The desire to be free is a universal emotion present in all of us, a paradoxical notion that lend us the capacity to rebel, yet conform us all the same. Given the choice, I suppose we would all stand in line, each proudly declaring "I am not a number!"
It could be the reason that 1967's The Prisoner, with its implicit storytelling and Wonderland-like inventions, is so fondly remembered, and apparently enticing to re-do.
Patrick McGoohan gave the world something to remember with his post-modern, angry, allegorical 16-episode series, both ahead of its time and timeless in its critique of modern society. McGoohan's character, the aggravative 6, is held against his will in a tranquil Village where everyone's a number. Every episode, he tries to escape, wrestles with his captors—led by a replacable 2—and prevails in his defiance over authority but fails in his escape. The victories are satisfying, but it's the failures that define the series.
The 2009 remake by AMC is as trapped as McGoohan's 6 was; it shows great care in the execution, scoring victories in its ability to engage and being generally successful with the emotional drama of its characters, both romantic and family, which this remake heavily depends upon; but they all serve an overall story that communicates its big ideas incoherently and ties the plot's loose ends into a vexing knot of stupid.
It takes more cues from Twin Peaks and Total Recall than the original Prisoner in terms of atmosphere, depicting a Village more quietly unsettling than bizarre. Just look at how it's laid out: instead of the pleasant seaside Italian plaza of the original, this Village is a dusty Moroccan ant farm with identical houses that look horrid to live in, thus all the more creepy that its residents seem so happy to be there. Whether or not that makes sense given the ending's revelation of the Village's true nature is another story.
Jim Caviezel plays the new 6, and to the show's credit, he's a very different 6 from McGoohan's. Caviezel spends most of the series wandering around the Village with a doofy look on his face. He moans about being lied to and accosts random people with the mixed intensity of someone who's asking for directions and just recently lost his dog, then he'd fall to his knees in anguish when he can't get a straight answer. Occasionally, when the minutes permit it, in the last moments of an episode he would casually stroll over to 2's house and shout bland threats through the gate like "I'm going to kill you!" In the original, we're always behind McGoohan's conviction that he needs to escape even when the draw to stay is at its most compelling. Caviezel's 6, on the other hand, comes across as a crazy person who needs to chill out for a day or two. That may or may not be the intention of this more mind-bending version of The Prisoner, since it toys with the reality of the Village's existence, but it makes for a frustrating protagonist all the same.
Throughout the series, 6 would constantly flashback to an important night in his New York apartment, but despite what he tells himself out loud, he's not sure if that's real. He believes he's been taken to The Village against his will, but he constantly stumbles into cogent evidence that that's where he grew up, complete with brother, sister-in-law, niece and nephews. Or were they planted by 2?
Comparably, the new 2 is doubly more fascinating, and easily writer Bill Gallagher's best contribution to the Prisoner mythos. Brilliantly played by Ian McKellen, this 2 isn't just a rotating authority figure out to deconstruct 6, but a near-omnipotent chessmaster who manipulates emotions and events to get people to do what he wants. MacKellan is perfectly creepy in the role, offering a cold fatherly voice to disturbing commands like the manipulation of love (the fourth episode, "Darling," is about the strangely harmonious arranged marriages that occur in The Village—even in happiness, they are still not free).
Giving him a dysfunctional family is a natural course of attempt to humanize 2, but the awkward relationship with his rebellious teenage son 11-12 is only acceptable for its meager parallel to his attempts of controlling 6, not so much in the cliched parental angst storyline that it results in. 2's treatment of his comatose wife is much more intriguing and started off effectively macabre, but the pet-master relationship is ruined by the last episode's wonky revelation of her pertinent role in The Village, which undercuts the villainy of 2's actions. He works just as well on his own, as MacKellan manages to put on a great, subtle bad guy performance without the help of the detailed background that the show gave him. That's presence at work.
At only six episodes, AMC's The Prisoner doesn't explore as many ideas as the original, but a welcome surprise is that it doesn't treat all six episodes as a continuous narrative. Instead, every episode is inspired by a classic episode from the original, re-done in a more psychological style. Instead of the comic book plot of the original's "The Schizoid Man," where 6 faces against a secret agent who looks exactly like him, "Schizoid" has 6's dark id separated from him and turns the same premise into a mental battle of wills. This kind of thing shows how ambitiously cerebral the remake wants to be, but falls short of achieving it, while sacrificing the pulsating artistry of the original's whacked-out vision.
Rover, the famous floating white ball, is a fantastic image of intimidation because you never know what the hell it is. When you try to explain what it really is, it's just going to sound dumb any way you slice it.
DVD Bonus Features
The third disc is dedicated to extras and it's filled up nicely, though they certainly had room for more. Two of the featurettes are the essential kind for this type of science-fiction. One is a video diary of the 92-day production, detailing the grueling shoot in South Africa. The other is "Beautiful Prison," an exploration of the themes and intentions behind this new Prisoner, meant only for those who've seen the whole show. It's not very insightful, just a mix of the obvious and the pretentious.
The other two features fare better because they're more fun in nature. One is an on-set interview with Ian McKellen, the other an excerpt of last year's San Diego Comic-Con panel. There are also deleted scenes and commentaries on two episodes if you want more to do with the show. I wasn't so curious.
"The Prisoner" is on sale March 23, 2010 and is not rated. Drama, Sci-Fi. Directed by Nick Hurran. Written by Bill Gallagher. Starring Hayley Atwell, Ian McKellen, Jamie Campbell Bower, Jim Caviezel, Lennie James, Ruth Wilson.
