I finally finished watching season 4 of the Amazon Prime TV series, The Man in the High Castle. It's based on the 1960s novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, although only the first season follows the events of the novel. After that, the series takes off into uncharted territory.
I've always been a fan of alternate history stories, and both the novel and the TV series are prime examples of the subgenre. The story is set in a 1960s where the Allies lost World War II and North America has been divided up into three areas. Japan controls the West Coast, Germany controls the East, and there's a small neutral zone in the mountains. A mysterious figure, known as the "man in the high castle" is distributing movies (in the novel, books) showing pictures of our world, free from Nazi and Japanese domination.
The TV series develops the setting in much more detail than the novel, especially in the second and following seasons. I was impressed with the world building throughout; every episode is full of small details that add to the verisimilitude. It is often a hard series to watch, especially when it comes to the scenes set in the US Nazi Reich. The characters are equally well developed, especially those of John Smith, the leader of the US Nazis (Rufus Sewell) his wife, Helen (Chelah Horsdal), Trade Minister Tagomi (Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa), and Inspector Kido (Joel de la Fuente).
I did find the first season somewhat confusing and the episode recaps at Vulture.com were extremely helpful. They're very detailed and function as reviews as well as recaps. I would definitely recommend them to get the most out of thiis outstanding series.
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