The man in high castle đánh giá năm 2024

The Man in the High Castle went from being a high-concept show about an America under Nazi rule to being a higher-concept show about alternate worlds and how Nazis would want to put every America under Nazi rule. But despite its mostly successful marriage of thrilling espionage and science-fiction, High Castle has always been at its best when miring itself in the tricky moral soil that a Greater American Reich would be built on. Luckily, Season 4 does deliver some great character work that makes the most of the past three seasons’ horror. Unfortunately, those moments punctuate an otherwise troubled story, full of too many characters to service and a weakened confidence in its own central conceit.

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The Man in the High Castle: Season 4 Photos
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The Man in the High Castle: Season 4 Review

Season 4 picks up right where Season 3 left off, with Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos) getting shot by John Smith (Rufus Sewell) as she escapes into the alt-world (ours) in which the Allies won the war. While Juliana spends a year in the alt-world, power shifts between the Reich and Japanese Pacific States leave an opening for Smith to consolidate his power. These shifts are in part thanks to the efficient, escalating activity of the Black Communist Rebellion, a newly-introduced faction of the resistance fighters. The Man in the High Castle himself, Hawthorne Abendsen (Stephen Root), is still in Nazi custody, being forced to disavow his life's work in the form of a clever piece of propaganda that we won't spoil here.

With two high commands and a Resistance to follow, MITHC’s always had to service a huge cast of characters, often to its own detriment. If you were hoping that Season 4 would have more focus after some of the show’s mainstays departed last season, you’re going to be disappointed. Season 4 not only introduces a new focal character, B.C.R. leader Bell Mallory (Frances Turner), but a slew of new supporting characters, which in some cases, are completely redundant. High Castle’s frequent cross-cutting between storylines and bevy of new additions make the early episodes of the season especially tough to follow.

Time spent on new characters and extraneous subplots could have been better spent fleshing out the arcs of the three main characters. Juliana’s story in particular feels empty of any meaningful character development. For the most part, Juliana’s utility in Season 4 is her knowledge of the Smiths, and even that’s usually just used to move the plot. That’s no commentary on Alexa Davalos’ performance, which is as strong here as it has been throughout the show’s run, but it definitely doesn’t have the weight it could’ve had she been working with better material.

Season 4 is much more interested in Smith and Kido’s stories, with both men facing deserved reckonings for their actions throughout the series - largely fuelled by each man’s devotion to their family, and the lengths they’ll go to in order to keep them intact. Smith’s schemes to that end, which involve the alt-world, are fairly predictable, but still feel vital thanks to Rufus Sewell’s tense, multilayered performance. Likewise, Chelah Horsdal’s Helen Smith is a far more capable, forceful presence this season. Now that some time has passed since the devastating loss of Thomas, Helen is left with the rage of a mother who lost her son to a cause neither of them fully understood. Seeing her finally standing up to John is hugely satisfying and Horsdal’s ferocious work this season is why it works so well.

The Man in the High Castle: Season 4 Photos

Chief Inspector Kido finds himself in a similar dilemma to the Smiths. One of Season 4’s more effective (and affecting) subplots sees Kido working to get his son Toru out of a dangerous situation that Kido’s own failings as a father may have led to. Joel de la Fuente does a spectacular job of playing a more emotionally complex Kido once Toru’s troubles begin and moments where Kido speaks words of praise to the men in his command always simmer with deeper meaning because we know he’s really talking to his son. Kido’s journey through Season 4 sees him evolve the most out of the three leads, but the show wisely doesn’t let him off the hook entirely for his crimes.

A major downside of Season 4 is that Cary Hiroyuki-Tagama’s Tagomi, save a couple of shots of the back of a body double’s head, is absent from High Castle’s final season. It’s obvious something kept Hiroyuki-Tagama from reprising his role and it’s a critical loss, as Tagomi has been a lynchpin of the series’ discourse on peace and decency since the beginning. That function is handed over to Japan’s Crown Princess Michiko (Mayumi Yoshida), but similar to Juliana’s problem this season, the Princess is really just there to keep the plot moving and any commentary she gives on Tagomi’s values just reminds us that he’s not there to speak for himself.

One of the final season’s most prevalent and successfully communicated themes is how our choices affect both our own destinies and those of the next generation. Kido’s storyline is full of moments where we see how his failure as a father in a key moment has endangered Toru, a man who never wanted to be the soldier his father turned him into. High Castle has an ace up its sleeve when it comes to hammering this theme home, as having an alt-world where John Smith is a normal dad from the suburbs removes any guesswork from the equation.

Seeing an alt-Smith stripped of the Reichsmarshall’s worst qualities is heartbreaking because it’s clear that had Smith gone a different way after Germany invaded the United States, he would’ve been fighting alongside Juliana the whole series. Smith’s daughters struggle to reconcile his wavering alliances to family and party, and make potentially dangerous mistakes as a result. John’s singular focus on power reminds us that a goal as selfish and shortsighted as that will always leave victims in its wake. Weirdly, Himmler’s Jahr Null initiative isn’t used at all to reinforce any of this, which is strange considering that movement is all about shaping the youth of the Reich and was a significant development in Season 3.

The Man in the High Castle’s slow shift from being a simple alternate history story to featuring full-blown sci-fi devices has been delightful, but Season 4 doesn’t have much to add on that front, aside from one very late-in-the-game headscratcher that will have fans arguing over the rules of alternate worlds in the show. Already-established elements like the Lackawanna portal and world-travelling are still important, but it definitely feels like the show has lost interest in those elements since last season and relegates them to the backburner.

It’s not just disappointing to see High Castle’s sci-fi trappings diminished, it also creates some story issues. Juliana’s ability to walk between worlds is used a few times in the early part of the season, but when it comes time for life-or-death covert operations that require sneaking into places, she doesn’t utilize it. Instead, it feels like High Castle just wants to let the bad guys and good guys fight it out with guns and bombs. Y’know, the American way.

Verdict

As a whole, The Man in the High Castle is still worth recommending, but it’s a shame to see the show go out on its weakest season. The human drama is as strong as ever, but High Castle struggles to coalesce it into a coherent, impactful ending to its story. You’ll get series-best performances from Rufus Sewell, Joel de la Fuente, and Chelah Horsdal, but you’ll miss a more dynamic Juliana and the confidence the show had in its sci-fi DNA. In short, the final season is as splintered as High Castle’s own worlds, but if you relax your mind and let go, maybe you’ll be able to walk through with peace of mind.