this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
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chapotraphouse
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I watched the first episode or three and that was it. I couldn't get over my suspension of disbelief. There's a lot that had to happen in order for the Axis Powers to win WWII. Even more had to be done in order to occupy the US. None of those things were addressed on the show. I have the book sitting on my shelf, but never got around to it (I have so much shit I need to read).
I mean, at least with the book, how the war actually went is 0% what the book is about and so it's hardly even mentioned. I personally think that's a fine approach and much better than making up some bullshit lore to justify something that doesn't really need justification.
It's been years since I saw it. What I remember was how it kind of just ignored the Allies in the pacific. Like Japan was somehow occupying the US, but also China, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Guam, Alaska, etc.
It's one of the reasons they lost the war, so I get omitting parts of that to create an alt history. But it's something you should mention. The show leaned heavily into the US being the only country that won the war.
Fatherland by Robert Harris had much better world building and a better understanding of how the Axis functioned.
But, like, that's not what it's about. It's not about what happened to the other allies and it's honestly only partially about what happened to a portion of America. It's a bit about racial hierarchy and a bit about wu and weird time travel fugues. There's a reason, for example, that they discuss the intrigue around Hitler's successor but they just don't resolve it; it's just something that's going on that informs the social circumstances that the characters are responding to. It has no interest in war game bean-counting.
I get that. What I'm saying is the setting makes no sense with what I saw in those first few episodes. It's very "The Axis won WWII because reasons and now the world is just this way." It just hand waves the problems the Axis would have occupying the US or how that would affect minority groups. Or what happened post-war in other countries.
My point is they may as well have created an entirely fictional setting (like Harry Potter) because there wasn't much thought behind the world in Man in the High Castle. It just seems full of liberalism and Great Man hypothesis.
This is also my problem with that civil war movie.
Here's how the Axis Powers can win WWII and occupy America:
Star Trek Enterprise Spoilers
Time traveling aliens can appear with the intention of using the Nazis in order to build a device that will allow them to return home (or something I don't remember what they were doing)