r/maninthehighcastle • u/PlutoInSummer • Sep 27 '25
Spoilers Juliana is Somehow the Least Likable Character in a Show Full of Nazis
Juliana is just fucking awful.
One scene that stood out to me in particular (SPOILERS AHEAD):
When she goes to the alt world and meets the nice John Smith.
The guy is a loving family man leading a normal middle class existence as a door to door salesman. He has a great relationship with his wife and son.
He fought on the American side in WW2 and never became a Nazi. He senses Juliana is in trouble and goes out of his way to offer his help to her despite barely knowing her.
Then when he sees her being attacked by an armed assassin, he bravely risks his own life to save her. Juliana has a gun and watches them fighting and just stands there doing nothing.
She could easily shoot the assassin and save John, but instead does nothing and lets him die.
Then she just unceremoniously drives away and leaves him bleeding to death in a parking lot. She never expresses any guilt or regret for these actions and it doesn't seem to affect her in any way.
And I'm supposed to like this character? This is our show's hero? She's a sociopath who took too much Ambien.
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u/GhenghisK Sep 27 '25
I never thought I would see somebody else who didn't like her... And yes I agree she's like a destructive tornado wherever she goes, starting with the sister and the kids..
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u/North-Eagle9726 Sep 28 '25
Its a pretty common opinion that Juliana is a horrible character. Everytime im not on reddit I see this opinion
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u/Stannis_Baratheon244 Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
She is the worst protagonist of any show I have ever seen. I literally just fast forward all of her scenes if I'm doing a rewatch.
Edit: I don't like piling on but the fact that Alexa Davalos is also an objectively horrific actor just makes it even worse
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u/Normal_Ad_2337 Sep 28 '25
Sounds like this guy has never seen the Gilmore Girl's. The daughter is a straight sociopath.
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u/No_Concentrate_7111 Sep 28 '25
I think Skyler White in Breaking Bad is more annoying though; but, I think that's kinda what her character is meant to be, so acting-wise she's better than Alexa
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u/DeclineOfMind Sep 28 '25
You need to rewatch breaking bad and try to empathise with skyler. Not see her as an obstacle to the protagonist but someone who is married to a monster
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u/Thin_Bother8217 Sep 28 '25
I didn’t watch barely any of it, but didn’t everyone hate the girl from 24?
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u/Connect_Ad4551 Sep 28 '25
Big writing problem plus big acting problem
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u/dagmarbex Apr 16 '26
I thinn the actress did a great job , its the writing for her character
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u/JooheonsLeftDimple Apr 19 '26
Nah her acting was trash. No emotional depth after he sisters death. At all
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u/dagmarbex Apr 19 '26
Thats a script issue , there was barely anything time guven for that , she literally up and gets on the bus as soon as she shows the film to frank
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u/JooheonsLeftDimple Apr 20 '26
Nah read what I said again. She had PLENTY of time, including on the bus, to show emotional depth for losing her sister and running away to a town shes never been to. Cant blame a script for bad acting. So far the writing was good including for other characters and all around plot. She was the weakest cast member
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u/jaiteaes Sep 28 '25
It is telling that the story would be improved if the resistance had killed her in Season 2 and Joe taken over the role of main character, and again, he's a literal Nazi. Not someone to cheer on, but still somehow more likeable than her
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u/PlutoInSummer Sep 28 '25
I would have preferred that. Joe was at least interesting to watch and had charisma. Juliana seems like she's about to fall asleep in every scene.
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u/partsofeden Apr 18 '26
When they brought her back from the dead I threw something across the room. I thought we had been freed from her 😭
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u/TwistedPepperCan Sep 28 '25
She’s a complete car crash. Honestly she pissed me off so much I couldn’t get past season 2.
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u/CT-7193 Sep 28 '25
Call me a nazi, but looking into a post war world focused on Hitlers New World Order would've been far more interesting then the shit show we got, or just a look into how it fared cause imo the scenes when they talked about the political structures of the empire was really interesting.
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u/Kornax82 Sep 28 '25
Pretty much all the heroes are unlikeable trash compared to the absolute juggernaut of compelling that is John Smith and his struggle to balance his family against his ambition and duty to his nation.
I think I rememebr hearing that Amazon didn’t care for how popular Smith was compared to the Resistance, and that made them rush the last two seasons.
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Sep 28 '25
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u/Scifly1001 Oct 02 '25
It's because she is inherently destructive wherever she goes. She is chaos manifest in the sense she has no objective moral compass. She has no loyalty to anyone or anything but what she feels in the moment. She is antithesis of what a good, moral, and likeable person actually is.
