Well it's not the only difference, because i believe FDR was assassinated as well.

1/17/2017 3:46:22 PM

Smith has a medal from the Solomon Islands that Kito remarks on. Since those islands were never part of the US, I draw the conclusion that he must have been there as part of some sort of American participation in the war.

1/18/2017 3:56:56 PM

Wait. Some of you think America didn't participate in the war on this show?

1/18/2017 7:01:19 PM

In the war prior to Germany invading the US. As I recall, that's how it goes in the book - the USA is too poor economically to participate after FDR dies (and fails to do the New Deal), so they sit out and eventually get preyed on by the Axis powers.

1/18/2017 8:14:32 PM

^^ certainly not in the same capacity or with the same will as reality. "The war" was the protection of the homeland (the US) more than bringing it to Europe or the Pacific from what I got.

^ this

1/19/2017 11:32:12 AM

This isn't the book though. And they haven't mentioned any of that in the series.

1/19/2017 8:16:38 PM

^ yea and im pretty sure there have been Americans in the show that mentioned that they fought in "the war". Pretty sure in the show the US was a part of WW2 just like our universe, but the Nazi's beat us to the A bomb in their timeline.

1/19/2017 11:47:08 PM

Also the scene where the Japanese general was in the lounge talking to those girls he mentioned some strategy that was risky but made the call to attack head on or something like that. I took that scene to imply that different strategic decisions were made during the war in this timeline resulting in Japanese victory.

1/20/2017 7:45:05 AM

Yeah the sheriff dude in the first season who helps joe change his tire talks about being in the war.

1/20/2017 10:07:31 AM

Season 3 coming out in October!

7/23/2018 9:37:55 PM

Sweet. Really enjoy this show and the female lead.

7/24/2018 11:39:03 AM

I'm late to the game here. Started watching this and really liked the first season (female lead was great) but it looks like it's about to hop into some fantastical/alternative universe type of time looping stuff, which seems like it would kill the show. Is season two worth watching?

Also, I can't stand Frank. They did next to nothing to connect the audience to him other than his ancestry and being nice to the girl the first episode. He is pretty much just an angry dick the whole time and I kinda hope he gets written out / dies.

10/3/2018 4:52:49 PM

Season 2 was pretty good - in line with season 1. There is more backstory, and you get a sense of why the season 3 previews are going where they're going.

10/3/2018 8:29:21 PM

Quote :

"Also, I can't stand Frank"

Still don't understand this sentiment. Juliana is the fucking worst character ever. Frank is just a victim of her dumbassedness.

I really just watch this show now for John Smith and Kido.

10/4/2018 9:43:31 AM

Season 2 was pretty good.

^Juliana definitely fucks things up but they explain in the last episode of season 2 that she's almost predestined to. Regardless, she's hot and she drives a lot of the plot.

I agree that Kido, Smith, and the time traveling dude whose name escapes me are worth watching for.

Frank, on the other hand, is just an angry dude in every single scene. There is literally not a single scene where he interacts with a single person where he isn't overly aggressive/angry, with the only exceptions being the start of Episode 1 and the flashback in the second to last episode in season 2 where the whole purpose was to connect him with the audience in a positive way before they kill (or appear to kill) him off. There just should have been more of that, but he was always so angry and snappy that I was like fuck this guy.

/two years late rant.

Gonna start season 3 tonight.

10/9/2018 5:33:52 PM

Frank has every right to be angry. His dumbass girlfriend got his whole family killed then ran off with a fucking Nazi. I would be a little bitter as well.

I'm not enjoying season 3 nearly as much yet. :-\

10/9/2018 8:22:29 PM

I finished season 3 and I would say stick it out.

10/13/2018 2:51:38 PM

Semi-spoiler alert:

I'm through S3E6 and I really like how they have real historical figures in the storyline, like Hoover.

But they need to write better scenes than ladies fighting and one dying from blunt force trauma from an ashtray. Come on.

10/14/2018 11:15:20 AM

Fuck Juliana. Fuck Joe Blake.

#TeamFrank all the way. He's the real hero of this story.

10/17/2018 10:25:56 AM

I was enjoying season 1, but when it became clear it was about multiple universes, I noped on out.

11/2/2018 7:31:54 PM

8 episodes in and I'm still fully on board the FUCK JULIANA train. She's still the worst.

11/19/2018 1:48:10 PM

^8 episodes into what? Season 1?



Season 3 finally picked up steam around episode 5.

11/20/2018 11:59:58 AM

I just finished season 3 last night. Season 3 did pick up around the midpoint. But I'm still firmly on the Juliana hate train. She's the worst character in the show. I am not excited for what I expect to happen in season 4.

11/20/2018 1:36:01 PM

that wasn't quite what i was expecting out of the end of the season

11/21/2018 8:11:51 AM

This wasn't my favorite season and I hope they just end it.

The Joe story line was my favorite from this season. I thought it created enough conflict for most major characters and it did a good job of keeping intrigue. After that, I'd say it was the Reichsmarschall Smith story line since it further developed his character (fought against the Nazis) and his internal conflict with the current state of the nazi party, and also how those two things are impacting his family life.

Everything that involved Juliana Crane, Robert, Frank, etc.. I could have done without. Also after watching 35 years of shows exploring alternate realities, I know that quality starts to devolve quickly, which I expect to happen now that Juliana is a travel too (oh my goodness shocker!).

12/15/2018 6:56:17 AM

Yeah inevitably these kind of shows usually devolve a bit. With that said it will be interesting to see what happens when Juliana appears in "our world" with a bullet wound. It will also be interesting to see how Smith handles the fact that you can't travel to a world that you are currently alive in. He obviously wants to get to where his son still exists. Will he be driven to turn on the Nazis as his anger builds?

