The Man In The High Castle

Author: Frank Spotnitz

Philip K. Dick has been adapted into film many times, with both amazing (Bladerunner! A Scanner Darkly!) and terrible (Minority Report...) results. His first TV series adaptation, The Man in the High Castle, takes what is almost certainly his best novel and turns it into an incredible series that speaks about how losers are seldom broken, how power corrupts, and how time is more questionable than we think. It's 1962 and the Axis powers won World War Two, splitting the US in half – Japan took the Pacific coast; the Nazis took the East. Julina Crain discovers a newsreel which shows the Allies winning WWII, and thus history being different. This is the start of one of a few different threads that run through the story, and it's the most fascinating, as it brings out those big questions that make science fiction so fascinating. The writers take the book and mold it to the format well, giving just the right amount of weight to every moment, and never wavering too far from the spirit (and often the letter) of the source material. It's one of the best novel-to-television adaptations. Why it's on the list: Philip K. Dick + Great performances x incredible scripting = List.