Amazon's first "Pilot Season" of 2015 is underway. The way it works is that those with Prime memberships can stream a handful of new pilots for free, and the ones that wind up getting the best audience feedback have a chance of getting a first season pick up. They've been doing it for a couple years now, but just recently hit upon their greatest success with Transparent, which went through the Pilot Season process, got picked up, and wound up on many critics' Best of 2014 lists - as well as walking off with a couple of Golden Globes a few days back. You can check out the current Pilot Season episodes here.

Amazon's particular mechanism for show development comes with a high body count. Most of these pilots fall flat. Hell, I've even questioned a few of the ones that did get picked up to series. But this Pilot Season already has a standout. Not only is it actually a great pilot, but it immediately caught my attention when I saw the initial listings. An adaptation of Philip K. Dick's Hugo Award-winning alternative history novel? Written by Frank Spotnitz (The X-Files, Strike Back, Hunted) and executive produced by Ridley Scott? I was instantly intrigued.

Alexa Davalos and Luke Kleintank in The Man in the High Castle.

It's been a few decades since I read The Man in the High Castle so my memory of the exact goings-on aren't exactly sharp. But I figured that not having it sit fresh in my mind would serve me even better here. The premise itself - an alternate version of history in which the Axis Powers won World War II and then divided up America into separate totalitarian regimes - is fascinating, but when you see it actually realized on screen it's even more unsettling than you might imagine.Right out of the gate, one of the best parts of this episode was that there's no pre-scroll or exposition. Nothing sets you up for the world, you just enter it and then have to figure it out as the story rolls along. It's 1962 and Nazi Germany now rules the East Coast of the U.S., with Japan claiming the West Coast and Alaska. Americans have now been living for 20 years under a severe dictatorship, complete with all the nightmarish ethnic cleansing one might imagine - which also includes the mentally ill and infirm. And to make matters worse, mom and dad are fighting. Japan and Germany are now in the midst of their own Cold War, each wondering whether or not to make a move on the other.Within this huge, expansive framework, we follow two stories - that of Joe Blake (Luke Kleintank, Bones) in New York and Juliana Crain (Alexa Davalos, Mob City) in San Fransisco. And though living in very separate regimes, Joe and Juliana embark on sort of a collision course after the both get dangerously, and differently, involved with the struggling rebellion. Meanwhile, an unseen figure known as the (titular) Man in the High Castle looms over the proceedings, inspiring the rebels with controversial film reels.One might expect to be able to remain detached while watching this, but I found myself becoming increasingly uncomfortable. And I mean that in a good way. Watching our conquered citizenry suffer under a cruel draconian rule that we've never had to endure, even if imagined, was still creepily potent. And at the same time, the huge premise never swallows up the smaller stories.Rupert Evans, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, DJ Qualls, and (a very menacing) Rufus Sewell co-star.