12/18/2018 7:48:48 AM

Bttt since season 4 came out

11/15/2019 9:59:13 AM

Kido is easily my favorite character in this whole show, season 4 just reaffirms that.

11/15/2019 6:00:59 PM

Kido is one of the best characters for sure. One great success of the series is the villains are not hollow an undeveloped. The show's creators did a great job preserving their humanity.

[Edited on November 15, 2019 at 6:32 PM. Reason : .]

11/15/2019 6:32:22 PM

John going into the alt-world were some of the best scenes of this entire show.

11/18/2019 12:53:54 PM

I have some thoughts on the ending when people are ready.

11/18/2019 7:01:36 PM

I am ready. TBH I enjoyed the final season but at the same time was disappointed in it.

[Edited on November 18, 2019 at 8:59 PM. Reason : SPOILER ALERT: at least fucking Joe didn't come back]

11/18/2019 8:59:27 PM

Quote :

"SPOILER ALERT: at least fucking Joe didn't come back"

But also no Tagomi ...who by the way I realized half way through last season was in the Mortal Kombat movies

11/18/2019 9:30:00 PM

I think the ending was definitely rushed and their could have been several more episodes to tie things up. I would have loved to seen a little more with Hawthorne and the rules of the multiverse as well.

11/19/2019 10:12:38 AM

If they were going to leave the ending ambiguous anyway, I would have much rather them ended on "Heil Smith" with the planes heading for San Francisco. That moment was incredible.

11/19/2019 12:39:08 PM

^
Or right after Whitcroft throws down his Nazi emblem after calling off the attack.

11/19/2019 2:36:21 PM

The one thing that bugs me the most is that the resistance had no idea Smith was going to pull what he did in Berlin. They had been planning this assassination the whole season as if killing Smith will be the end to all their troubles, but that was only the cause because Himmler, Eichmann, and Hoover were already gone. Otherwise the propaganda machine was certainly going to turn Smith into a hero and martyr and there would be insane retribution (an excuse to bomb the hell out of everything in America).

The season as a whole was fantastic. Mostly focused on Smith and Kido as fathers, limited amounts of Julianna, no Joe, the addition of the BCR characters, and more for Lem to do. I also liked Helen's espionage arch and the Staatspolizei agent.

The last ten minutes was just....ugh.

11/19/2019 5:24:30 PM

I am not sure how the resistance would have known about Smith's plan in Berlin. I was under the impression he was called there pretty last minute. He certainly had to know who he could trust for quite some time, but he didn't have much notice to put it together. My complaint is that it seemed too easy to pull off and essentially overthrow the Reich in seconds.

11/21/2019 12:13:54 PM

Smith was the top dog in the American Reich. Killing him would have caused major issues even if Himmler + buddies were alive. The Nazis needed an American in charge to keep those former American servicemen in line. Without Smith there was a much higher chance of a revolution succeeding.

11/21/2019 1:05:40 PM

Quote :

"The Nazis needed an American in charge to keep those former American servicemen in line"

Wasn't that the question when Smith was in Berlin? Himmler and Eichmann didn't agree with this line of thinking.

11/21/2019 1:36:44 PM

I thoroughly enjoyed this show. Especially the acting performances of Kido and Smith. Rufus Sewell should get an Emmy. That said I wish the show wasn't canceled because the series finale was super rushed and not that great.

11/26/2019 4:51:27 PM

I have two more episodes to watch, but I've really enjoyed this season finale so far.

Yes, it's got some absolute bullshit plots/scenes, but I'm surprised it's only got a 3 star rating.

11/27/2019 10:06:00 AM

I really enjoy this show.

11/27/2019 10:13:50 AM

Did Childan get any final scenes after Yukiko left on the boat?

12/13/2019 12:18:29 PM

I agree with everyone regarding the antagonists in this show. Both Smith and Kido were excellent bad guys. The part where Kido was locked in the gas chamber watching the Japanese broadcast go offline for the last time was pretty moving.

I was disappointed however in regards to the alternate worlds and the travel between them. The videos, alternate world, and portal served only as motivation for characters to change or do something. To me, they were underutilized.

I also don't really understand why Smith didn't say anything about Phase V - the eugenics program for the West Coast. Any logical, sane person's stomach would churn at those plans, and they spent 4 seasons showing us that Smith isn't just a Nazi robot. At the very least, why murder all those people? Why murder Smith's son? Why not let him live out a long life, just not let him or any of the undesirables have children?

1/29/2020 11:32:26 AM

Just finished the series last night.

Felt like Smith always viewed himself as a cog in the machine, when in fact he was actually the catalyst for quite a few bad things. He said he didn't know how to stop the Reich, when in fact he was the one initiating the bombing runs on the West Coast and agreeing to all of the concentration camps. I assume that others were feeding him the information/data and he was too weak to stop it, even when he was in total command of the Reich in North America.

Season 4 definitely felt like love letters to the send offs of Kido and Smith. Tried to take these 2 powerful/evil figures and humanize them and explain some of their past and regrets.

I liked the open-ended element of the finale, but do feel like it just needed another episode or just a little more to solidify the existence of the portal, why some people didn't need it, and why controlling it meant controlling everything.

1/29/2020 1:55:20 PM

I think Smith started off as very much just a cog in the machine, but he became powerful to "protect his family" and he would do anything to stay in power. I see his and Kido's story arcs as kind of opposites. Smith was kind of a relatable anti-hero early in the series but by the end he was pretty much a nazi. Kido starts off as a sadistic bastard but is humbled and humanized by the end.

juliana just stayed terrible for 4 seasons.

1/29/2020 7:22:29 PM