The Prisoner (2009) on AMC

radnan

A Smooth-Skin
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An update to the cult favorite series from the 1960s about a government agent who is kidnapped and sent to a remote island known as "the Village".

In a shallow nutshell: Lost meets 1984 meets the Truman Show or something like that.

Looking forward to the next episodes - i've seen one episode and i'm really liking it. i haven't seen the original british series so i don't know how it stacks up.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1043714/
 
I am not an expert on the Prisoner TV show, but I did see a few episodes on the old Sci-Fi channel. It was ahead of its time, and while being psychedelic at times, it was also comprehensible in the struggle of one man for freedom, hope, or even meaning. I haven't read up on the new one, but the old Prisoner show still has tons of fans and cult status.
 
The original series is kinda good and worth a viewing. Well, up till the point where McGoohan took full control of the writing and created a terrible pile of dung. Seriously, the later episodes are an absolute pain to watch. And oh, the sequence of the episodes is completely screwed up, which you'll probably notice while watching.

Never seen this new version, but I'm certainly interested now, thank you. Hopefully they'll actually try to give the series a real plot this time around. They can't live off the cult-status of the old one alone. It's not that well-known outside of Britain I think.
 
I was torturing myself through 2 of the opening episodes.

Jesus, don't watch this show. Radnan doesn't have an opinion over the tastes of people who've seen and liked the first incarnation.

Go watch the Original on IFC, now.
 
Ifc canada seems to only like to air 5 fucking movies repeated over ad naseum. Every so often they MAY air one movie at a time where you can't even fucking watch it in the first place.

We don't get the original here :(
 
Be resourceful outside the mainstream. The content is worth the trouble.

Be seeing you.
 
KQX said:
Heh, I'm only familiar with the original show through the Simpsons parody. Hopefully I'll be able to catch a rerun at some point.

Bahah i thought the same thing when I saw adds for this show on AMC... Yeah, I watch AMC on occasion.

At any rate I was really impressed with this first episode. It was very well done, cinematography, acting, all top notch -and it even has Hawkins from Jericho!
 
Well after the first or second episode.... It got WAY to strange for me to comprehend. I wound up not watching the last episode as a result.

When I say strange, I mean FRACKING WEIRD!
 
I watched a bit of one of the episodes and it didn't make a lot of sense to me.

THe original show was based on a simple idea- what do they do with spies after they retired. The answer- they send them to an island where they keep an eye on them.
 
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tb8Jo11uGo[/youtube]

I originally learned about this from the Iron Maiden song many years ago. Cool stuff.

I'll have to keep an eye out for that new show, and give it a watch.
 
It delved into the ideas of the original show about there being no such thing as absolute "Freedom" or "Individual thought", that all things civilized are inherently derived from collectivism. The show used lots of visual ques to elaborate on that philosophy. A lot of the cinematography story-board construction tried to use surreal and subjective elements of the protagonists experience in the Village. and This is a good idea, but guess what, they did a shitty job at it. A lot of key things that could have been used as plot devices to move the story along were dropped in favor of showing you film of high definition sand for 15 minutes and expecting you to feel "DESOLATED". Because of this, the mysteries of the village which in the original were very interesting and finding out the secrets to move the plot along stand obtuse in angle from the downward spiral of this remake's continuous ability to make me NOT GIVE A SHIT. And no, the reason this remake is BAD is not because it is "Weird", but because it is shit. The original was very weird, but people with actual talent wrote and directed it.

The remake was like watching Bob Ross paint while on Vicodin. Plus, all of the coolness factor of the originals pulpy, 60's spy culture is absent and replaced with showing stupid women in distress, and hot guys ability to show his nude body. It's twilight for the twilight kids who decided to get all serious and intellectual after looking at Salvador Dali and reading something existential, then mixed with being interested in conspiracy politics.


This shames the original's name.

And what's worse, because this was such a flop, producers are going to be hesitant in the future in funding new and creative ideas.


This show in a nutshell.

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

"Artsy one trick pony?!"

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

"Man Ass"

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

DESOLATED

"Reuse of one trick pony"

DESOLATED

Cancel DirectTV subscription to AMC, drink vodka in the bathtub.
 
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