Prisoner - The Remake and all that....

I was thinking about The Prisoner remake when this silly joke came to mind.

“I got it boss – we’ll remake Star Wars.”
“Kid it’s 2034 what’s the point of remaking Star Wars?”
“Well now we know what Aliens really look like for one.”

Which brings me to the much hyped AMC remake of The Prisoner – a landmark 1960’s cult TV show – said to be the first mini series ever (not really they just ran out of ideas and being honorable people – in a way decided to end the show with an ending you can still get arguments about). And much beloved among a certain group of fan boys (including me).

The series has great personal resonance it was first broadcast in 1968 a very strange time of my life.

As a side rant I’ve always resented the Wonder Years painting 1968 as being the idyllic innocent time – I was the same age as the freed Willard character was in 1968 and what I remember off the top – and I mean the top of my head for 1968 was The Tet Offensive, the riots in Paris, the shooting of Martin Luther King, riots in Chicago and LA , the battle of Hue, I think the siege of Keh Shan was also in 68, LBJ dropping out of the race, Bobby Kennedy getting killed, the Chicago Democratic convention which featured a police riot; George Wallace running for president on a segregation platform and the election of Richard Nixon as president.

And that was just the outside world – at the same time my family was reaching a crescendo of craziness and I found school to be a nightmare and I was about as isolated as I can ever remember being – from time to time I’ll still have that old – I’m over here and the rest of the world is over there moments but never really as long lasting as powerful as they were in those days.

Into that stew of crises crossing emotions and problems came Number Six. I didn’t get all that was going on in the show – but I felt I got ‘it’ from the anger of Number Six and his fight with the village. The changing Number Two’s and their different styles of attack just reinforced my own sense of the utter arbitrary nature of authority “that would be telling.”

That was also of the avengers where I ran into John Steed who was just class personified and of course the unforgettable Emma Peel played by Diana Rigg the most beautiful woman in the world.

I digress

The Final episode of the Prisoner remains a good starting point for augments as you’re not really sure what it all means. Personally I think I understand what was going on but I can’t really put it into words that make a lick of sense.

Alright – that all said – what about the new version.

Well I wasn’t expecting much – remakes tend to miss more than hit. And the Prisoner was such a show of its time from the bright colors to the lava lamps to the whole east west tension to the spy as everyman vibe that the 60’s had in popular culture – not only James Bond but the Man from Uncle – Secret Agent (danger man) and movies like The spy who came in from the cold were all from that era that any remake was going to lack that unspoken emotional undercurrent.

And it does. Among other things the original series explored tension between the individual and the state and society – how does he or she fit and where? Can you not be a number? What the heck is freedom anyway? And what place does revolt have in a society? (I’m tempted to pick Camus the Rebel for some reason as I write this).

The sad truth is that in 2009 rather than try to escape from the village, the village is surrounded by hordes of people trying to figure a way in – they want safety and security above all and if it means giving up a few of their rights and all the rights of the people they are scared of well that’s just fine too.

In the New Series the Prisoner wakes up in the desert – The desert if featured very prom entity in the episodes that aired Sunday – The village is set in the middle of it. And we are treated to lots of shots of sand.

I have to say that sand, in as of itself, is not especially interesting.

Really.

Not even with a lot of wind. It’s just sand guys. Maybe it’s a symbol for the desert of the real but all I could think of was “man that’s going to strip the paint off of everything.”

The prisoner does a lot of toing and froing into the desert in the show and yet never once Does seems to think to take a canteen along - I like to think I’d have thought of that , at least by the 3rd trip. It’s one of my problems with the show – six doesn’t have the sense god gave a rabbit.

Ian McKellen who played Gandalf is the sole Number Two in the story – which is a mistake he just steals every scene he’s in from the utterly bland and ineffectual guy playing six. – I’m not that surprised six is played by the fellow what played Jesus in “The passion of the Christ.” And let’s face it his main job in that film was to suffer which he brings to this role.

This is a annoying subplot where six is presented with a brother who in his weakness and yet fundamental decency is a lot more interesting than captain bland as Six so they have kill him off can’t have two people stealing scenes from the main character.

Annoying subplot number two is we get a vision into Two’s home life. His wife’s in a coma and his kid is well kind of annoying to tell the truth. None of this I really wanted or needed to know.

Really. They shouldn’t have.

The biggest change they have done – aside from making Number Six into some kind of Emo Dweeb – is the idea they are trying to convince Six the village is the only thing in the world – no out no new York Paris London what have you. It’s a pretty damn stupid idea with huge damn holes in it. You’re thing to break someone it’s better not to be trying to convince him of such a stupid idea. For me the instant they said there was nothing but the village the questions came thick and fast – so where does the food come from, the water, the gas for the cars and buses, the wood for the houses, the wool and cotton for the clothes, where did the cars from, who built the buses, how does the village get electricity and on and on and on.

Of course the proper response from the original series was “that would be telling.” But I don’t think the writers here had that kind of cheek.

I won’t be watching the rest of the series

Be seeing you.