A vote for the Nazis

You may have heard that Amazon, in its bid to dominate even more of your life than Facebook, is now soliciting audience opinions on which shows it should develop. Right now there are about a dozen pilots, available here for free. To be honest, most of them look dreadful, but I did take a look at “The Man in the High Castle” and decided to vote for it.

Why? Because this one has Nazis. And it’s set in a dystopian 1962 America where Germany and Japan won World War II and divided the former United States between them. What’s not to like? You get the cars and (to some extent) the fashions of “Mad Men,” and you also get those swastika-sporting madmen (sorry, Matthew Weiner) we all love to hate (and endlessly invoke in reader comments). Best of all, the source material comes from one of the great science-fiction writers of all time, Philip K. Dick.

I know: It couldn’t have been easy growing up with that name. But PKD has proven a reliable inspiration for quite a few good films. “Blade Runner,” “Total Recall,” “Minority Report,” “The Adjustment Bureau” are just a few of the movies that came from his books. While “The Man in the High Castle” appears to suffer from a made-for-TV budget and a lackluster cast, it is at least about something that has a certain resonance in these days of paranoia and state surveillance. I look forward to seeing how the show might mature if Amazon decides to stick with it.

One thing: PKD’s book is a bit smarter than the pilot, and quite a bit more subtle. But it’s TV, after all. I’m ready to see more episodes anyway. What would be really great is if they booked Jon Hamm in an episode depicting how Don Draper is faring under the Third Reich. But I suppose there are contractual obligations and what-not.

Have you seen any of the Amazon pilots? It’s an interesting idea, screening shows this way. Or maybe it’s just a gimmick. “Transparent,” the Amazon show that got all the Golden-Globes love last week, ranked dead last with preview audiences.