The highly-anticipated second episode of The Man in the High Castle is finally available, and you can watch it for free during this Amazon preview weekend.
Alternate history dramas seem to be in vogue on both sides of the pond right now.
In the UK production is underway on SS-GB, the BBC TV adaptation of the Len Deighton novel that finds the British under Nazi rule after Germany wins the Battle of Britain.
The America in The Man in the High Castle, the Amazon Studios original drama series adapted from sci-fi author Philip K. Dick’s novel of the same name, is controlled by both Germany and Japan.
Since the launch of The Man in the High Castle during Amazon’s pilot season at the beginning of this year, the series’ pilot has become the most-watched episode of all Amazon Studios productions to date. Not only is it popular, more than 14,000 viewers have given it a collective rating of 8.4 out of 10 on IMDB, thus giving Amazon ample reason to give the title a full-season order.
Now the long-awaited second episode is live at Amazon Instant Video, to bring viewers further into the story of a United States that is no longer united or self-governed.
Set in a dystopian 1962, nearly two decades after the Allies lost World War II to the Axis powers, The Man in the High Castle depicts the former United States as being divided into three zones: the Greater Nazi Reich east of the Rockies, the Japanese Pacific States west of the Rockies, and between them the Neutral Zone of the Rocky Mountain States.
In the pilot episode, Germany and Japan are engaged in a Cold War. Hitler’s Parkinson’s disease is worsening, and certain officials in both camps fear that his successor will wage an all-out military war to take over Japan’s portion of America after the Führer steps down from power or dies.
Meanwhile, on the streets of San Francisco and New York, the Japanese Kempeitai and Nazi SS are arresting, and later interrogating, torturing, and killing, individuals suspected of being members of the Resistance.
Actual Resistance members are circulating underground copies of subversive newsreels, whose footage shows an alternate reality where the Allies won the war. One film in particular, purportedly made by the mysterious Man in the High Castle, seems to be at the center of Resistance-movement and double-agent activity, as well as searches by the German and Japanese military police.
Amongst the series’ international cast are British actors Rupert Evans (Fleming, World Without End) and Rufus Sewell (Restless, The Pillars of the Earth); American actors Alexa Davalos (Mob City, Clash of the Titans), Luke Kleintank (Pretty Little Liars, Bones), DJ Qualls (Z Nation, Supernatural), and Joel de la Fuente (Hemlock Grove, Law & Order: SVU); Japanese actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Mortal Kombat, Planet of the Apes); and Danish actor Carsten Norgaard (Rita, Dicte).
The first two episodes of The Man in the High Castle are available to watch for free this weekend only on Amazon Instant Video in the US, UK, and others of Amazon’s territories. The entire first season premieres Friday, 20 November 2015, exclusively to Amazon Prime members on Prime Instant Video.
__________________
Add your comments on our Facebook, Google+, and Twitter pages.
Share this post/page.