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Funniest show ever...
--mild spoiler alert!--
Patrick McGoohan is Number Six, the titular character of this 17 episode series from 1967 - 1968. A former secret service agent, he is trapped on an unknown island, presumably by his former employers, where he will remain until he has been able to explain to them why he resigned from the service. Every attempt to flee the island proves futile as it is equipped with mysterious anti-escape traps.
Every episode pitches N°6 against a different N°2, the personification of some abstract form of control over the island and its many trapped inhabitants. Meanwhile, the identity of N°1 remains painfully obscure. Will N°6 ever be able to return to London a free man? Who is N°1? And why doesn't Six simply state his reasons for resigning?
THE PRISONER isn't your typical story about good versus evil with a catching opening part, a tense middle section and a satisfying conclusion. In fact, it may very well be the antithesis to that. While the first episode seems to set us up for an exciting adventure, repetition kicks in fast and never do we seem to get any closer to London, even when we actually get there. Yes, it's confusing. Also, the closer we get to the series finale, the more we descend into madness. It eventually becomes clear that
Not entirely surprising for a 60s television series, themes like drug use, privacy and "Red Scare" are prevalent throughout THE PRISONER, albeit metaphorically served in most cases. No doubt some will say this is crazy stuff; others, however, will call this a psychological masterpiece. In truth, the series was very popular at the time and appears to appeal to many even today.
Where I stand? Well, I will be reading (and reviewing) the graphic novel 'Shattered Visage', which was released 20 years after the series' conclusion. The completist in me demands it. But, overall, I must concede that I'm at best only marginally part of the target demographic of THE PRISONER. McGoohan is an energetic actor and the village where most of the series takes place provides a lovely setting. With seventeen episodes, however, the series is too long for me if one considers that only very few things of substantial importance happen; a shorter, compromised version--say eight or nine episodes at most--feels better suited to my taste. I literally had to force myself today to sit through the final episode, knowing very well that if I didn't watch it today or anywhere in this weekend, I probably never would.
Not shying away from a little contradiction, I think this is an interesting, well-made television series, but I doubt if I'll ever rewatch THE PRISONER. If the film adaptation--first entrusted to Christopher Nolan and now, apparently, to Ridley Scott, ever materialises, I might return to the series though.
The morale of the story all in all, is that you are the prisoner of your own, led by people like you (humans) and entrapped in a place you can't escape unless you're dead. It's psychological more than anything else. A huge debate has been put on behalf of two separate groups of fans divided by this idea claiming Number Six was John Drake of Danger Man. I used to believe that myself, until I've come to understand the story this show was trying to tell. Number Six is you. Number Six is me. Number Six is everyone else. McGoohan's genius, who's credited with coming up with the outline, is purely revealing, which is why I thoroughly love this series.
Looking forward to your opinion on Shattered Visage. I loved that graphic novel. Basically it features The Village in the aftermath of its destruction. Won't spoil more. ;)
Oh and by the way... Do whatever you have to do, but do not put yourself through the torture that was the remake miniseries with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen. Waste of time and bastardizing the original in the worst ways possible. And dare I say more specifically: stupid. That's all.
Thank you for the warning. I was about to try that one, I must confess. It stars Ian McKellen after all. ;-)
An early concept of The Prisoner is evident in two episodes of Danger Man separately in Series 2 and Series 3 if I remember correctly, and one of them was sort of remade in The Prisoner itself, the episode you know as "A, B and C". McGoohan was feeling bored with the character of Drake, especially when Series 4 tried turn the secret agent from down-to-earth spy to a James Bond clone, which was a reason for the actor's departure from the series. A script originally written for Danger Man was rescripted for The Prisoner, and that would be "The Girl Who Was Death", and has the character of Potter making appearance from the former series' fourth season. It's all made by the same crew and writers. One screenwriter said he thought he was writing for Drake and the show was accordingly intended to be a sequel to Danger Man, but Lew Grade and Pat McGoohan denied it.
