Anyone for "The Man in the High Castle?"

November 21, 2015 4:43 PM

Is anyone else planning to watch this? Would it be worth asking for it to be added to Fanfare?

I actually haven't even seen the pilot yet, but I know the first(/only?) series was released on Friday. It seems to scratch a bunch of "things Alterscape is interested in" itches (PKD, alternate history, etc). It's Amazon, so the entire series is now up for streaming; suppose we'd need a schedule if we were planning to group-watch it. One episode per week? Two episodes per week, like the Star Trek rewatches? Nobody cares and I should just journal about it? Your income welcome!

posted by Alterscape (19 comments total)

Thanks for bringing it up!

I watched the pilot before it was picked up and the second episode when it became available a few weeks ago. I'm definitely going to be watching.

I was considering making a post here on the season as a whole. And probably with the book included, which seems like a minor point, since I can't imagine the first season won't cover as much ground as the novel.

I'm not very good at scheduling shows when the entire thing drops like this, but it doesn't feel like a show I want to burn through, with hour-long episodes that are rather heavy.

So maybe I could do a, say, two-episode a week thing, if others are into it.
posted by mountmccabe at 6:27 PM on November 21, 2015

I'm watching the show right now, and I'd love to see discussion of it!
posted by meese at 6:54 PM on November 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

I haven't started watching yet but would like to follow on Fanfare.
posted by roolya_boolya at 1:57 PM on November 22, 2015

Definitely. I'm a little annoyed that it came out the same day as Jennifer Jones but I'll be watching it within the next few weeks.
posted by octothorpe at 2:11 PM on November 22, 2015

I would be up for this. The first two episodes have been fantastic.
posted by Bringer Tom at 2:11 PM on November 22, 2015

I was just looking for a discussion of Man in the High Castle. I watched the pilot when it came out and caught the second episode yesterday - definitely a show worth discussing.
posted by toomanycurls at 5:59 PM on November 22, 2015

Just binged watch and it is definitely worthy of discussion. Any discussion should allow conversation about the book, too.
posted by jadepearl at 8:02 PM on November 22, 2015

I guess I'll recuse myself from this until I finish the Amazon series, then -- I have not read the book yet, and I'd prefer not to spoil any twists. Good luck with the discussion!
posted by Alterscape at 11:49 PM on November 22, 2015

I did not understand that Books Included meant that you could talk about the entire book starting with the first episode of the TV series. That seems too stringent and as if it would fracture an already small following.

I'd love to discuss the show in the context of the books, but that could be done in a different place.
posted by mountmccabe at 9:02 AM on November 23, 2015

I'd be fine with participating in a book-included discussion that stuck to information known in the show world by the end of the episode under discussion. That sounds like it could be really awful in terms of restrictions for people who have already finished the book, though! It sounds like I'm in the minority for this one, though, in terms of the folks who've posted here, so I think the respectful thing for me to do is hold off on reading until I'm through the show. Don't want to handicap the bigger discussion because I'm uncultured, as it were.
posted by Alterscape at 12:24 PM on November 23, 2015

The Amazon pilot was added as a movie, but I got in touch with the mods and asked for it to be converted into a series now the episodes are out. First episode is here, second one here.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:28 PM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh, wow, I had no idea there was a post on the first episode already.

Since these episodes were posted generally (no Show Only or Books Included markings) does that mean there should be essentially no discussion of the book, or that those familiar with the books should take care to avoid spoiling anything that may come up in future episodes?
posted by mountmccabe at 1:40 PM on November 23, 2015

I think there's quite a lot of divergence between book and tv series, from what I can discern by skimming plot summaries. If there's a lot of discussion per episode, we could add a General Discussion thread that could include book spoilers.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:45 PM on November 23, 2015

General discussion (book included) thread added here.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:49 PM on November 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

And I'll note after having read the entire thread on the first episode... people go into book spoilers, starting about 2/3rds of the way in. It is announced with "Spoilerish for the book:"
posted by mountmccabe at 4:17 PM on November 23, 2015

Yeah, sorry about that. I didn't create that first thread so I'm not able to add 'Books included' to it.
posted by Happy Dave at 1:38 AM on November 24, 2015

Anyone interested in episode-by-episode? I've done the first two and later episodes get pretty complex, so it might be good to have a bit of space to talk about each one.
posted by Happy Dave at 3:15 AM on November 30, 2015

I'd enjoy episode by episode. There's a lot to unpack with each.
posted by toomanycurls at 9:55 AM on December 1, 2015

Next episode up here.
posted by Happy Dave at 5:41 AM on December 2, 2015