So they are having a Prisoner mini series on AMC. For those of you who haven't seen the original, it was a 13 episode british TV series from the 60's, that's just about the weirdest show of all time. It has basically everything I like.. psuedo-futuristic stuff, weird sixties london counter cultural stuff, Sinister orwellian themes, absurdism, surrealism, a touch of dadism. Basically, it's a huge WTF this got made show. It's dated, but delightfully so.

This new one.. I can't believe it got made. I can't decide if I think it's terrible or absolute genius. It's like, if you watched a bad spy movie, and fell asleep half way through it, and your dreams started to meld with the movie. Or it's like lost on acid or something. Or the twilight zone made with modern filming technique and aesthetic sensibilities. It's worth a whurl.

Some day I'll find this thread searching for "twilight." Book it.

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I am a big fan of the original series, so I gave this a try. I don't like it. I should say right now that I only watched half of it, since it was on megavideo and I reached the one hour limit and can't be bothered to come back and watch the rest.

Seems to me that it is yet another example of the American TV networks taking a successful/popular British TV show, buying the concept, but not understanding it enough to do it justice.

It's like they've taken some of the key elements of the original (the black blazer with white trim, "be seeing you", "I am not a number, I am a free man", the bubble, etc) but they've put them in this new style that doesn't really work. It seems like they are trying to do a film noir style in parts, for instance when 6 was running from the diner and the man in the white suit came along with a grenade. Then they are doing kind of a suburban nightmare with the pastel houses and colour scheme in other parts.

One of the most fascinating parts of the original series is the styling, lots of bright, saturated colours, and futuristic design mixed in with classic, seasidey elements. This new version makes the village somewhat grimey, desaturated, decaying, almost post-apocalyptic. It's like they don't understand that what made the original so creepy was the way that the village was so shiny and bright and pleasant. The new version just isn't surreal enough. They're also trying to humanise number 2, and I'm guessing they are going to keep him as the same actor the whole time since it is Ian McKellen, so that goes against the original too.

Conclusion: I think they have taken the concept of the man in the village who can't escape and everyone acts as though they don't believe him etc, but made a boring modern version with none of the whimsy and wit of the original.

I'm going to give it another chance, just because it's still so weird and I can't believe it got made.... I think it's interesting they would even attempt to do what their doing, making a modern spy/suspense thriller out of it. Mostly, I hate modern spy/suspense thrillers, but this is so bizarre that I'm willing to give it some more shots. Also, I did like the colors and aesthetic of this one. I really love the desert scenes. And I'm a sucker for Sir Ian.

I've never seen the original, but for some reason I started watching this one and this is pretty much exactly how I would describe it. I'm sitting there watching it and thinking, "This isn't very good, but for some reason I like something about it enough to keep watching."

I watched 15 minutes, decided it was a waste of time and wrote off Jim Cavieziel even more than I already have.

This show ended up being disappointing, but I'm still going to give it an A for effort.. it a least it tried for something different. It ended up being more like a modern day twilight zone than it was like the original prisoner, imo. There were some things I really liked about it, and some things that were really annoying. It did seem a little rushed too, I wish they would have done a 10 to 13 episode season, rather than a 6 hour mini series. I guess it was too much to hope for that it would keep the surrealness of the original.


Mixed review over all, but there certainly shows I watch that are worse than this. It's a step up from shows like lost and heros and other things of it's ilk.

I finally got around to watching this, and have to give it a thumbs down. It's not a remake at all, so why take the name of a classic series? It's more a remake of The Matrix than it is of The Prisoner. I do appreciate the attempt to stretch, but I don't think it works. The original Village worked because it was clockwork predictable and so totally consuming. This new village seems to be totalitarian or not depending on what plot point they are trying to make.

So no, don't call it the Prisoner if it's not The Prisoner, and don't give me experimental television that doesn't quite make it.