The Prisoner

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According to my limited research, it was Danger Man – and there seems to be a debate over whether or not his character from that show is the same as the one he plays in The Prisoner.

Okay, I'm not at all familiar with Danger Man.

-Bill, otherwise known as Kraichgauer

I haven't seen it, but I've read enough about it. It's a spy show from the 60s. The popular belief seems to be that the main character, John Drake, is Number Six from The Prisoner, and some of the secondary Prisoner material (like novels) identifies him as such. You can read all about it on Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danger_Man
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner

I've never watched The Prisoner. But, I've visited Portmeirion, in Wales, where it was filmed. That's a stunningly magical place.

I've been on a Prisoner binge lately. Someone uploaded all 17 episodes of the original 1967 series on YouTube, and I took the opportunity to finally watch it. To be honest, I didn't like it at first. It seemed like one of those things that tries to look intellectual and clever by being as obtuse and mysterious as possible, but I started to enjoy it once I saw that it did have a point to make. Some of the episodes only make sense as metaphor, and I can understand why that has baffled some people. I'm just glad that it didn't last any longer than it did, because toward the end you started to see the "we've run out of ideas and are just pulling stuff out of our asses at this point" episodes.

I've also been reading The Prisoner by Thomas Disch, which I picked up at a bookstore discount sale a few years ago but never bothered to read until now. It's not a novelization per se, but rather a sequel in which Number 6 finds himself back in the Village with very little memory of having been there before, although it does incorporate scenes from the TV show by having Number 6 watching security camera footage of his past experiences. It's very good, and in some ways actually improves on the show: Number 6 makes an escape attempt, for example, that's just as clever as anything he attempted on the screen.

As for the 2009 miniseries, I've also watched it (thanks again, YouTube!), and I've found it to be quite good, although I'm not surprised that the critical reaction has been so mixed. It's a remake of a beloved cult classic, so of course the reaction in the first few years is going to be knee-jerk negativity. I just hope that it'll be re-evaluated in the future, since it's much more intelligent and well-made than awful and overrated shows like The Walking Dead. It's not the original Prisoner, and it's not really trying to be. I encourage anyone who didn't like it the first time around to give it another try.

I can relate to the feeling of being isolated or even imprisoned, within society or even within my own body. This show touched me deeply decades ago and I still love it. I never could finish even one episode of the remake, although I tried. The remake was an epic FAIL compared to the wonder of the original series. Like Number Six, I don't know if I can trust anyone, woman seem either victims or tormenters, and people he thought he could trust from his past turned out to betray him, although apparently all comes out all right in the end.

I really got into this series decades ago when it was shown on a local PBS station KTEH channel 54 from San Jose (IIRC). The host Scott Apel reordered the viewing sequence compared to the original way it was shown on TV in the 1960s, and it made more sense his way (I'm not sure if he's the one who came up with the new viewing order). After each episode there would be a discussion of that episode or of certain themes expressed in the series, and priests, philosophers and other intellectuals would weigh in on possible deeper meanings.

I liked that it was so surreal. The architecture of the village is truly bizarre. The colors of the clothing, umbrellas, etc. just add to that. The little golf cart type cars, Rover...many interesting visual aspects to this show besides its being incredibly intellectually and philosophically stimulating.

It could be the story of a secret agent who tries to resign, or it could be a metaphor for the relationship of an individual to society, or to God. Maybe it's all a dream? No matter what, it is definitely one of my all-time artistic statements of humanity. It helped I think that Patrick McGoohan wrote much of the story in addition to being the star. Having his own production company too (with the allegorical name of Everyman Productions) made he did not have to compromise his artistic vision as much.

I mourned when McGoohan died a few years back, but also made a joke. Imagine he is at the gates of Heaven.
To Saint Peter he would tell: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My afterlife is my own. I am not a number; I am a dead man!"

A truly great series that was truly weird.
At the time I just accepted that the last episode was SUPPOSED to be cryptic.
Spot terrified me, as did the lamp over his bed that would lower over his face.

I think The Prisoner Theme Song was one of the best songs of any TV show ever.

(1967) Ron Grainer ー The Prisoner Theme

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrN0LeC-LZU[/youtube]
Rejected theme song, good thing it was not chosen

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7pNArQBN_c[/youtube]

When CBC ran the show every week the ads for it showed that excerpt from one of the last episodes where you see Number Six walking around outside a female voice is heard saying "You may not see my face, but... you may know my name. (then we hear "Watch the Prisoner, Sunday nights at 11:30")... My name... is Death!"