by a stiffness that simply tells me the director thought the actors delivering their lines as deadpan as fucking possible would get the message across. The show also looks like a dystopian hamburger. The colours are shit. The grading is AIDS. They really fouled the whole thing up. There is NO SENSE OF PACE WHATSOEVER to this show. The producers pad time out each episode like that’s the plot instead of what barely serviceable shite they took from the book (not dissing the book, I’m saying they made it that way). And again the worst part is they show and tell everything you need to know, only using minor foreshadowing or keeping you on a cliff’s edge like some elaborate ruse to make you think this show is worth watching. Everything feels like a coincidence of epic proportions or some bad guy survives just in the nick of time, or the only good actors in the show are characters foisted into random unexpected death scenes. And yet the whole “whodunnit??” of this show’s ruse made me watch it for 4 seasons. I’m almost mainly mad at myself for giving up the ghost and letting this show lead me down this dark hallway. What a mess.
I like it. i like plot twists,suspense and overall sinister vibes.
I literally only watched it for Kido and Smith
First 2 seasons ok. Last 2 sucked. However, i am rooting for the knotzies
I love alternate history, I just didn't think much of this show, especially the ending.
I think you completely missed the point of both the show and the book. This is about how one's actions in a world could transform the same person (and also others) actions in a different world, it has nothing to do with the resistance or anything you talk about. that's the reason why Julianna is the main focus, it's the story of her journey to understand what's really going on and how to fix what's broken and bring those world together.
yeah, no. If that were the case they should have cut out a lot of the fluff and storylines that went nowhere
Juliana is not meant to be likeable, she did wake up one day and join the resistance. She was forced down a path by fate. Every subsequent decision decided the path of this specific universe. The whole point is that she never really picked a side, she simply did what she perceived as necessary wt any given point. In a universe so controlled by propaganda and misinformation, Juliana does not allow herself to truly be influenced by any one external force… except maybe the man in the high castle himself.
Completely agree - first season was OK but it descended into garbage. And Juliana was in therapy throughout the series.
Why don't you read the book instead?
First two seasons were great. Third one, decent (apart from the parallel worlds BS) with a very good 'did not see that coming' ending. Fourth season...ugh. I always tell people to watch the first two seasons and then decide if they want to continue.
So are we all here going to forget that it's based of a book and, from what I read online, is pretty faithful to it ? On top of that the acting is really good, the casting is great, the geopolitic is very well made. Yes there are some plot lines that are a boring but I would say that they all show a side of this alternative world so they are not worthless.
You find the dialogue scenes and caracter building moments boring then go back watching a garbage MCU movie while swiping threw tik tok what else can I say.
Thank you for your kind words, I don't use Tik Tok but thanks for assuming I'm cooler than I actually am!
To be honest I loved the show when they were more focused on John Smith and Nobusuke (I dont mind *HIS* alternate timeline tbh) but everything is an iffy to me especially when the american characters got into the mixed and they leaned too much on the alternate timeline shiz
Note you can skip this lol just a rant:
Tbh I just imagine this series (blurring the american characters) as my headcanon as a Political-Action-Drama of John's rise to power but conflicts with his family like "The State or your Family" story and seeing Nobusuke going through emotions on wanting to win the war and slipping through alt reality on "What could have been (Family Alive) and What will happen (Introduction of Nuclear warfare) it all lies in him
I thought it was alright. Intriguing idea of a multiverse
i hadn't thought of this show since it ended... until recently. I thought about rewatching it but suddenly i remembered how disappointing it was.
I dont agree, i really enjoyed this serie
To each their own
like to dislike ratio says it all lol
I got ratioed lol
I liked this show 😂
Season 1 was amazing. Season 2 started to kind of get worse. I stopped half way through season 2. so much promise
I genuinely think it was good at first and the idea was good, but later on they ended up making useless stuff like you stated in this video. Later on it more started to seem like they really didn’t care too much about the show and how it was being presented.
Well said, maybe the book that the show was originally based on had a hand in it’s quality and the decline, much like game of thrones with it’s source material.
@@TheRealSeaCrab that could be true! I just personally was really excited to watch the show at first but I started to be a tad upset with the direction it went in.
It was awesome
Season 1 and Season 2 are great. Season 3 is bad and Season 4 is absolutely garbage.
wait john smith was not the main character?
He was as far as I am concerned.
I just started watching and I cannot stand Julianna she is just to frustrating. I find myself skipping through scenes that are obviously just filler lol. I'm on e10 of s1 and really dont know if I wanna continue watching..
I'm not here to tell you what to do or what not to but if you wanted to get the basic plot without sitting through all of the filler go watch a man of recaps video, lot of great energy and he has the personality to make sitting through the basic story really fun!
Just came here to comment/question regarding suppression of the Bible. In the Japanese Pacific States, maybe. In the größeres Deutsches Reich, extremely doubtful. I'm just starting the series, so I'll need to come back here to review your comments.
Well it's understandable, it's a book with Jewish roots, and Nazis were esoterics who wanted to revive German paganism, Hitler didn't like Christianity
A lot of people tend to put Nazism into the "Right" side of the political spectrum, because they don't know any better. (The Left and Right thing specifically only works for the political situation in the United States during the Cold War. Nowhere else, and for no other time).
Because of this, people put Nazism on the "Right". And "Right" carries the connection with "Conservatism". And so, the wrong conclusion is drawn that Nazism was Conservative.
