![]() Once more characters were given the ability to dimension hop, it diluted the show’s impressive original air of claustrophobic, dystopian dread. Thankfully for The Man In The High Castle, Amazon Studios does! While the show will certainly be missed – its impressive mash up of sci-fi, history and noir has made it unique in terms of recent TV – it does feel like the right time to call it a day. Not long before Smith finally gets his comeuppance, he tells Helen he doesn’t know how to stop what he’s doing. But The Man In The Castle just about manages to maintain its power to shock, surprise and unsettle. Of course, season four was never really going to match up to the uncanny strangeness of the first series – we’re much too familiar with this deeply unpleasant parallel world now. There’s also the welcome introduction of the freedom-fighting Bell (Frances Turner), Elijah (Homeland’s Clé Bennett) and their comrades in San Francisco terrorist group the Black Communist Rebel, which adds a stirring new strand to the storyline. The twists keep coming and the show understands the benefit of not getting too caught up in the science of being able to wander through the portal – choosing instead to use it sparingly. ![]() There is still an awful lot to enjoy, though. Not even from his old pal, antiques dealer Sheldon, who’s still gamely trying to flog Americana to wealthy Japanese folk. Ed, meanwhile, last seen at the top of San Francisco’s Coit Tower, defiantly unfurling a huge banner emblazoned with one of Frank’s protest art works, doesn’t merit a single mention. But it’s the lack of the charismatic Tagomi – in many ways the show’s heart and soul – as well as the gentle, loyal Ed, that hits home.ĭespite being central to the show for three series, Tagomi is assassinated within the opening seconds of the first episode. With Joe Blake and Frank Frink both being brutally bumped off in season three, viewers have had plenty of time to get used to the fact that they wouldn’t be returning. Season four also suffers from the absence of some the show’s original and much loved protagonists. ![]() The only redemption on offer for Kido comes from agreeing to repay his PTSD-suffering son’s drugs debts by working for a Yakuza boss, a move he considers to be deeply shameful. ![]() It’s not all the killing and torture he regrets – he can conveniently file all that under ‘duty’ – instead, it’s the way he’s treated his own son that really bugs him. Kido, too, spends much of season four questioning himself and what he’s done, but never quite being able to break free. He even denies Juliana the closure of putting a bullet in his skull by doing it himself. Instead of dying a hero, Smith dies a conflicted man who can admit to his emotionally-shattered wife Helen that his actions have been evil, but still doesn’t have the capacity to change. Allowing him to undergo some kind of full-on Darth Vader-style last-minute change of heart would have provided the big Hollywood ending some fans might want but the show’s decision to let him keep spiralling downwards is more truthful, and all the better for it. In the end, though, any feeling that he should to face up to his crimes is suffocated by Smith’s desire to protect his own position in the Nazi hierarchy. He’s also blindsided by guilt and shame when his old army buddy Danny drops by to watch the baseball – the same Danny who, we learn, he betrayed back in his universe, allowing him to be carted off to his death when he chooses not to join up with the victorious German army after the war. That’s not the only moment of emotion for Smith during the trip. But anyone hoping for redemption for either character has come to the wrong show.Įver since Smith learned in season one that his son Thomas suffered from an incurable congenital illness which would require him to be euthanised under Reich law, it became apparent he harboured doubts over the rights and wrongs of the regime he serves. Season four is very much the culmination of that. Over its previous seasons, TMITHC slowly morphed from being about Juliana and the rebels’ struggles against Smith and Kido, to being about Smith and Kido’s struggles with their own consciences and beliefs. But instead it chooses to swap huge spectacle for smaller but equally devastating psychological battles.Ĭentral to it all are Smith (played brilliantly by Rufus Sewell) and uncompromising Japanese secret police chief Takeshi Kido (the equally impressive Joel de la Fuente). Juliana’s disappearance and that portal in the mountains of Pennsylvania suggested season four would treat us to the sight of legions of Nazi storm troopers marching into our version of 1960s America, sparking a huge, mind-blowing inter-dimensional war. The twists were aplenty (Picture: Amazon)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |