‘The Man in the High Castle’ Season 4 Marks the End of Amazon’s First Big Foray into Streaming

We’re not sure if you know this, but The Man in the High Castle Season 4 is now streaming on Prime Video.

The reason we’re really not sure if you know that The Man in the High Castle is back for its fourth and final season is that The Man in the High Castle isn’t exactly a zeitgeist-breaking show at the moment. This week’s entertainment headlines have all been consumed with the launch of Disney+, the impeachment hearings, and the secret meaning of “Maclunkey.” There’s little proverbial ink for a show like The Man in the High Castle, a dystopian drama that now feels like a relic from a quieter, simpler time in streaming.

When The Man in the High Castle‘s pilot first premiered in January 2015 — during one of Amazon’s quaint, and now cancelled, “pilot seasons” which allowed Prime Video subscribers to weigh in with their own reviews in the comments section — it was considered to be Amazon’s great salvo against streaming rival Netflix. Decider even proclaimed that the show “could be Amazon’s House of Cards,” and in a strange way, it is. Both The Man in the High Castle and House of Cards were the big original dramas that Amazon and Netflix put their muscle behind at the start of their respective programming pushes, and both shows have now ended with whimpers. House of Cards‘s final season came and went, with most of the press consumed with the absence of disgraced series star Kevin Spacey. Now The Man in the High Castle is ending on a week dominated by the launch of Disney+. It’s not exactly, you know, a big deal.

The Man in the High Castle first captivated viewers with its slick cinematography and high-fantasy concept. Loosely based on the novella by Philip K. Dick, The Man in the High Castle was set in an alternate timeline where AXIS powers won World War II. Julianna Crain (Alexa Davalos) is a modest San Francisco woman devoted to the Japanese martial art of akido. Her life turns upside down when her rebellious sister Trudy entrusts her with a mysterious newsreel just before being murdered by officers. Once Julianna learns the footage was curated by a mysterious figure called “The Man in the High Castle,” and it shows our world history, one where the Allied powers won, she devotes herself to the resistance against the ruling AXIS powers. Woven into Julianna’s desperate spy plot are stories about conflicted Nazis, concerned Japanese officers, and various conspiracies to seize and maintain power.

Since its debut, The Man in the High Castle has faced a number of inconvenient hiccups. Back when The Man in the High Castle was developed, we were still confident America could never tip into fascism. Since then, much has changed, and imagery of a Nazi-controlled America doesn’t feel so much like a thought experiment as much as a loud warning. Plus, The Man in the High Castle faced real behind-the-scenes turmoil. By Season 2, creator and showrunner Frank Spotnitz was out, leaving the show without a showrunner. Then, in 2017, it came out that executive producer Isa Dick Hackett had been one of the many women sexually harassed by then Amazon programming chief Roy Price.

Today, Jennifer Salke is Head of Amazon Programming and she has overseen a shift away from high-concept prestige projects in favor of big budget crowdpleasers like Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Boys, and the in-production Lord of the Rings spin-off. The Man in the High Castle doesn’t really fit in with Amazon’s new vibe, nor has it proven to be as steadfastly popular as Amazon’s first scripted drama, the addictive noir Bosch. It is a reminder of a time now gone, when tech companies could try to distinguish themselves by investing in bold programming. Today, streaming is a crowded battlefield, and only the strongest concepts buoyed by the biggest corporate war chests can survive.

Much like its characters, The Man in the High Castle is from a different time than the one we are living in now.

Where to stream The Man in the High Castle