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Showing posts with label the prisoner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the prisoner. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Finally watched last night's V and finale of AMC's THE PRISONER

AMC's much-promoted revamp of The Prisoner concluded last night. After watching both hours twice-over now I am going to say that that, acknowledging that while mine is going to be in the minority of opinions, that I very much enjoyed it and thought it was time well spent. And I will likely be getting the DVD of the series when it becomes available. But I will say that AMC way over-hyped The Prisoner. And so much so that I have to wonder how much confidence they had in their own product. Doing "coming up" bumpers before each commercial break did nothing to instill one's faith in this show as a viewer. Without those, I think The Prisoner could have been much more enjoyable. Another reason why I'm looking forward to a DVD set of this.

Meanwhile, ABC aired the third episode of the relaunched V. I watched it from the good ol' DVR this morning. Last week I said that V needs to drastically ramp-up its action and intrigue. Well, it's a funny thing but last night's installment "A Bright New Day" did just that and in spades! The Visitors (in perhaps a thinly-veiled commentary on real-life immigration policies) began receiving passports and visas to travel throughout the country. We discovered that the Visitors had secretly been installing themselves on Earth for at least twenty years. We learned a lot more about the traitors and the words "Fifth Column" were finally used in this V's incarnation. And there were devious plot twists out the wazoo. If V keeps up this kind of tempo, it will almost certainly become the breakout hit of this television season and set itself up as the high-brow science-fiction series of the medium in the absence of Battlestar Galactica and the soon-to-depart Lost. After last night's show, me want more V!

Okay, three hours of television from one night: that's way more than what I'm used to. I'm gonna go read a book or three and compensate.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Just finished watching the second installment of AMC's THE PRISONER

We had the first run-through (or "stumble-through" as it was officially called :-) of both acts of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever last night, so I was late getting home. But I had the DVR whirring away recording the second two hours of AMC's remake of The Prisoner and I just finished watching 'em.

I know that I'm in a solid minority here, but I am absolutely digging the heck out of The Prisoner! To me, it's the same theme going on as the Sixties original series. Just... different. Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner was about individuality, and this one starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan is about personal identity. Now, those may seem like the same thing, but they aren't. They're just aspects of the same thing. I don't have any better word for it other than "soul".

Is The Prisoner meant to be entertainment? Hmmmm... not really. It's more like something made to be endured (call it "enduretainment" perhaps?). There are no easy answers here, just more questions that one winds up asking more of self than of the show. But then, the original The Prisoner, forty years and more later, is still doing that. So on that note, AMC's revamp is already successful.

The final two hours air tonight. I'll be watching with great interest.

EDIT 12:31 p.m. EST: I like the "enduretainment" term so much that I thought it deserves an apt definition...

Enduretainment (noun): A work of performance art, usually but not limited to television and motion pictures, intended to bring about sometimes painful personal reflection and self-questioning as opposed to being intended for pure enjoyment and distraction.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Just watched the first two hours of AMC's remake of THE PRISONER

Hmmmmmm...

Well, it's unarguably not The Prisoner of Patrick McGoohan's day. And I knew that it wasn't going to be that either.

But, I think that I wound up liking it quite a bit.

Need to watch it again before tomorrow night's two-hour installment. Maybe even two or three more times.

Now you gotta admit: that is what good The Prisoner should compel you to do :-)

Friday, October 16, 2009

30-second promo for AMC's remake of THE PRISONER looks VERY promising!

My mind is still trying to wrap itself around the concept of remaking The Prisoner. Heck, my mind is still trying to wrap itself around everything associated with the original television series. But this promo for the new miniseries starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan... has absolutely put The Prisoner on my must-watch list.

Does it look like Rover got a massive upgrade, or what?

The Prisoner beckons us back to The Village on November 15th.

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

AMC has first look at THE PRISONER remake!

I must say: this is really starting to intrigue me a lot.

AMC's website has posted a video with the first sneak peak of The Prisoner: its six-hour miniseries starring Jim Caviezel (aka Jesus from The Passion of the Christ) and Sir Ian McKellan (aka Gandalf and Magneto). It's a re-imagining of the classic British television series from the late Sixties created by and starring Patrick McGoohan. I've heard that before he passed away a few weeks ago, McGoohan had given his enthusiastic approval for whatever direction AMC has planned to take his concept. Just going by this video: it looks like there's a lot of respect for the original material being given here.

The Prisoner will broadcast on AMC later this year.

Monday, February 04, 2008

"Fall Out", the final episode of THE PRISONER, aired 40 years ago today

It was 40 years ago tonight, on February 4th 1968, that the British network ITC broadcast "Fall Out", the psychedelic final episode of its popular series The Prisoner.

To this day, "Fall Out" is considered the most controversial and outright bizarre series finale of a television show ever produced. The episode literally broke ITC's phone system after it was overwhelmed with calls from confused viewers. The Prisoner creator and star Patrick McGoohan had to go into hiding for several weeks after the episode's airing because people kept coming to his house to demand that he explain it to them.


Even forty years later, "Fall Out" is no less startling. The entire episode is indulged - perhaps too indulged - in visual allegory and auditory assault. Taken literally, there's not much in "Fall Out" that makes much sense (along with pretty much every other episode of The Prisoner). But if you're watching this with a decidedly metaphorical mindset, it becomes quite a cerebral parable about the prison of our own modern world.

That still doesn't keep "Fall Out" from being the most whacked-out episode of a TV series in history, though...

The scene where Number 6 (the main character of The Prisoner, played by McGoohan) finally confronts the mysterious Number 1 still evokes considerable debate...

Most of the final third of the episode has no dialogue, only insane action sequences. Like this spectacular machine gun fight toward the end that has everyone shooting at everyone else while "All You Need is Love" by The Beatles (?!) blares loud over the din...

If you want to know more about "Fall Out" (which after watching the episode just about everyone does) here is Dark Childe's review of the episode (the page that these "Fall Out" pics were found on) and here's the episode's entry on Wikipedia.