I don’t think that there were very many Nazis that ever referred to themselves as Nazis. My guess is that the word would be verboten in a Reich run world.
Exactly. “Nazi” is a truncation of “Nazionalsozialismus,” “nazionalsozialistisch” etc., and you would never hear/see it in any formal setting: written in a passport or on a building, or spoken in a diplomatic meeting. But we’ve seen all of that here. I read the novel a million years ago in my twenties: does Dick use it like that in there, or is this done here for the purposes of marketing the series or something, I wonder?
Traditionally they would have referred to themselves as National Socialists; they may have used the term Nazi in passing or in very informal settings, but definitely not something official. Though theoretically in such a fictional setting, Nazi could be more of an official term because we know how Americans all like to shorten things.
— Alan
Amazing series. Anyone know if they wrap up the story this season or if another is planned?
It’s billed as Season 1, so I don’t think they wrap things up. I don’t know how many more seasons they have planned or even if it’s definite that they’ll do more. I’ve watched through Episode 5 now, and I think it’s very well done. My only complaint is that I thought the writing got lazy in the sequence with the bounty hunter at the beginning of Episode 4:
SPOILER
Joe chases the bounty hunter, but leaves his gun in the truck. Then he knocks the bounty hunter out with a two by four, but doesn’t even take the bounty hunter’s shotgun. Then the bounty hunter walks out just a few minutes later and isn’t even woozy from the blow that knocked him cold.
My only nit is that the chronology is slightly messed up. Unless the Nazis did build autobhans East of the Rockies and Joe Blake’s crappy truck can cruise at about 120 mph.
I watched farther than you, and I kinda think they indirectly answer that
SPOILER
They work for the same side
Seppey, I think that’s unclear (and it’s also one of the show’s main points of interest).
With regard to The Japanese occupied west and the German occupied east and the occupied ‘Americans’…
(I have not read the books; am 3 shows in…)
Are we supposed to assume that, in the east, under German rule, many Americans have thrown in with the Germans; our Obergrupenfurher for example. Post-war now some, what, 15-20 years, he just wants to make a good life for himself and his familiy and/or he really believes in the Reich’s philosophy. Either way, in the east most posts are held by english-as-first-language former Americans. That seems pretty magnanimous of the Germans.
And in the west the Japanese are more still an occupying force. Keeping the Americans under their heel. Seems like all the policing and enforcing is done by Japanese who prefer to speak Japanese. And the occupied Americans here seem to be more resistant to their Japanese overlords than do the Americans in the east.
Am I wrong or what am I to make of this? I’m aware for example that between the Japanese and the Germans there is friction and that the Germans would seem to have the upper hand technology-wise. Funny the lines about the Japanese envying German engineering and production.
I think you read it correctly, although “magnanimous” isn’t a term I would use. It would seem in keeping with Nazi philosophy to integrate racially “acceptable” Americans into their government and with the Imperial Japanese world view of all outsiders as inferiors.
And speaking of Obergrupenfurher Smith, I think Rufus Sewell’s performance is one of the highlights of the series. Evil is at its most chilling when it’s understated and not delivered with strutting and comic book maniacal laughter.
Just wanted to say that I started watching this, am really enjoying it, but am only 4 or 5 episodes in so I’m not reading anything 'til I’m done. Carry on!
The book is set 100% in San Francisco and the neutral zone; we never see anything happen in the German zone first-hand. Part of it is just that the west coast part of the fictional universe is better fleshed out than the east coast.
The book also makes the fuel for the tension between the Japanese and Americans more clear, namely racism on both sides. So far - I’m only on episode 5 - the TV show has made that more tacit than explicit.
The book implied that the Reich’s civilian administration in the US was heavily staffed by former members of the German American Bundand other such pre-war American pro-Nazi organizations - organizations we conveniently forgot ever existed once we entered the war. (The book also makes it clear that conditions in the Reich-controlled territory are far, far worse for those on the outs with the occupiers than in the Japanese zone, despite the surface culture clash between the Americans and the Japanese.)
HumanTon,
Thanks, exactly what I needed.
Nice little background touch in Episode 6: The New York Airport is named George Lincoln Rockwell Airport.
Final episode discussion
BTW, in the scene where we see Hitler, he looks pretty spry for a dude who’s on death’s door, not to mention in better shape, and taller, than the pudgy guy we’ve seen in the newsreels.
Having watched Season 1 to its conclusion, I could see them ending the series there … or not.
Very polarizing assertion there, sir.
I just finished it up as well. How imaginative and well-written does a series need to be to actually kind of have me rooting for Hitler?
Well, don’t want to put in a spoiler, but I will say that, while the conclusion certainly doesn’t wrap things up and answer all the questions, it does provide a possible end point.