The National Socialists wished to make a new society. A new world. To have new traditions. Nothing about them had anything to do with Conserving anything. They wanted to re-shape everything.
They suppressed the Old Testament. And they made their own Bible. One without the Old Testament, and with various books, such as Matthew being heavily edited.
Because anything that had to do with the Jews and mentioning of Jewish prophesies and such had to be suppressed and removed.
Also, fundamental in Christianity, is the idea that we are all sinners. We were cast out of the Garden, and now we are all sinners. From the moment we are born, we carry that sin.
To the Nazis, this went directly against their Purity ideology.
The end result of all this, was the collection of Protestant Churches and the Catholic Church served as the only thorn in the side of the Nazis that they struggled to deal with.
The ultimate goal for the Nazis was to entirely remove Christianity.
The problem was that too many people were either Protestant or Catholic, and so a swift solution, like with other groups, was difficult to reach.
They tried to create their own Christianity. Positive Christianity.
And the interesting part, is that Positive Christianity is what is currently being preached in every single modern mainstream Church today.
And so, upon a total victory by the Germans, and having dealt with every other opposing group, Christianity would be next.
As Christianity was the last piece of resistance.
I challenge you to watch For All Mankind. Let's see if this is still the worst alternative history show ever after that mindless turd.
I just watched it and the last season sucked. a bunch of no ones came out of nowhere and took the show over. what a waste.every person juliana met she destroyed their lives in totality. waste of my fucking time watching this show. good video got a sub
The 3rd season was still decent. But 4th just felt so GD rushed especially on that final episode.
Fatherland with Rutger Hauer and Miranda Richardson did it better, and all in a two hour movie.
excellent remaster
Thx bro, gotta do it justice :D
Of course Juliana is the paperweight here.
One they blatantly started mentioning alternate time lines at the start of season 3, I knew the show was only downhill from there..
*WARNING- SUPER LONG COMMENT AHEAD*
Okay so first off, great video😊
I stumbled across this show last week and have been binge watching at night (I think I'm nearing the end of season 3). The show does a great job of hooking the viewer
*me at the end of every episode in season 1: ooo girl! Then what happened??*
But I realized pretty quickly that I'd hate Juliana. You're absolutely right; the first thing she should've done after seeing her "beloved" sister gunned down in the street like a rabid dog should NOT have been to immediately watch the movie. I figured they weren't that close since she only mourned for like 5 seconds. My dad died last year from cancer and I still can't watch Guardians of the Galaxy 1 or 2... It was just super weird to see her smiling while watching it RIGHT AFTER witnessing her sisters murder.
After Frank's sister and her kids were murdered, I found myself rooting for Juliana to die off. She was stupid and I wanted Frank to hate her for it. Later on, he hates her for defecting but I was like bro... SHE GOT YOUR WHOLE FAMILY KILLED!!
When the resistance took her and shot her, I was like hell yeah! Now this show can get REAL good! But she kept coming back! Like wtf was THAT about?? Do they ever explain how that happened?? When describing the events, she kept saying she was "drugged" but how? Were they shooting her with tranquilizers? If so, why tf didn't they say that??
Then the trade minister just dips out to live a whole other life in a fictional reality (they really had me thinking HE was the man making the films buuuuut...???) and when he returns, literally NO ONE questions his absence!
Let's talk about that for a minute... He lived in a world where his son went to Berkley and married that nosey ass Juliana. Did the writers completely forget about Japanese internment camps after the war? They weren't well received to the general public and I feel like they should've addressed that and had that life play out a different way. It's the same reason why I won't watch Queen Charlotte or whatever... Yeah, Black ppl back then and over there, were treated better than the enslaved in America but honey... they wouldn't have been royalty. And I'm saying this as a Black American woman. It's annoying to see shows that place minorities in roles they NEVER would've been considered for in the past. I feel like there are so many REAL minority stories that would play so much better than the fiction they try to spew at us.
But I digress...
Again, I'm only in season 2 and the main reason why I'm still watching is simply out of curiosity. I've already invested so much time in this show, I feel like I've got to see it through. Maybe I'll make a companion video to this one?
It sounds like I'm in for a really crappy show. I would, however, like to read the book. It's a great concept and I think I can see where they were going with a lot of the stories but the show just gets worse and worse with every episode.
It does make me happy to see the ones we're supposed to hate, in moments of struggle and despair. I guess that's another reason why I keep watching. Like John Smiths son getting sick... I giggled. Yeah yeah I know you're not supposed to laugh at a child potentially getting murdered by the government but he's a literal effin NAZI. So yeah, imma giggle.
Also, bibles were banned... so what religion is everyone supposed to be? We see the trade minister with the divination and we see churches and funerals, but what are the acceptable religions? Also, do they ever mention Russia? They mentioned, briefly, something about China... but China isn't Japan... where is China? What were they doing? What happened to Australia and is Canada still governed by the Crown? WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED???
I feel like the book would have explanations but I'll finish the show first.
Again, great video! Short, to the point, and brutally honest. I'd love to see more videos like this from you! Maybe a collab? I'm sure you could create a damn fine essay on The Boys (amazing show) or possibly the downfall of the MCU with a contrasting DCEU's rising superiority?
Keep up the good work, my friend. Definitely subscribing❤
Update: I couldn't finish... I got to season 3 episode 4 and I just couldn't do it anymore. It was exhausting.
Still great youtube video!
The show would have been great if there wasn't the supernatural additive in it. They should have created a different primary issue to resolve rather than tapes from a different dimension.