The Stapler in the High Castle, Season 2

If you understand the reference to the title, you’ve seen The Office. And the second season of The Man in the High Castle. If you don’t understand it, and it’s because you haven’t seen season 2, I wouldn’t exactly go running. 

Season 1 had this “OMG what’s going to happen next?” tension to it because it was this whole new world in which America didn’t win the second world war and we were mostly Nazi territory now. They obviously left season 1 open so they could make a season 2, but season 2 felt unnecessary.

Besides Julianna’s wardrobe and the use of Cabaret’s “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” in the final credits of the last episode (and their use of “Edelweiss” from The Sound of Music in the opening credits, I suppose), I was bored. The episodes felt really slow and a lot of it was really boring. By the last couple of episodes, they had you cheering for obergruppenführer Smith, so yes, we were cheering for a hypocritical Nazi. This didn’t feel right. It’s like rooting for Mike Pence. At any time. You’d feel dirty.

But Julianna’s wardrobe? Give. me. all. of. it. now.

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What’d we do after brunch and the race on Sunday? We settled in with some healthy snacks (thanks, Trader Joe’s!) watched the last 8 episodes of The Man in the High Castle. This show is simply amazing – the scale of which their imaginations had to climb is staggering. Nothing could be as it was today – there were swastikas or Japanese writing on everything. Such an interesting, and scary, thing to think about, if we lost the war. The last episode dragged a little bit and the ending was a little confusing, but overall I really loved it. I think there might be multiple universes going on in the show. 

I’m a bit conflicted regarding whether or not there should be a second season (and I haven’t been able to find online if there is one planned or not). It’d just be the same thing over and over, but then again, with the way things ended in season 1, there are lots of unanswered question.

If you have Amazon Prime, load this onto your Apple TV/Roku/computer immediately.