With Season 4 >>The Final Season<< of “The Man in the High Castle” coming soon (November 15th, 2019), many of us are re-watching Season 1 - 3. I noted some of my impressions of S01 EP01 under the line, so that those, who haven’t seen the whole show yet, are not confronted with spoilers.
I found the show late in 2017 by accident and remember, how surprised, yes shocked I was, when, while listening to the "Wochenschau" with Joe Blake, suddenly the American Flag with the Swastika was shown. It still gives me a very ugly feeling, but at the same time, this and the person of Joe Blake got me hooked.
I still find it very interesting how they introduced Joe and Juliana. Both are introduced via a fighting scene, but while the scene, that introduces Joe, is dark and (in the end) brutal, the first scene with Juliana is bright and her way to fight is marked by strength and respect for the opponent.
And then we are introduced to Juliana's world. First, everything seems like she is living in an Asian city until one sees the Golden Gate Bridge from far. So it becomes clear, that Joe and Juliana live in a world, where the Axis powers have won WWII. We come to know Juliana's family and a little later her friends. I was surprised by how authentic their conversations were. Like talks of relatives, I had witnessed in Eastern Germany when that part of my country was still under communist rule. One doesn't like what is shown on television but watch it because there is nothing else to watch and then the question about raising children in this environment ...
There are several things I did not "see" when I watched this episode for the first time (or I might have forgotten). What hit me, was how their way is directed to one another. First, we see Joe leaving NY and then his way is shown on a map - this red line going through the GNR to the Neutral Zone. And when Juliana leaves SF, heading for Canon City, we see a map with a blue line, showing where she's going. And it becomes so clear, that those two are on their way to meet each other. I had completely forgotten these hints.
Another thing that hit me while watching Ep. 01 again was the policeman, who helped Joe wit is truck. He seems to be such a nice man and at the same time he has no problems (as a policeman! aka a person whose duty it is to defend the helpless) that the hospital "on Tuesday burns the cripples". It hits me again and again how authentic they made this show. They didn't show a pseudo-Nazi-State, they showed it as it was. Even good people could be betrayed. So sad, that the policeman forgot, for what he fought for. But from here on it seems Joe (thanks to Luke Kleintank and his face play) starts to wake up and following that, he inspects the truck and finds the film.
And hen we have the wonderful scene of Joe and Juliana meeting, first in the diner, then outside of it. And what we see is just amazing. It's beautiful scenery. The light breaks through the trees and two people, not knowing it, fall in love. You can sense it just by listening to their voices. But while they fall in love, the man who hired Joe, now dead, is thrown out of a van by the Nazis and Frank is captured and tortured by the Japanese Police. As Joe and Juliana get nearer, we see Tagomi meditating over the Oracle and again one sense there is something more happening in the meeting of those two people as the eyes can see.