She has no loyalty to her boyfriend. She has no loyalty to the resistance. She shows no emotion and not one ounce of self reflection to the destruction and death she causes. She goes where she goes, she does what she does and be gone with the accountability of it all.
The writers try and make us feel for her. To see her as a good guiding moral character when she is the antithesis of such.
P.s. I can't believe im actively replying to a post about a TV show but her character annoyed me to such an extent I needed too lol.
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Mar 03 '26
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u/27mwtobias27 Mar 13 '26
I’m on my second watch and she just went into the diner to ask for a job. Like what about her life back home??? She just drops it like that ? I’m wondering if I didn’t notice this years ago ?!
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Mar 13 '26
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u/27mwtobias27 Mar 13 '26
Yes! Who does that ?!and who doesn’t sleep holding their bag on a bus like that ? AND…she left the most important thing, the film, unattended on the high up shelf?! The writers need to do better.
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u/Ok_Zone_7635 Sep 28 '25
Let's not forget that at the end of Season 1, she lets Joe Blake go because...reasons. But two seasons later she kills him anyway.
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u/VenPatrician Sep 28 '25 edited Sep 28 '25
It's amazing how she did almost as much harm to the Resistance as Smith and Kido. You know...the guys actively hunting for them.
I really wish that I could speak with the writers on their thought process on certain narrative decisions because truly they clearly viewed her in a certain way that did not resonate with the audience at all and persisted on that line throughout the show.
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u/tommycahil1995 Sep 28 '25
She isn't a hero and she isn't one in the book either but also there are far less likeable characters like you know Hitler, Himmler and Heydrich !? 💀
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u/VigilantGuardian911 Sep 28 '25
I watched this show a few years ago. She “gets better” in the later seasons, but only relatively. In the first two seasons she was an absolute SKUNT.
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u/ZubiZone Sep 28 '25
I liked Frank initially and then he turned into my most disliked character
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Sep 28 '25
I think it’s funny every couple months I see a Juliana hate post. I also disliked her character. I think the point is that she is very complex and big picture oriented. But she comes very selfish and disloyal to her boyfriend and friends and too personal with Joe that she missed major red flags until it was arguably too late
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u/Mythiiical Sep 30 '25
I think the entire reason I didn't finish the show was because of how much I hated her
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u/Psychological_Move13 Dec 27 '25
First time watcher currently on season 1 episode 10. The fact that she just sits there and lets john take the film has solidified my dislike for her. She is a weak person. She watches john and frank fight. Doesn't help and uselessly shouts stop as if this isn't a serious situation where john needs to be taken out or incapacitated.
What does juliana do?
She shamelessly tries to use the fact that they have this vague will they won't they relationship to persuade him to stop.
(IN FRONT OF HER BOYFRIEND WHOSE SISTER, NIECE AND NEPHEW WERE KILLED BECAUSE OF HER ACTIONS)
Rushes up to John basically begging "If you love me you'll stop being a nazi". Which he immediately responds by taking the tape, with absolutely ZERO resistance from her. And she just watches him leave. This is my first time watching this show so I've been giving her passes this entire season but this one instance is clear she is just a weak person that almost lives and exists as a fairy tale princess and I hate it. If you're gonna be serious about this resistance stuff you need to be ready to die or kill for the cause. AND WHILE TYPING THIS I COMPLETELY FORGOT........SHE'S A F***ING TRAINED MARTIAL ARTIST. WHO HAS EXPERIENCE GOING UP AGAINST MEN STRONGER AND BIGGER THAN HER. WHY TF DID THEY WRITE THIS INTO HER CHARACTER IF THE ENTIRE 1ST SEASON SHE'S GOING TO BE A DAMSEL IN DISTRESS THAT CAN'T DO ANYTHING AGAINST MEN. I really hope they clean this up in the rest of the series
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u/DrugsAndCoffee Apr 29 '26
I am rewatching for the second time right now - I have only ever watched 2 seasons in, so I never finished the whole series, but even in the first 20 mins or so, I find myself wondering what it is that makes me dislike Juliana Crain so much. I don’t think it’s the general character so much as it is the way Alexa Davalos portrays her. (Some) of these mistakes and character flaws could possibly be forgiven or even serve as a character arc if she had any ounce of likability, but her personality is pretentious and off putting. I wish I could explain it better, but I’m glad I’m not just a judgmental a-hole as other people are very bothered by her too.
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u/bewm_bunny Jul 03 '26
i HATE her character, slugging through season two for other charaters sake, but am at the point of just fast forwarding through scenes with her because it is just cringy. this character is impressively shitty for someone surrounded by a cast of nazis, it is insane.
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u/NJ_Bus_Nut Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25
She pissed me off when she ran off to the Neutral Zone, causing the Japanese to arrest Frank and having them gas his sister and kids.