So I just finished watching the first 2 episodes of The Prisoner & was wondering if anyone else was checking out this show. I wish they weren't playing two episodes at a time, and apparently every night. If I wasn't DVRing the episodes, I doubt I'd be able to keep up. This is a show that should be watched in 30 minute bites & digested, but by putting two episodes together... well its a bit confusing.

Anyway, I didn't much care for the first episode, Arrival. Its pretty disjointed & confused, but I suppose that was the point. The episode is about 6's start at The Village, but it doesn't explain who 6 is, or why he got there. It just gives us hints of a life that 6 had back in New York (well, we find out he met a girl just before he got here) & suggests that the rest of the series will involve 6 trying to learn what 93 learned. I can't explain it better than this, as I haven't had time to really figure it all myself. As I said, this episode is really disjointed & confusing, but its a neat head trip at the same time.

Harmony is a bit easy to follow. As the concepts it presents are a bit easier to follow. In this episode, you see 6's thoughts & memories twisted and altered. He is presented with a life he never had, and a brother that is not his. You also learn that 6 had an analyst job (back in New York), in which he discovered disturbing things that made him resign. Another fine head trip, but one I appreciated more than that of Arrival.

TV Guide does a far better job of trying to recap this, so I suggest you read their stuff....
http://www.tvguide.com/Episode-Recaps/pris...ap-1012133.aspx

Kevin aka 54-04 (my ID # that I picked up from the AMC booth)

Welcome to "The Prisoner."

I'm assuming you didn't watch the 60's version. So far this seems like a
perfect companion piece to the original without being able to stand on its
own legs just yet. Still, if you've seen the original this plays perfectly into
every aspect that it brought up without being as remake. It fits the tone
and retells the story in a way that has the same feel without any of the
same story (save the setup).

I'm watching and so far I haven't gotten into it at all. Number Six (or just "6" as they refer to him for some reason) just isn't a likable character so far.

Number Two (or just "2" now I guess) is totally awesome though.

It's just six episodes so I'll watch them all but so far I haven't enjoyed it as much as the original.

I liked how 93 (9-3=6) got a bunch of McGoohan's bits of business. The coat, the Big Ben, the apartment...sort of passing the torch. Sadly, Caviziel lacks the charisma to pick up the torch. This is much more 2's story due to the charisma imbalance between Caviziel and McKellan.

---Dave

You assume wrong. I loved the old episodes of The Prisoner, and was introduced to it by Harlan Ellison himself. (Well, a marathon of The Prisoner that was broadcast on the SciFi channel, back in its REALLY early days, which Ellison happened to be hosting.)

While the older Prisoner was certainly disjointed at times, it was straight with us on the the type of person 6 was & at least some of his motivation. In this series, the character of 6 starts as almost as much of a mystery as The Village. And maybe it'll get better in later episodes, but thus far 6 overplays the drugged & confused aspect of his character.

Kevin

Holy frick, I had no idea this had started over there. To the downloadings!

So far it's reminding me more of Dark City than The Prisoner.

I read somewhere that they wanted to get McGoohan on this originally, but he wasn't interested. I'm guessing if they had convinced him, and if he had lived long enough to film, he would have been 93.

I'm liking it so far. I've seen about 2-3 episodes of the original, and while I intend to watch the whole thing (because it's excellent!), I'm going to do this miniseries first because it's only 6 episodes and I can be done with it by tonight or tomorrow.

So far my only real complaint that isn't explained by stylistic changes and different directions in acting, pace, etc., is that there's too much back-and-forth to the desert. We're in the Village, we're in the desert, we're in the Village, we're in the desert, we're here, we're there, we're here, we're there, where are we now? Well we better be in the other one. I feel like we know our way around the desert better than we know our way around the Village.

As to the backstory, I'm pretty certain we've already gotten far more backstory on 6 than the original series had. At least out of what's in the first few eps of the original series. But they're doing a pretty good job of overlaying his old job as CCTV analyst to what's happening in the Village.

