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Rating:  -
I can't possibly imagine how anyone could be without this DVD collection.
This was the greatest program in the history of Television IMHO, nothing else even comes close.
Imagine that, assuming that your audience is bright and intrigued and treating them like they are, with a masterful plot that makes their heads spin. This program blew my mind as a nearly-10-year-old back in 1968 and it continues to do so on these DVDs.
Never equalled, never bettered.
R.I.P. Mr. McGoohan, you were a bloody genius.
And a pox on AMC for having the gall to try and remake this. Sacrilege.
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What a treat it is to have this series on DVD, so that we can reassess this oddball series, and finally figure out what McGoohans was trying to say. The Prisoner is frequently compared to Animal Farm and 1984 (especially "The General"). But it owes much, if not more, to Brave New World and Brave New World Revisited and Anthem. Huxley suggested that we control people not by pain, but by pleasure. Everyone is coked-up and enjoying themselves. In the Village, everyone is on perpetual holiday.
So this is a series with an uncomfortable message. But the best TV shows do that. When one considers episodes such as "The Obsolete Man," or "Eye of the Beholder," the Prisoner is more of a successor to The Twilight Zone than Night Gallery.
So watch, enjoy, and then think. For the confusing aspects of the series--and there are many--The Official Prisoner Companion is indispensable.
The only drawback to this series was that the concept was limited. The filler episodes tacked on to the core seven got redundant and grating. It was a wise choice to limit the series to a mere miniseries of 17. It got the message across without the fluff and drag.
So here are some of my favorite key episodes.
"Free For All" is a wicked critiques of elections. Think back on the past five or six elections, and really, how much control the little guy have over the candidate. And once in power, how much control would Mr. Smith really have? (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) In Real Change: The Fight for America's Future, Newt Gingrich observed the power fissure between the Young Turks that got elected under the Contract With America, and the stodgy incumbents with seniority. The Young Turks had the mandate, but the Incumbents had no sense of mission. And there was no way a Jimmy Stewart could filibuster in the House.
The most disturbing image is the group of men encircling--or is it worshiping?--the throbbing Rover. Are they worshiping the Village's embodiment of brute force?
"The General"--which was my first episode--is a similarly wicked critique of education. Specifically, McGoohan combines his disdain for education mills--blipvert degrees--with the dread of bureaucracies utilizing computes. The "row of cabbages" quote makes the episodes, along with the red-room of non-conformists, and the unanswered question--"WHY?"
C. S. Lewis's "Screwtape Proposes A Toast," "Abolition of Man," and "That Hideous Strength" take this issue to a more philosophical level.
"The Chimes of Big Ben" is blessed with the best No. 2 in the series, and tackles the problems of state-sponsored art. Watch this episode where all artifacts laud the Cult of No. 2, and then check out the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities. Think, people!
"Change of Mind" and "Once Upon A Time" deal with forcible brainwashing. Collectivist Colossi do not suffer fools lightly. That is why the Milgram Experiment and The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil make crucial reading.
"Hammer into Anvil" is a favorite. No. 6 turns the tables on No. 2, and is a great example of Sun-Tzu's dictum of attacking the opponents strategy (The Art of War). He uses the paranoia against No. 2 in a delightful way, worthy of Br'er Rabbit or The Scarlet Pimpernel.
"Living In Harmony" Clearly this is the oddest episode of an already oddball series. But it illustrates a key point: The Prisoner is not about spies and escape, but about the universal principle of conformity and coercion.
Rod Serling once said, "The Twilight Zone has existed in many lands, in many times. It has its roots in history, in something that happened long, long ago and got told about and handed down from one generation of folk to the other. In the telling the story gets added to and embroidered on, so that what might have happened in the time of the Druids is told as if it took place yesterday in the Blue Ridge Mountains."
The same could be said about the Village. It is a universal evil found in schools, boy and girl scout troops, political parties, religions, congresses, labor unions, and even families. The Bible (and Milton Paradise Lost (Penguin Classics)) speak about a war in heaven, so even the angels are not immune from the Village. It could happen anywhere, or as this episode illustrates, anywhen.
So when we hear politicians speak of a Global Village, watch out!
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My take on the ending is simple. The whole series is a mixture of absurdity and surrealism, so the ending must likewise be surreal and absurd. No. 6 wears No. 2 to a quivering pulp, and earns the right to meet No. 1. Of course we could not expect a clichéd Mr. Big or Goldfinger. The only possible resolution was for No. 6 to confront himself. No. 6 meets No. 1, removes the Ape Mask, symbolic of the Apish aspect of humanity. Behind the trousered Ape is himself.
Number 6 was his own jailer.
He manages to free the lad from the clichés of existence, and also to return No. 2 back to a respectable John Bull middle-class existence and to Parliament. The lower-class Butler is also freed form the Village. No. Six is the liberator of all classes. Once we free ourselves, we can free others.
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What can I say about "The Prisoner"? It was the best when originally aired on CBS in 1968 and it is still intriguing, without being dated. The technology is primitive, but in its heyday the technology was science fiction.
I loved this series so much, this was my birthday present to me this year (41 years later). I will spend many suspenseful, pleasant hours with No. 6 and his cohorts.
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Simply Put, This Set Of The Prisoner Dvd's Is Excellent. I Have A 42" Panasonic HD Plasma and They Look Beautiful On It. If You Are A Purist Prisoner Fan, You Cant Go Wrong; With This Collection.
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Unique, wildly unconventional, often frustrating, but never dull, Patrick McGoohan's brilliant 17-episode original series, "The Prisoner" has stirred controversy for over 40 years. Was it a nightmarish vision of dehumanization? A bitter treatise on the loss of personal freedom to 'the System'? A satire of an era when vocal radicals were undermining the Establishment? Or something else, entirely? One of the pleasures of the series is creating your own theory (which McGoohan, himself, encouraged), and this collection provides everything you need to become an expert on the world of 'The Village'...
It is a program with an intriguing backstory; after 86 spisodes playing 'John Drake' in the very popular British series, "Danger Man" (renamed "Secret Agent" in America), between 1961-1967, McGoohan abruptly quit. When the studio demanded compensation, he offered a new series, about a secret agent who leaves the service for personal reasons, is promptly kidnapped, imprisoned in an idyllic, but sterile community, renamed 'Number 6', and relentlessly interrogated by the unknown jailers. Each week he'd attempt to escape, only to be recaptured, until he'd finally learn the secret behind 'The Village'. The studio, intrigued by the concept (recognizing the parallels to McGoohan's own situation), asked for 26 episodes (McGoohan wanted to make only seven), and a compromise of 17 episodes was reached. Then the American distributor, CBS, became involved; they disliked the concept (believing it to be little more than a live-action 'Road Runner' cartoon, with McGoohan's character the coyote, devising elaborate schemes to escape that always failed), and dumped the new show into the little-viewed summer 'hiatus' between seasons, where failed pilots and unsuccessful series could earn back production costs by advertising revenue.
But a strange thing happened; ratings soared, as word-of-mouth about the unconventional series spread, and CBS found itself with a hit! They quickly approached McGoohan, begging him to extend the series, and offering a prime spot in the fall TV schedule. The actor simply smiled, said, "Thanks, but no thanks!", and concluded "The Prisoner" with the surreal 17th episode.
And the legend was born...
Loaded with extras, including trivia quizzes, a 'Video Companion' to the series, production stills, and even a map of 'The Village', "The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)" is the most comprehensive edition of the groundbreaking series you will ever find...I highly recommend it, and invite you to join Number 6 in the Village...and develop your own theories!
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