the prisoner

Chris Knight's avatar

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 ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

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 ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

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....

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Chris Knight's avatar

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....

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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). ...

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