The Prisoner - The TV Show
Created | Updated Sep 7, 2012
The noughties (1999-2010) was the decade of the virtual. What with The Matrix, eXistenZ, Surrogates, Mission Impossible 2 and Inception, it seemed that everyone's identity was fluid, our interactions with what we thought of as the world were mediated through computers or other gadgetry, and the very nature and substance of reality was called into question. It was also the decade of the "re-imagining". Planet of the Apes, Bewitched, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Bionic Woman were all done again, but different, to varying degrees of success.
One man fitted right into this trend. On the surface he was different - a taciturn, pretty humourless guy with little in the way of backstory or character. But this character was like all the others - trying to figure out what was real, and to get his life back - and trying to be a bit different than the character from the original series, and as a result turning out not to be anywhere near as good. And thereby hangs a tale.
The original (in both senses of the word) TV series, "The Prisoner", which starred Patrick McGoohan, was remade in 2008 as a six part miniseries. Whereas the original was filmed in the artificial Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales, the new version was filmed in a real town on the west coast of Africa.
The Stars
Jim Caviezel is an American actor most famous for portraying Jesus in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. Gibson warned him at the time that playing Jesus could hurt his career.
Sir Ian McKellen is the British star of two major blockbuster movie trilogies of the noughties, portraying Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, and Magneto in X-Men.
Patrick McGoohan, the star of the original series, was offered a cameo in the first episode, but declined. He died before the show was broadcast.
The Location
Swakopmund is a city on the west coast of Namibia. It is a beach resort town with distinctive German-colonial architecture, including a bell-tower, a lighthouse, and numerous near-identical holiday homes. Angelina Jolie gave birth to her daughter Shiloh there.
The Idea
The basic idea of the show is obscure, and not made entirely clear until the final episode. It is based loosely on the Sixties television show of the same name, and brings across a number of that series' concepts, but at the same time differs in many significant ways.
There is still a Village, still a Number Two, the hero is still Number Six - although he is almost invariably referred to simply as "Six" - and from time to time characters still say "Be seeing you". There are some limited appearances by a large, white, roaring sphere known as Rover, and there are still taxis offering local services only.
The clearest reference to the original series is in the first moments of the first episode, when the hero encounters an old man engaged in an escape attempt. The man is wearing a black blazer with white piping, a clear echo of the blazer favoured by McGoohan in the original show.
Each of the six episodes has a one-word title derived directly from an episode title of the original show. "Arrival" is simply copied, whereas, for instance, "Hammer into Anvil" becomes just "Anvil".
The differences, however, are greater than the similarities. This show is a six-episode story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Number 6 in this series is not the resourceful, defiant secret agent of the original, but more a confused but determined everyman. He has regular flashbacks to his former life in the outside/real world, in which his name is given as Michael.
The biggest difference, however, is that the original Village was clearly a retirement home or possibly prison for retired agents, and housed people of middle or later years. In this iteration, the Village is a fully functional community, with families and children who go to school, and its status and even its reality are questionable.
The Boss
Number 2 in the original series was, aside from Leo McKern's turn, a mostly interchangeable bureaucrat, different each week, tasked with breaking Number 6 and finding out why he resigned.
In the new show, Number Two is a single, overarching character, who, it is implied, has been in charge for a very long time. He has a wife and a son, and his relationship with both is complex.
The continuity of this second character makes the series far less an exploration of the nature of freedom or individuality and more of a power struggle between Two and Six personally.
The Show
The show ran for six one-hour episodes, shot in high definition. It did not feature a great deal of action in its plots, and was not, generally, very well received.
Only history will tell, but it is unlikely that the miniseries will enjoy the continued fascination and success accorded to the original.
One man fitted right into this trend. On the surface he was different - a taciturn, pretty humourless guy with little in the way of backstory or character. But this character was like all the others - trying to figure out what was real, and to get his life back - and trying to be a bit different than the character from the original series, and as a result turning out not to be anywhere near as good. And thereby hangs a tale.
The original (in both senses of the word) TV series, "The Prisoner", which starred Patrick McGoohan, was remade in 2008 as a six part miniseries. Whereas the original was filmed in the artificial Italianate village of Portmeirion in North Wales, the new version was filmed in a real town on the west coast of Africa.
The Stars
Jim Caviezel is an American actor most famous for portraying Jesus in Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ. Gibson warned him at the time that playing Jesus could hurt his career.
Sir Ian McKellen is the British star of two major blockbuster movie trilogies of the noughties, portraying Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, and Magneto in X-Men.
Patrick McGoohan, the star of the original series, was offered a cameo in the first episode, but declined. He died before the show was broadcast.
The Location
Swakopmund is a city on the west coast of Namibia. It is a beach resort town with distinctive German-colonial architecture, including a bell-tower, a lighthouse, and numerous near-identical holiday homes. Angelina Jolie gave birth to her daughter Shiloh there.
The Idea
The basic idea of the show is obscure, and not made entirely clear until the final episode. It is based loosely on the Sixties television show of the same name, and brings across a number of that series' concepts, but at the same time differs in many significant ways.
There is still a Village, still a Number Two, the hero is still Number Six - although he is almost invariably referred to simply as "Six" - and from time to time characters still say "Be seeing you". There are some limited appearances by a large, white, roaring sphere known as Rover, and there are still taxis offering local services only.
The clearest reference to the original series is in the first moments of the first episode, when the hero encounters an old man engaged in an escape attempt. The man is wearing a black blazer with white piping, a clear echo of the blazer favoured by McGoohan in the original show.
Each of the six episodes has a one-word title derived directly from an episode title of the original show. "Arrival" is simply copied, whereas, for instance, "Hammer into Anvil" becomes just "Anvil".
The differences, however, are greater than the similarities. This show is a six-episode story with a clear beginning, middle and end. Number 6 in this series is not the resourceful, defiant secret agent of the original, but more a confused but determined everyman. He has regular flashbacks to his former life in the outside/real world, in which his name is given as Michael.
The biggest difference, however, is that the original Village was clearly a retirement home or possibly prison for retired agents, and housed people of middle or later years. In this iteration, the Village is a fully functional community, with families and children who go to school, and its status and even its reality are questionable.
The Boss
Number 2 in the original series was, aside from Leo McKern's turn, a mostly interchangeable bureaucrat, different each week, tasked with breaking Number 6 and finding out why he resigned.
In the new show, Number Two is a single, overarching character, who, it is implied, has been in charge for a very long time. He has a wife and a son, and his relationship with both is complex.
The continuity of this second character makes the series far less an exploration of the nature of freedom or individuality and more of a power struggle between Two and Six personally.
The Show
The show ran for six one-hour episodes, shot in high definition. It did not feature a great deal of action in its plots, and was not, generally, very well received.
Only history will tell, but it is unlikely that the miniseries will enjoy the continued fascination and success accorded to the original.
