TV
The Man in the High Castle
I recently finished Amazon’s The Man in the High Castle series and I liked it a lot. After I watched the pilot last winter the first thing I did was to subscribe to Prime so that I’d be able to see all the episodes of High Castle when they were released, and the second thing I did was to read the Philip K. Dick book of the same name just to see where everything in the show was headed.
The thing I liked most about the book is that there was really no central story. Not to spoil anything, but the book’s a glimpse a very intense few weeks of life of the characters living in this world where Japan and Germany won the Second World War. That being said, the idea that no story is story could kind’a be frustrating at times.
So when the High Castle Amazon series was announced I wondered how the creators of the show would handle all this since I couldn’t imagine something like a TV series could embrace the “no story is story” mantra of the book. And they didn’t, which I think is a good thing. Instead what they did was to take many of the elements of the book — mainly that in this alternate world someone is producing works of fiction where the Allies won the second world war — and to build a story with these characters around this.
It also helps that my favorite part of the book, what happens to one of the Japanese characters at the end of the novel, is still present in the TV series. B+
The X-Files
I thought I’d written more about The X-Files over the years but I guess I really haven’t. Which is surprising since I originally started this blog in 1998 when that series was at its height. Then again when I started Dangerous Universe only really covered movies so that would explain things. Regardless, here’s a few pieces I’ve written on the show over the years:
The X-Files and the steamroller of pop-culture – 01/15/16
The X-Files, one of the greats, turns 20 – 09/20/13
I Want to Believe in The X-Files – 07/04/08
Movies
So, the movie Lifeforce (1985) is just an update of the Quatermass and the Pit (1958) story, yes? (I know I’m coming to this realization 31 years after the release of Lifeforce but no one ever said I was fast.)
Toys
Out in March the Lego set for the classic TV series of Batman is pretty amazing. It features Wayne Manor, the Batcave, the Batcopter, the Batcycle and the Batmobile along with a whopping NINE figures including Batman, Bruce Wayne, Robin, Dick Grayson, Alfred, Catwoman, Joker, Penguin and Riddler. Which is impressive, but this all comes at a very impressive price of nearly $270!
Hiya Toys is set to release a series of 3.75″ tall figures based on the movie Aliens, starting with Hicks and Hudson. These figures might be small but they have a big price at almost $25 per figure! Both are due out in March.
But if price is a factor, checkout the Aliens Vs. Colonial Marines Army Builder, a set of 35 “green army men” scale figures of Colonial Marines vs. Aliens out now.
On the Horizon
I’m working on columns about having watched most movies on VHS growing up and have started gathering content for my yearly summer movie preview column out this spring.
