Amazon, you’ve done the right thing: Greenlighting the Philip K. Dick adaptation The Man in the High Castle for a full season is great news for both science fiction lovers, and for the credibility of the Pilot Season program Amazon uses for its original TV show production and audience testing. The Man in the High Castle was Amazon’s most-watched pilot ever, in fact, and it’s probably among the most ambitious in terms of technical shooting challenge and budget, judging by the apparent production value of the initial episode.
Amazon also greenlit four other titles from its most recent pilot slate, including UK show adaptation Mad Dogs, documentary series The New Yorker Presents and two kids shows, Just Add Magic and The Stinky & Dirty Show. All of which is great but let’s get real The Man in the High Castle is the best Amazon pilot ever.
As you may have gathered, I have a certain bias when it comes to this production slate: If you survey my colleagues, you’ll find I was an early and energetic proponent of the show based on the Dick sci-fi novel, which imagines an alternate reality in which the Axis, rather than the Allies, won World War Two, and subsequently carved up the U.S. to split between German and Japanese powers, with a neutral zone occupying the center.
Whether or not you’ve read the Philip K. Dick original, the series is an interesting and well-made take with solid acting throughout, at least based on the pilot. Let’s hope they keep it up throughout the full season – my thirst for good sci-fi TV is literally insatiable.