The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discussion

[js]

Re: The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discus

It's funny, the more I think about this mini, the more I'm inclined to go re-watch The Lost Room mini - which was IMO a far more intriguing mini that SciFi made not too long ago. Conveniently, TLR dvd was just on sale last week on Amazon for $7.99 so I ordered it and it just arrived. Think I'm going to enjoy re-watching it more than I enjoyed The Prisoner - though I'll just get frustrated again that TLR was never picked up as a series. Sigh. Still if you liked the weirdness and mystery of The Prisoner, you might want to check out The Lost Room. Just as an aside.

 

[Harvey]

Re: The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discus

You know, I this miniseries definitely gave me vibes of The Lost Room. I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one with that feeling! And, yes, I think I liked that miniseries more than this one. Too bad SyFy couldn't pick it up as a series (or even another miniseries).

 

[Agent Richard07]

Re: The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discus

Didn't feel like The Lost Room to me. Felt more like Charlie Jade.

 

[RAMA]

Re: The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discus

The ending was a real problem for me...Number 6/Micheal was against people being in the Village without their knowledge. Like Star Trek has pointed out a gilded cage is still a cage. Its what he fought for the whole time, now he has become part of the problem. I guess its suppoed to be ripe for a sequel where things really go awry.

The concept has numerous problems too. How does the illusion really work? Its not explained...Number 2s wife had to be the key to maintain the illusion but how was everyone in the "real world" placed in it. HOW is the therapy in the Village supposed to help them??? How is a therapy where everyone is living in a "perfect world" of fear, homogeneousnes and megalomania a THERAPY at all?? What are the people in the monitor room in the real world really doing? I preferred the idea that it was countries who kept the Village as a purgatory where former spies were judged. How does a company, even a large one like Summakor and even reduced further to two people's misguided idealism really come about? Why is everyone going along with it? The two criminals who started the whole thing are left to go free. This series was a real mess after the first two episodes.

RAMA

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: The Prisoner: "Schizoid" & "Checkmate" 11/17/09 - Grading & Discus

^

As I understood it, the Village wasn't an illusion. It was a real place - an alternate reality, of sorts. Curtis' wife was the first to discover the place. And not everyone in the real world has a Village counterpart, either - AFAIK, the entire population of the Village is only a few hundred, or a thousand at most.

Through some unknown means, when someone signs up for therapy with Summakor, a copy of their personality is created and sent to the Village. Life there *is* their therapy. Once reintegrated with the original self, the process is completed.

The only problem was with 11-12 - as far as we know, the only person who was actually *born* in the Village. He has no real world counterpart, since Curtis and his wife couldn't have a child of their own there. That's why 11-12 killed himself, since he could never live anywhere other than the Village.

And I do see the point that Curtis was trying to make. He set up the Village as a rest stop of sorts - where the essentials of life, such as honest labor, a sense of community, friendship, etc. were all that was needed. It sounds very tempting, I admit. (There's no indication that Summakor or the Village were evil in concept. The only person that was 'sent' there against his will, as far as we know, was Michael/Number Six himself.)