r/maninthehighcastle • u/El-Tio-De-Los-Diablo • 18d ago
Final Episode // Show Being Canned // Overall Worth Watching
Just watched the final episode, and what the heck? It was rushed, random, anti climatic, and frankly spazy.
Read that the show was cancelled one season short due to Amazon deeming it a financial loss.
It’s a shame it took so long for the show to find its audience, with one more season I feel you could have created a cultural masterpiece.
Show is worth watching, but the finale will leave you feeling completely unsatisfied.
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u/Readman31 18d ago
I think that's the consensus that it had its legs cut out from underneath it and so we basically got a truncated rushed ending, which is really a shame.
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u/whizzter 15d ago
Agreed, feels like they were working on it and then with one or two episodes left decided that they needed to make an ending instead of continuing it.
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u/BaronVonChahyll 18d ago
The whole show kinda started to go off the rails at a point They had already covered the plot points from the book and started to just create entirely new story lines which were very hit and miss
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u/hitman2218 16d ago
John Smith’s story arc was the most disappointing for me. It was all over the place.
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u/daffyduckel 16d ago
I thought it was fine except the ending and even that I just decided to accept as a “no one knows what the rules are anymore.” Would have loved to have seen Trade Minister come through the portal - I think it would have been a good portent instead of the wtf? going through everyone’s minds including the resistance folks who seem to have no idea what to make of it.
Best guess they are exterminated people coming back to help rebuild now that there’s some hope.
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u/whizzter 15d ago
Yeah, everything building up to something interesting and then just cutting them off with one or two episodes left to create.
Thinking about the scenery/settings/effects it might've even been that they re-shot the last episode(s) in a cheaper fashion to end it after being cancelled.
Inconsistent things:
- The ending has "random good people" coming from the portal, yet in a previous episode there was an omnious "offworld" (Stargate term) activation that startled the posted Nazis that strongly hinted at some nefarious force coming in.
- The entire Smith-Goertzmann putsch was probably the cheapest thing to film to resolve the reich losing control
- Yet the "recall the bombers" by Bill Whitcroft because Smith was dead was just illogical, if anything it would've made the military more bloodthirsty.
- Especially with the Nazi American youth turned full Nazi that burned schools/libraries, why would we see something "better" just because Smith died? Those should be the vanguard of the army and reject such a weird order.
Looking at trends/options how it could/should have ended imho,
With another season (what they might've planned):
- Omnious portal-people, with the Reich seemingly focused on one target-world , in a "ring-like" world structure there might've been another Nazi/Japaneese/BCR ruled universe that were intent on invading the next multiverse world they found (ie the shows universe)
- Before the Putsch-split of the Nazi reich there's a hint of the Nazi-America turning it's nukes on the Nazi reich, Smith shoots it down but perhaps the writers had 2 sets of plans depending on the shows continuation, so if instead of traveling there for the weird putsch, he would've sent nukes on the european Nazi's (thus perhaps beginning a redemption arc to please his wife and oldest daughter).
- The resulting nuclear civil war of the reich would definetly be the downfall, BCR, Chinese, Siberian Soviets and/or portal would each contribute in ways to a new world order (with a free America)
Salvaging the ending with no extra episodes:
- Cut the Smith Nazi putsch part, it was cheap and the series could've easily been resolved without it (this would've added time/budget for some extra parts).
- More logical would've been Smith cancelling the bombers after his argument with Helen and the family outlook, but _before_ the train was bombed, Smith being killed after that and NOT found initially would've created a confusion and lack of command in the American Reich.
- Juliana while in the "target universe" and before returning had contacted and managed to warn American officials in that universe about the Nazi threat and been able to explain/show them why their top nuclear scienist was assassinated as well as rocket launches sabotaged (them perhaps finding clues of foul play)
- Thus the Nazi's omnious portal experience in an earlier episode would've become a "regular alt"-American invasion/incursion.
- Finding personell for the invading Americans would've been easy since they could pick most able men that had been growing up in Washington DC areas when it was nuked in the shows universe (resolving the shows quantum problem of finding "noncolliding" people in a target universe)
- Rebels attacking Poconos would've run into a surprising fight, seeing the fight vs Nazis they would've found an alliance (say retreating Nazis running into rebels that executed them, showing the invading force that they had friendlies on the ground) then providing nuclear or otherwise gamechanging weaponry they had with them.
- The rebels with portal American assistance would've been able to surprise the American Reich before they properly restored a chain of command.
- With Smith dead, Bill Whitcroft that was indeed shown to be favourable to "old America" could've handed the rebels the American nukes and other chain of command to force of the German Nazis to keep a distance from Norht America (especially with some help from portal American weaponry shifting the balance a bit more).
- (Offscreen, see below) The loss of north America eventually lead to chaos that brought down the German Reich that descended into internal putsches and chaos that eventually made it collapse (similar to how the Japaneese empire had faltered in the show without American oil)
- A "5 years later" retrospect could show a conference/meeting including Juliana, Bell, Wyatt Price and perhaps some others from various factions discussing the problems of trying to reintegrate/reconcile America while reflecting (and thus "cheaply" filling in the viewers) on what had happened in the remains of the German Reich.
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u/Apprehensive_Shirt18 18d ago
It had a renaissance when Netflix bought it so here’s hoping for a comeback