Two TV Treats to catch-up on - January 2017

My regular look at what's good to watch on TV via catch up.

After the boys have gone to bed, I’m always looking for something to watch on catch-up TV? 

If you are too, then here are my Top 2 Things to watch on TV catch up this month.

This month it’s two TV treats of the same series. A bit of a cheat maybe, but honestly if you haven’t watched The Man in the High Castle then you are in for a real treat with both Series One and Series Two. That’s a mammoth 20 episodes to get through. And if you haven’t watched series one yet you have the advantage of being able to press play on series two immediately after watching the twist in its closing scene. Lucky you!

So what is The Man in the High Castle? It’s actually loosely based on a now, 54-year-old book of the same name, by author Philip K Dick, whose short story 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,  also inspired Bladerunner. It tells the story of an alternative America, and an alternate world in 1962, following a very different outcome to WW2 where the Nazi’s won the war. 

  

It’s set in a place that emerged from an alliance defeat in World War II, with America now split between the ‘Greater Nazi Reich’ in the East coast of America and the ‘Japanese Pacific States’ in the west, mainly California, with a buffer, neutral state between the two. It’s a wired dystopia where the swastika is common place.

With Ridley Scott as an executive producer, this show looks immaculate. The cinematography and symbolism are amazing. It is stylish has a very strong narrative and hook and great acting performances too. The plot deals with questions of loyalty, family and history with great subtlety as it focuses on the small band of insurgents who rebel against the police state that the former United States has become. And it offers lessons about the history that we the show’s viewers are actually living in.

Not strictly catch up but you can stream the entire two series on Amazon. 

The pilot show was Amazon's "most-watched since the original series development program began, since then there have been two series and a third series now has been confirmed.