It's interesting that Dark City is compared to this. I could also see elements of Cube, and probably a ton of other more recent sources. Part of the reason is that the original Prisoner influenced so many of them. It's interesting to see how this series now has to figure out a way to sort of transcend it all. I'm really hoping they have an amazing ending in mind!

I like all the supporting actors better than the main one

It's a decent story, and I can tolerate all of the disjointedness, since that's what it's aiming for. I just wish that 6 wasn't Jim Caviezel.

Crap, I meant to set my DVR to record this.

They're airing them a lot this week. But Arrival apparently doesn't repeat until next Sunday. But considering it's 6 episodes and it's AMC, they'll probably run it a lot in the next couple of weeks.

My guess would be that this Village is a sort of VR built using collected data on a subset of the CCTV subjects, as an experiment of sorts. To see what 6 knows, they've put him into it and can manipulate the world around him. Unless they plan to take the original's dive into metaphor, it's the explanation I find most plausible.

---Dave

Cool. I'll set the DVR to record them then.

As a fan of the original (obviously), I'm enjoying it so far. Like others have said, Caviezel just doesn't seem right for the role. Still, anything with Ian McKellan is golden, so I'm happy. What I really like with the new series is that they're taking the concept of the Village and going bigger with it. In the original series, one of the questions was always "where is the Village?" Now, the question is "does anything even exist outside the Village?" I'm sure the real world is out there somewhere, but the level of denial among Villagers (and the fact that children and whole families live there) really adds a nice sense of confusion and mindhugging to the remake.

Plus they kept Rover...

So I never saw the end of the original, so I would appreciate not being completely spoiled about it, but then again, it's been like 40 years, so I won't hold it against anyone either.

The 4th and 5th episodes sort of dragged, I thought. Which is too bad. And most of the 6th dragged too, for that matter. But the last half of the final episode was really great, and the ending was very much on a down note, and made some interesting commentary on human hubris, and on the prisons we essentially make for ourselves, which I think is interesting. So the commentary I think is apt for the time we're in right now, and it still dealt with many of the themes of individuality and freedom, but in a different way.

HIGHLIGHT to view:
I really disliked how it became an "it's all in your mind" thing. It was a little too Matrix-y, a little too Truman Show, a little too...well, any of those kinds of stories. At least for my tastes. I think it was done well, given that, but I wish they'd had a better idea for it.

One key problem I think that kept the momentum from ramping up as it went along was that it wasn't immediately obvious what they wanted from 6. In the original, they wanted to know why he retired, and that was the basis for the mindgames (at least it was in the first few episodes, the ones I'd seen). There was a hook, basically. While we know this 6 also resigned, no one in the Village seems too interested in that. The charades they go through are there as if they're just bored during the day, and 6 could easily have avoided them all by just sitting in his house. It's not like he had a reason to go out anyway, since it wasn't as apparent as the original that the Village existed in the world, and that escape would be possible somehow. In this one, the very reality was being questioned, so I'm not sure the impetus to "break out" would have been quite the same. It just seemed like 6 and 2 did their dance because there wasn't anything better to do, rather than because either of them wanted something from the other.

Strong beginning, interesting ending, but a lot of the middle was just...there. Which is on the one hand, too bad, because I feel they did a good enough job setting up lots of possibilities, but then didn't realize them all. But on the other hand, it's probably okay - it was a miniseries, and if they were stretching it to fill 6 episodes, it's a good thing they didn't have to stretch it any further and make it ever get really dull. On the whole, I liked it, but it wasn't quite as good as I think it could have been, given the non-Caviezel casting and overall concept they were working with.

I highly suggest you pick up the original series now. It just came out in Blu-Ray in fact.

While there's plenty of cosmetic differences and deeper differences between the original and the remake, there's really only one difference that matters:
HIGHLIGHT to view:

When given the chance to rule, the original 6 says no, the new one says yes. Granted, they were somewhat different Villages, the original was far more sinister, but both faced the temptation to take over and make it better. Original 6 effectively said, "No, let it burn, I'm out."


---Dave