‘Man in the High Castle’ — Philip K. Dick’s Nazi History Double Twist

Amazon is killing it as the premier American e-commerce company, but that wouldn’t be the case if one of its biggest hits — The Man in the High Castle (streaming on Amazon Prime) — had been more than fantasy. Futurist writer extraordinaire Philip K. Dick, whose dystopian landscapes haunt readers, filmgoers and Hollywood executives, invented a world in which the Nazis won WWII and divvied up the US with Japan. Were it true, Amazon would still be just a giant South American river. Instead it’s a dynastic Internet juggernaut.

[Philip K. Dick’s novel The Man in the High Castle]

The Man in the High Castle action takes place in 1962, and it’s eerie to consider Hitler alive at the time The Beatles released their first LP. But how about this meta Dick super twist? The story involves a rogue filmmaker who made a film that depicted an Allied victory. Natch, the Fuhrer doesn’t like it. (He’s more of a Leni Riefensthal fan.) It’s a twist that twists back on itself, a funhouse mirror of a society that never existed. The show looks absolutely stunning as it presents the biggest “What If?” scenario of the 20th century. It’s ten episodes, gorgeous, frightening and riveting.