The thing with The Prisoner is that you don't have to take it as a straightforward story, as I said, like you do with most films. Its story is an evaluation of your life, your dreams, the choices you make, the things you pursue for your happiness, yet life knocks you down for every mistake you make. Remember who Number 1 was in the end of "Fall Out"? It was Six himself. Hence why it's a psychological thriller masterpiece done in bit of a James Bond style with some extension of Dr. Who-like production design.
Really, though, about the remake... I also thought with these two leading actors in the remake, the show would be brilliant. I couldn't have been more wrong. It was a pile of crap, Dimi. Let's just say I'm saving you seven hours of your life from going into the mud hole. ;)
Can't say I'm sold to it, at all. Too slow paced, too nothing than everything is going on. All talk, disagreements, some violence and past injustice... It might build up to something, so can't give a premature judgment. It's a showcase of acting performances on behalf of everyone rather than an interesting story to tell.
Thanks to @DarthDimi, who influenced my long awaited marathon of the show after posting his thoughts about The Prisoner, I've come to post about the very first spy series that itself was a James Bond prototype on the screen (regarding the format that the film series of Fleming's character will follow later on).
DANGER MAN:
The first episode, View From The Villa makes a perfect pilot episode for the eponymous series played in the pacing of over 25 minutes, shot and aired in 1960, starring Patrick McGoohan as John Drake, a secret agent in the employment of NATO (in this season). He is very similar to, yet very different from Ian Fleming's James Bond. A man who prefers to carry out his assignment without resorting to kill unless he's awfully forced to (which isn't very often).
"A messy job? That's when they usually call on me. My name's Drake. John Drake."
Drake, in this season an Irish-American operative, is sent to investigate the murder of an English banker in Italy who stole five million dollars worth of gold from dangerous people, who are in turn hunted by worldwide intelligence agencies due to the importance of the matter. Reluctantly coming into the act after having his holiday cut short by his superiors, Drake plays a game of cat and mouse with people on constant deliver of lies and pretense. Having his deductive skills come handy, he smugly sets off after the retrieval of stolen material and the apprehension of murderers attempting to flee with the gold bars.
What's more interesting though is Drake, being the first 'super-spy' (if you will) on the screen, is seen driving a roofless Aston Martin DB Mark III, and is often outfitted with Anthony Sinclair suits. These features must have been survived from the material when the creator of the show, Ralph Smart, was working with Ian Fleming on bringing a small screen version of Bond in the late fifties, who later dropped out due to creative differences and the concept of the show was rethought for a new character, initially addressed to as Lone Wolf. And that one evolved into Danger Man.
Aston Martin...
...Not the Vanish.
Some of Drake's characteristic behaviour is something that will please the Bond fans of the Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig incarnations (@0BradyM0Bondfanatic7, I'm looking at you with this one), who is more down-to-earth, sometimes taking morals and doubts into account, not showing to be invulnerable and smug all the time, quite the contrary in fact, a bit humble, yet not afraid to scare the living daylights out of you when you cross him. One major difference with Drake compared to Bond is that he doesn't romance women nor develops personal interest with anyone in both matters of his own security against liability and content derived from McGoohan's real-life opposition to share romantic moments with women on the screen due to his Catholic faith and loyalty to his wife. But, later in the series, we do see him endlessly flirt with a woman on mission, but that's up for a future discussion since we're long way from home.
This pilot episode, A View From The Villa is worth catching the eye of a Bond fan, and I can deeply assure you this show is an absolute satisfactory to everyone in love with classicism and realism at the same time. ITC Entertainment truly gave us the best spy TV series to date that no other has matched the brilliance of. To those who haven't seen it, this is highly recommended. No wonder at some point during my first run at the series I was obsessed with Drake as much as I admired Bond.
Not to mention, I most certainly know you will wholeheartedly admire Patrick McGoohan.
He definitely seems my kind of guy.
I've always been more of a Frasier guy.
