Visions of Alt-Berlin in 'The Man in the High Castle'

“The Man in the High Castle”—Amazon’s serial adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s alternative-history thriller—makes excellent use of establishing shots to set the scene in its first season, lowering the viewer into Nazi-occupied New York and Japanese-occupied San Francisco with images of key buildings and landmarks, jarringly superimposed with new “alt-history” signifiers: swastikas, Rising Sun banners, and fascist propaganda billboards.

Early in the second season, however, these shots take on an entirely new and horrifying relevance. As the story traces back to the corridors of power in the Fatherland, viewers get their first establishing shot of the Nazi capital of Berlin, looking east past the famous Siegessäule (Victory Column), towards the Brandenburg Gate.