There are filler episodes?
The Prisoner (original)...
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
Whoever "his own people" are. I mean, he appears to work for three different sets of superiors in three different episodes, all of whom seem to mutually exclusive. He never mentions to Thorpe and the Colonel, for instance, that Fotheringay and the other Colonel are traitors, which you might think is the first thing he would say. Are they in fact separate organizations? Is he a double agent even before it begins? I love the ambiguity of it all.
^Well, that's just the general lack of continuity in '60s TV, where there was no home video or internet to let viewers perceive a show as a continuous whole and the emphasis was on the individual episodes as self-contained works. Since we only got a couple of widely separated glimpses of Six's bosses, and since the actors involved were day players who might not have been available the second time, there was no incentive to maintain continuity. (Not to mention that the episodes weren't broadcast in the order they were shot, so there was an incentive to avoid referencing other episodes' events, except in rare cases like the 2-part finale.)
It had McGoohan's (albeit taciturn) approval, IIRC. It was a nice follow up to the TV series, complete with its own unanswered questions in the end. Got all four issues sitting next to me in my file cabinet right now.
Yay, a Prisoner thread for me to necro.
Big Finish is preparing an audio drama, due in January 2016. http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-prisoner
My episode ordering:
Big Finish is preparing an audio drama, due in January 2016. http://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/the-prisoner
My episode ordering:
1. Arrival
2. Dance of the Dead
3. Checkmate
4. The Chimes of Big Ben
5. Free for All
6. The Schizoid Man *
7. Many Happy Returns
8. A Change of Mind
9. It's Your Funeral
10. Hammer Into Anvil
11. The Girl Who Was Death
12. The General
13. A, B, and C
14. Living in Harmony
15. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
16. Once Upon a Time
17. Fall Out
* Alternatively, The Schizoid Man can be placed between TGWWD and The General
2. Dance of the Dead
3. Checkmate
4. The Chimes of Big Ben
5. Free for All
6. The Schizoid Man *
7. Many Happy Returns
8. A Change of Mind
9. It's Your Funeral
10. Hammer Into Anvil
11. The Girl Who Was Death
12. The General
13. A, B, and C
14. Living in Harmony
15. Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darling
16. Once Upon a Time
17. Fall Out
* Alternatively, The Schizoid Man can be placed between TGWWD and The General
In rereading the thread, I came across this:
A lot of activists are pacifists. And a lot of recreation is educational.
A lot of activists are pacifists. And a lot of recreation is educational.
There are some interview/commentary films on youtube talking about the series and talking to people involved back after the show ended. I don't know if they are on DVD (or maybe I miseed them on my set), but one of the things I found interesting is that before the finale aired, they apparentrly promised everything would be revealed. After the finaloe aired and barely a thing was revealed, as I recall McGoohan was getting threats and angry letters and had to go into hiding.
He should have just told them each time they ask a question: "Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself."
He should have just told them each time they ask a question: "Questions are a burden to others; answers a prison for oneself."
The Prisoner was the Lost of the 60s.
It's too bad they're doing a re-imagining, instead of new stories like they do with their other properties, but if ever there was a need to oppose dehumanization, it's now. Good luck to them.
There actually was a re-imagining of sorts back in 2009 with Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellan. An interesting take on the original, but no where near as good, IMO.
I disliked it intensely. It mimicked superficial elements from the original but didn't have a shred of its substance. It substituted confusion and incoherence for mystery and enigma. It had no real philosophical stance or message. And worst of all, it gave answers to all the questions, explained all the mysteries (what Six's real name is, why he resigned, what the Village is), which is entirely and profoundly missing the point. And those explanations weren't any good anyway.
I disliked the remake for explaining everything.
I disliked the original for not explaining everything.
Agreed. It was definitely a pale imitation of the original, wrapped in 21st century tropes. I was concerned if they would have been able to pull it off before it aired. The original was steeped heavily in the paranoia of the Cold War era and 20th century spy-master tropes (before the word "trope" existed). That era and its ability to relate to a modern audience is lost.
Now, in this day and age with all the privacy concerns fresh in people's minds, might have been a better timeframe for such a project. A lot has changed in the past 6 years, and much of today's public psyche could be open to a more traditional "Prisoner" world view, sans trippy psychedelics.
The spy stuff was just a metaphor. It was the form of the original series but not its substance. The themes of The Prisoner are about individual freedom and authoritarianism and conformity, and could apply to any era. The problem with the remake is that it only copied the forms and totally missed the substance. If it had really understood what TP was about, if it had offered the same kind of individualistic message, it could've worked in any era.
Also, the word "trope" in its rhetorical sense has existed since the early 16th century. It's been used by critics and scholars for a long time; it's just become more widely used by laypeople these days.
Umm...you do know that, at the core of my post, I was agreeing with you, right?
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I fondly recall watching this series with my Father in the sixties- the rest of the family thought we were nuts. I have the season set on my shelf and have got to watching again after reading this thread.
On 'Fringe' (Season 3, Episode 1 - 'Olivia') they had an outdoor scene in a park and the episode dealt with identity and a parallel universe. Olivia had just escaped and somebody rode a pennyfarthing (the iconic big wheeled bicycle) across the screen behind her. Wonderful touch which took some effort- those bikes are not easy to find these days...
On 'Fringe' (Season 3, Episode 1 - 'Olivia') they had an outdoor scene in a park and the episode dealt with identity and a parallel universe. Olivia had just escaped and somebody rode a pennyfarthing (the iconic big wheeled bicycle) across the screen behind her. Wonderful touch which took some effort- those bikes are not easy to find these days...
There is a certain irony in criticizing the remake for failing to conform to the original message of resisting the pressure to conform.
Getting the point is not the same thing as blindly conforming. Just the opposite. The problem with the remake is that it was more concerned with conformity -- mimicking the superficial forms without thought as to their rightness -- than with really grasping and contemplating the deeper ideas and building something new and worthwhile on that basis. It mimicked the surface in a soulless and intellectually bankrupt way, and that is the essence of conformity.
I actually liked the remake...except for the ending.
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