November 25, 2015
American Reich
The sets could not look like a parody, so certain impulses were rejected. For example, Egner notes, “Early production art for the Times Square sequence included billboards for beer and sausages, but [showrunner Frank] Spotnitz had them changed to signs promoting the value of work and duty.” Even the SS uniforms included small details in insignia that subtly distinguished the brutal investigative branch from the even more venal SD (or security branch), which are vying with each other for power. Over in the neutral zone, US armed forces recruitment posters and other victory propaganda that were presumably hung prior to the ignominious defeat are fading, in tatters—and look incredibly real because, in fact, they are.
Since the ten episodes have labyrinthine plot turns, that last thing the viewer needs is to be distracted by visual anachronisms. The series’ production design (realized by a team that includes Alan Kobayashi, an alum of the Star Trek movies; Linda King, who worked on Jurassic World; and Neil Westlake, who workd on the Vampire Diaries) is so well curated, I was admiringly distracted by the flawless graphic design and inventive art direction, which is both haunting and seductive—and you might say, dangerously chic.
Observed
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Observed
By Steven Heller
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