The Prisoner

[lydy]

Ok, I think this is one of those you-had-to-be-there sorts of shows. Kind of like Star Trek is for me. It looks and sounds horribly dated, and if you came to it after a bunch of other sf shows, it looks tawdry and kind of pointless. It's all been done before, and better. That's the thing about seeing tropes out of order.

I've watched five episodes of The Prisoner this afternoon, and I just guess you had to have been there. A lot of people whose taste I respect a lot rave about this show. Its marvelous surrealism. Its depth and subtlety. Its passion. Patrick McGoohan. I hit it too far out of it's time. It looks dreadfully dated. Those lava lamps everywhere, for god's sake. And you know that in the nature of the show, you're never going to find out where the village is and you're never going to find out why he resigned. Those things are essential to the serial nature of the show. It doesn't have an on-going arc, so there isn't any promise of change.

I thought I'd like it. Hence, watching five shows instead of just one. But really, I could have stopped with just one. The first one has everything that it's going to ever have. And my god, could the plot move any slower? Sixties television is not speedy. McGoohan gets a couple of good lines now and then, but the reptartee is slow in comparison to say, West Wing. And psychiatry has moved on, now. The types of things that they show the blinky lights doing are simply not believable. Besides which, you can't condition someone to be left-handed in a month worth of shock therapy. All you can do is make him muddled. And the peel-off mole. I mean please, they can do all this kinky stuff with brains, but they can't manage minor plastic surgery? (As you can see, I most recently watched The Schizoid Man. Which is number five.)

Ok, heretic here. Sorry about that. But I am not afraid of an oversized beach ball. And the special effects are terrible.

If you loved the show, try telling me why. I'll listen. But I think I just hit it too far out of it's time.

Comments

[carbonel]

I watched it long ago (10-15 years, at a guess) when a friend lent me her videotapes, and I had much the same reaction. It was an interesting period piece, but it hasn't held up well.

[marydell.livejournal.com]

It's dreadful! But it inspired a great Simpsons episode: http://www.tubearoo.com/articles/89470/The_Simpsons_The_Prisoner.html

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I've watched five episodes of The Prisoner this afternoon, and I just guess you had to have been there.

Yup. I was 14 the summer it aired. It was like nothing else I'd ever seen on TV. My dad loved it, too.

I loved spy shows, which had been in vogue for several years, but this was kind of a post-spy show. With SF elements.

When it came out on DVD, my brother gave me a boxed set. I've already had the experience of showing it to younger friends, who were underwhelmed. So your reaction is not surprising.

I'm telling you I loved the show, without trying to convince you that you should love it.

It really does look dated now. But it's still very, very odd.

(For a refreshing change of pace, skip ahead to The Girl Who Was Death. It's my favorite episode-- the poisoning scene is priceless-- but it really seems to be an episode of some different series...)

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I'll try The Girl Who Was Death. If I'd seen the show at 14, I might have fallen in love with it, too. I think I was 12 when I ran into Star Trek in reruns. I love it immeasurably, even though there's a lot of stupid there.

[bibliofile.livejournal.com]

I loved spy shows, which had been in vogue for several years, but this was kind of a post-spy show. With SF elements.

Yes, very much so, especially "Secret Agent Man" (AKA "Danger Man" in the UK). "The Prisoner" was also broadcast in the midst of the Cold War, so its paranoia seemed absolutely brilliant -- especially in contrast with such stuff as "My Three Sons" and "My Favorite Martian."

[sethb.livejournal.com]

You have to remember that when it originally aired, people didn't know that the background information would never be revealed.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I realize that. But it's like Gilligan's Island. They're never getting off that damn island. You know that going in. And if you don't, you pick it up pretty damn soon. One of the reasons why I can't stand Gilligan's Island. The whole point of all of the plots is to try to accomplish something that you know serial television won't give you, an ending.

[sethb.livejournal.com]

Isn't there television where the background is revealed over time? (I haven't watched any for decades, so I have no idea what's current.) Wasn't The Avengers like that?

[lydy.livejournal.com]

There's more of it now. In the Sixties, it was pretty much always reset to zero at the end of the show. I can't speak for The Avengers. I've watched some of them, but not enough to really know for sure.

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

they do get off the island! have you missed the fabulous cinema of "rescue from gilligans island"???! and as for the prisoner -- the plot does unfold, i won't spoil it though.

[kylecassidy.livejournal.com]

wait till you get to the end.