For years, I've neglected this series, a direct consequence of my disappointment with the movie STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS and the overall direction the prequel trilogy had taken with the Clone Wars. Even though the 2003 microseries wasn't too bad, I simply wasn't interested in anything more. Yet very recently I saw the STAR WARS REBELS series and suddenly I found myself hyped up for more. Much to my surprise, that particular CGI animation style, the impressive action and the fascinating stories worked miracles for my Star Wars geekdom. Suddenly I found myself reading almost every book in the new Disney Star Wars canon, I read the KANAN comic and I felt a burning desire to give THE CLONE WARS an honest try after all those years.
After all, if people tell you that Disney wants nothing to do with the prequels, the Clone Wars and so one, forget it. Not true. They brought back Darth Maul. They brought back former clone troopers, like Rex. They brought back Hondu, Cham and Hera Syndulla, ... And Forrest Whitacker's character Saw Guerrera from ROGUE ONE was, believe it or not, introduced in THE CLONE WARS. Some of the unfinished episodes from season 6 were novelised for the new canon books, with DARK DISCIPLE, which tells the story of Assaj Ventress and Quinlan Vos, definitely one to check out. So Disney is not shying away from everything pre-Episode IV.
I guess THE CLONE WARS is then still very much relevant, even after the Disney purchase. That was even more of an incentive for me to fill up this blank after so many years of prejudiced neglect. Starting once more with the pilot movie (i.e. the first four planned episodes merged into one), my enthusiasm hit rock bottom again. I mean, "Snips", "Stinky the Hutt"? But once I started watching the actual episodes, things got better. A lot better. And since season 2, everything not just got better, it became pure gold! Amazing visuals, great stories... I started binge watching these seasons like a mad man. Since season 4, we get into some of the darker stuff, tying things more closely to the prequels. The music starts playing more Williams. The lightsaber duels become truly exciting.
At this point, having gone through all 6 seasons and currently paging through some of the related novels with great intensity, I can openly admit to being a reborn CLONE WARS fan. Had they never released that movie, I might have gotten there sooner. But ironically enough, the pilot that was supposed to bring me in, was the primary reason I stayed away so long. Having now seen how quickly the series matured and how well many of the characters are fleshed out, I have grown angry with myself for having waited all those years. Particularly Asajj Ventress and Ahsoka Tano are now on my radar and I sincerely hope that we haven't seen the last of those two. Ahsoka started out as the teenage brat in that awful pilot but has become a real fan favourite. In the REBELS series, she's a mature Force user who has a few amazing lightsaber battles with Vader. Since I saw her there, I knew I had to learn more.
If you're a fan of STAR WARS and you're okay with checking out some of the expanded universe--and I know that many fans aren't and that's fine of course--then you ought to give this series a try, especially since season 2, when things get a lot better. By the time you get to season 5, hell, even Liam Neeson makes an entrance as Qui-Gon. This is good stuff!
I mightily agree, all the U.S remakes have been utterly pointless and never capture the magic of the original series.
Just got 2 more episodes to go of The Team another Nordic noir detective thriller starring Mads brother the excellent Lars Mikklesen, rather entertaining, like a much better Criminal Minds.
I have to say Fortitude left me cold, I would say the Icelandic series Trapped was far superior but each to his own, I found Fortitude just got too weird and seemed to be going nowhere we gave up half way through.
I've heard those that stuck around for S2 recently shown in the UK were not impressed, the ending has been particularly divisive.
coming in November. I can't wait!!!
Ever since he showed up on DareDevil I thought to myself 'how awesome would it be if Frank got his own show!!'
He really does steal it too-- while DareDevil Season 1 was awesome, ol' hornhead took a backseat for me in Season 2. The whole time I was looking forward to the next time Frank was on screen!
I too neglected the series until very recently-- I skipped the Clone Wars movie when it was in theatres, and had little interest in this series thanks to the poor taste the prequels left.
