The Prisoner Online
Apparently Patrick McGoohan has passed away. I suspect his death will further reinvigorate interest in the Prisoner series, a 17-episone show following a spy trying to come in from the cold, but who finds himself in an surreal small town structured for maximum surveillance and to try to extract as many secrets from him as possible. A nice statement on the individual vs. the state, 1960s style. I have not seen every epiosode, but I enjoyed most of it, right up to the ending, which I confess I didn't totally get but seemed to undermine the individual vs. the state theme and convert it to some Freudian surrealism. If you become intrigued, you don't necesarily need to shell out to Amazon because AMC is streaming all the original episodes online in preparation for a remake they are producing this year.
Dr. T:
The DVD boxed setof the entire series is very well done. The episodes look better than the broadcasts I saw decades ago. I also agree that the final episodes weak: I think the writers ran out of steam.
January 15, 2009, 4:53 pmboqueronman:
The Prisoner was one of the best TV series ever produced. A full appreciation required some passing familiarity with philosophy, politics and, of course current events. Uncommonly for TV, the viewer was assumed to have an IQ in the triple digits. I remember my first exposure to the series was in my college dorm room in the late '60s. A gathering of budding intellectuals, with too much hemp smoke in the air, had my $15 used black and white TV turned on in the background. It just happened to be on The Prisoner. Little by little the conversation died down as all eyes wound up glued to the TV screen trying to figure out what the hell was going on. RIP Patrick McGoohan.
January 15, 2009, 4:54 pm