tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post2782139906431020310..comments2024-03-28T10:18:52.493-04:00Comments on Doux Reviews: The Man in the High Castle: Season 4Billie Douxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17141769005175631213noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post-50655669239939710272020-11-11T15:46:56.275-05:002020-11-11T15:46:56.275-05:00Logan, I agree with you completely that the part o...Logan, I agree with you completely that the part of the season that worked best was the final arc of John and Helen Smith. It was almost perfect...and honestly, unlike you, I never really warmed to any of the New York characters until this final season. <br /><br />I'm torn on the BCR. Conceptually, it makes perfect sense that they would exist and that their relationship with any white resistance groups would be prickly. But it seemed very strange for an organization capable of toppling the Japanese occupation to appear out of nowhere in season 4. An element that important to the main plotline shouldn't have been introduced so late in the game.magrittenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post-24125926332005610062020-11-08T14:10:48.347-05:002020-11-08T14:10:48.347-05:00I’ve been conflicted about the very end of the ser...I’ve been conflicted about the very end of the series. At first my reaction was "oh, no, it’s Lost all over again", only people coming out of the light instead of going into it. Seems like so many shows can keep everything flying for x years and then can’t quite stick the landing. Maybe the Writer’s Guild should enact a ban on the "light at the end of the tunnel" metaphor.<br /><br />But the more I think about it the more I like the idea that maybe there was a season 5 rattling around in there as you said, Logan. The ending was optimistic. But it was also ambiguous. What would have happened between the peoples of the two universes as they interacted? The people who lost loved ones encountering that lost one who isn’t really that person? People as different as the two John Smiths were? The kind of stuff that Fringe explored a bit in their Season 3, but not enough.<br /><br />If this kind of "alternate universe" story appeals to you I highly recommend the show Counterpart. Sadly it was cancelled after 2 seasons and ended on a major cliffhanger. But if you can hang with that it’s a good watch.<br /><br />I loved "High Castle". Any series that adapts a Phillip K. Dick novel and keeps it humming for 4 years is a keeper.milostanfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12601982445850157037noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post-27483082048439951472020-11-08T12:04:58.390-05:002020-11-08T12:04:58.390-05:00I was definitely happy with the optimistic ending....I was definitely happy with the optimistic ending. I binge-watched the entire series when season four dropped, and I was definitely worried that we were in for a dark ending.Billie Douxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17141769005175631213noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post-69258833770467875182020-11-08T08:37:13.105-05:002020-11-08T08:37:13.105-05:00And thank you, Billie. Sorry it took so long.
Ruf...And thank you, Billie. Sorry it took so long.<br /><br />Rufus Sewell and Chelah Horsdal were definitely the standouts this season as the Smiths. <br /><br />Another great moment I forgot to mention was Belle and Elijah's refusal to incorporate the American flag in their revolution, because to them (African-American people born in the '30s and 40's and living under racist regimes in the '60s) the flag is just a symbol of another less evil empire that enslaved and brutalized them long before the Germans and Japanese took over, and did it so well that the Nazis even modeled their own white supremacist state after ours. While part of me wants to romanticize American iconography after watching this show, that scene was a strong reminder that the U.S.A. is not so pure as that.<br /><br />While it does seem like the JPS and GNR fell too quickly in the context of this season, in the greater scope of the series, they've been on a slow spiral to defeat for awhile now. I like the idea of the JPS's gradual disillusion with their tyranny over the Americans, and the Nazis shooting themselves in the foot by being themselves. <br /><br />Plus, this show is often so dark and bleak that I don't really mind an optimistic ending.Logan Coxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04927158558530539708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13727952.post-28777688798742287902020-11-07T12:25:40.057-05:002020-11-07T12:25:40.057-05:00Thank you so much for reviewing this final season,...Thank you so much for reviewing this final season, Logan. I love having a full set of reviews. :) <br /><br />Rufus Sewell was impressive in every season, but I think he really pulled it out in this one. I wanted him to go to the alt-world and see his son again and he did. And Frances Turner sending her resistance fighters into battle to "If We Must Die" gave me chills down my spine. I rewound that scene a few times, and then looked up the poem.<br /><br />But I've been trying to figure out why the final season was fairly good but the ending didn't completely work for me. Did the JPS and GNR end too abruptly? Does power ever fall that quickly? <br />Billie Douxhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17141769005175631213noreply@blogger.com