Thoughts, ramblings and other stuff

I just finished The Man in the High Castle. They dropped it early yesterday and once I started watching I couldn't stop (I mean I could - I slept and went to work - but I spent rest of the time watching).

The series is incredibly beautiful and done with an amazing attention to detail. The way it shows the alternative 60s in US that are both familiar and alien. The slow measured shots and muted colouring that make only one colour stand out - red. Like on the occupiers flags - the background to swastikas and the Imperial Rising Sun. And blood.

The slowly unfurling plot shows the truths about living under totalitarian rule. Many believe they would fight to do end and someone do but most people just keep their head down and try to survive. Live their lives. In art (literature/movies) it’s almost always shown from the perspective of a dissident. It sells to have a hero be someone fighting against the system. But that’s not the lives of most people.

People under those regimes mostly live pretty ordinary and boring lives - they do shopping, send kids to school and watch sports - while ignoring the bad things that happen. Sure you know but as long as it doesn’t affect you or your family you can stop thinking about it and convince yourself it isn't really that bad. This becomes your new normal and you get used to it. If you keep your head down and don’t draw attention to yourself you can have a pretty good life. You just need to stop thinking about what happens to those people who said something. They deserve it anyway.

So people in the Nazi part say Seig Heil to SS officer next door and sell the remnants of their culture to please the new rulers. They ignore disappearing neighbours. Agree with whatever brand of racism government spouts as long as they are not one of the persecuted. And even then most just try to keep their heads down and hope they'll be missed until there is no there choice. Until it's them or their loved ones and they have to choose.

Polish history of last 200 years is one occupation after another so I have plenty of references there. During the prison torture all I could think of were scenes from Stalinist prisons (although other regimes do plenty of that too) and Nazis considered us subhuman and planned to kill us all (after they were done with the non-humans like Jews and Roma they were to finish of enslaved Slavic populations - they just run out of time here).


I loved how those choices are not easy here. Frank can either lose Juliana or his family. Keep his integrity and a little hope of freedom or break. He chooses the former and pays horrifying price. Would he change his decision if he had to do it all over again? I think he hoped to the end they were just trying to scare him. That they wouldn't actually do it. And then the guilt and grief is too much. It's like Trudy's father - he believed the Kempeitai would keep the promise and let her live - because it was easier to believe this lie than to face the truth. Easier than facing consequences.

John Smith - our most evil of main characters who kills and tortures and blackmails people with the lives of their children is also a loving family man (also many seem shocked despite many, even very prominent, Nazi war criminal being described so) but when he is confronted with a horrible choices he can't do it. Torturing Semite scum is easy but he get squeamish about old friends. And he just can't even allow to consider the fate of his son. This is a genetic disease his brother also died from and now he should do the right thing. As we learn in first episode they kill and burn disabled in the Großdeutsche Reich so he can't even make himself acknowledge the diagnosis because than he would have to kill him. His wife says it's better this way - not letting them suffer but would she still think that if she knew?

I also loved how they shown the differences between the two occupations. In Nazi Reich white Americans of the right background get integrated into the master race. The seeds were already there and people switch sides with "I always felt that way anyway" and become the good Nazis. the purge leaves more to us, right?

On the other end we have the result of the conquerors being different race. So instead of integrating into master race you have to find a way to live with one. The dominant culture takes liking to the one conquered creating a whole market when mass produced cheep art fulfils the need for authentic Americana for every Japanese. Look some even get themselves American names and rooms full of trophies. And even an authentic American who they discard as soon as he is not the walking stereotype they were looking for. It such a nice cometary on both the treatment of Native Americans (I don't think that was accidental choice for forgery) and black people (the way that couple treats that merchant and the way he tries and fails to rebel against it) in US.


We get those little humanising touches to even the biggest monsters (and then we meet people even worse than them). Both Obergruppenführer John Smith and Inspector Kido have reasons that in their minds justify what they did and even get their heroic moments. You end up rooting for them a little and then you remember what kind of monsters they are and feel ashamed. But in a way they are right - if you believe Jack Bauer was right and torturing enemies of the state is justified to preserve safety then they have the right to do it. What is the a life of one person compared to what would happen if the war starts?


But I do feel a little dirty now that I cheered when Smith outsmarted that asshole Reinhard Heydrich (the butcher of Africa) and was on the edge of my seat hoping Kido want commit seppuku (he turned out to be the better devil - one keeping the cruelty to necessary levels)


And now let me freak out about the revelations at the end.

OMG! OMG! OMG The end! So many questions.


Does that mean Hitler is the Man in the High Castle? He collects all of those films in his castle in the mountains. He obviously has a better grasp on reality than anyone thinks (better than ours did and also a lot more experience surviving assassination attempts) so he might be the one using Resistance to fulfil his alternate history fetish. It diverts their resources and gives him some entertainment. It probably doesn't matter if he loses few operatives along the way.

Does this mean Trade Minister Tagomi is the man behind the movies? Does he bring them from alternate reality (ours)? Multiple alternate realities I think- as Frank and Joe alive in 60s so that post A-bomb city couldn't be in our timeline. And I think his assistant knows - that's why he insisted he should meditate. Did he met Juliana there and that's why he insist on keeping her? Was that Trudy Juliana saw from another world? Does Kido know of this too?


I know it's expensive series but it's awesome so I hope it becomes popular and gets some hype so they'll make a second season. I don't want it to end like this.

This is the week when they tease us with the incoming attractions but we al know that not all that looks good in trailers fulfils the hype. We are grown ups well acquainted with disappointment. We can manage our expectations. We can... Oh, fuck it. So let's just allow ourselves enjoy it.

Jessica Jones full trailer is finally here and it's awesome (we don't even see much of him and I'm already revolted by the Purple Man)


And here's another thing that will premiere on 20 November - Amazon's The Man in High Castle. I loved the pilot (you can see the first 2 episodes here for free) and this makes it look even better than I hoped. I want it to succeed so badly it hurts.


All the Star Wars trailers put together in one - looks pretty epic, doesn't it?