I kept hearing though how this series was worth the watch, and that Anakin & Obi-Wan actually felt like friends (as opposed to the movies, where they seemed to just annoy each other)
I'm interested in checking out Rebels, and everyone tells me that characters introduced in Clone Wars carry over. Since the whole thing is readily available on Netflix I decided to go ahead and give it a shot.
Five episodes in and I'm loving Anakin & Obi-Wan already.
You shan't be disappointed if you pull through. I thought the first season to be at times dragging a bit but since season 2, the series turned into heroine for me.
Busting some moves with the Mrs whilst on MI6 with a cuppa! Rock and Roll people!! \m/ ;)
This has to be the most hilarious thing out there. If you mixed GI:Joe & Ninja Turtles, and swapped out those characters with MK3 ones, you'd pretty much get this.
Such an oddity... the bloodiest, most violent game series of the time reformatted to a kids cartoon. The characters are such DICKS to each other too! In the very first episode, Stryker says something like 'we need to come up with a plan of attack' and Sonya snaps at him, 'No DUUUUUUUHHHH, Stryker! It's Kombat Time!!' =))
Oh, and Nightwolf is stuck in the computer room as the MK version of Batman's 'Oracle'.
One positive however, is the voice cast. I was surprised to see so many names I recognized:
Clancy Brown: Rayden
Olivia d'Abo: Sonya Blade
Dorian Harewood: Jax
Luke Perry: Sub-Zero @-)
Ron Perlman: Kurtis Stryker
If you want a laugh, check out an episode or two. It's so bad it's good.
I luckily went to the theaters to see the movie but after that I really had very little interest in the series. I just felt like it was more for kids. It wasn't until after season 3 ended that I finally decided to give it a shot. I went to the store and bought the first season on DVD. I watched the entire first season in a couple of days. So I immediately bought season 2 and watched it in two or three days. I had to patiently wait for season 3 to be released on DVD but once it was, I had it finished in a few days. Then I was lucky enough to watch seasons 4 and 5 as they aired and bought The Lost Missions (parts of what would've been season 6) on DVD.
As for Rebels, I think it's okay. Season 1 was dull, 2 was better but not that much, 3 was great, and I'm looking forward to the fourth and finale season.
I had been meaning to watch this MTV series for some time. The show focuses and revolves around Emma Duval (played by Willa Fitzgerald), a Lakewood high school student who becomes the obsession of a masked serial killer. Her family's past is a reason for why she is targeted, and her friends are also put at risk. Fitzgerald impresses in the lead role. Although she doesn't quite have the pluck of Neve Campbell from the original film in her prime, she's charismatic and endearing as Emma. Bex Taylor-Klaus is excellent as Audrey, Emma's butch lez childhood friend, who's outed in the opening episode and shamed on social media. John Karna serves as the show's geek (think Randy from the original film), and provides a lot of the humour. Carlson Young also stars as Emma's bitchy spoiled rich friend Brooke. There's a pretty decent additional group of supporting characters here as well, some of whom get bumped off unceremoniously and unexpectedly in particularly gruesome ways. A few are quite likeable, but there are also a few shady types who we can't be too sure about, just to keep things interesting. This is not quite up to the standards of the classic film on which it's based, but I found it reasonably entertaining, and am looking forward to watching the 2nd season. The tv serial format allows the show to build out the suspense over a number of episodes and there's less focus on gore, although as mentioned some deaths are messy.
The late Wes Craven co-produced 10 of the 12 episodes, Netflix has the global distribution rights and Dimension is also involved as co-producer (it's so good to see their famous logo preceding an episode). Recommended.
I watched season 1 out of curiosity when working and literally binge watched all the episodes I got hooked on trying to figure out who the killer was, season 2 is good and thankfully got a green light for season 3. The Halloween special was also entertaining I think I enjoyed the show more than the majority of the films, Ghost Face mask is certainly more sinister in the show.
I agree that the Ghostface mask is definitely scarier in the show.
I'm glad this show is on tv, and hope they continue with it.