Watching TV with Americans

Delivering seasons of TV programs through internet streaming has made writing a conventional review an even more fruitless enterprise than it already was. It’s impossible to determine – or even average – where those watching a season currently are in the run of episodes and it’s possible that they’re already done with it. A review makes no sense in either context. For want of a better solution to the futility of internet TV journalism, I’ve decided to formulate my response to Amazon Prime’s original series The Man in the High Castle as a list of what I’ve learned from the first season:

Who do you think you are kidding Mr. Churchill?

1. The program doubles as an instructional video showing employers how to treat Amazon workers.

2. There is no ‘Reich’ pun beyond the writers.

3. I learnt what happened in the post-war world by the show telling me what didn’t happen in the post-war world.

4. You will say the words: ‘I want Hitler to come back’.

5. In a parallel universe where Philip K. Dick didn’t exist, people would have a lot less respect for Ridley Scott.

6. I am still not convinced that the Trade Minister isn’t Hiro.

7. South America is now a haven from Nazis.

8. There is a moment where you will believe that Hitler’s apocryphal ‘one ball’ will become a plot point.

9. The opening sequence is like Dad’s Army on rewind.

10. There are British spies in The American Reich.

11. All it took to teach Rufus Sewell restraint was playing a Nazi.

12. It contains the best scene of an African-American man teaching a dwarf to fish outside of an epilogue of Walker, Texas Ranger.

13. Berlin is still cool.

14. We’d have had colour TV a lot sooner if the Nazis had won.

15. Hitler must have been really affected by post-war European art cinema since he now prefers avant-garde documentaries to American B-movies.

16. In Japan, morality is measured in spectacle rims.

17. The Man in the High Castle is not Julian Fellowes, though they share a lot of the same political views.

18. Hitler is way ahead of home theaters.

19. The Smith & Jones sketch outlining the five Nazi General archetypes is still the standard for all screen portrayals.

20. It’s basically Sliders.

This entry was posted on December 7, 2015 at 09:17 and is filed under American TV (General), American TV Shows, Internet TV, Reviews, TV Acting, TV History, Watching TV with tags amazon prime, dad's army, julian fellowes, philip k. dick, ridley scott, rufus sewell, sliders, smith and jones, the man in the high castle, walker texas ranger. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.