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Having blasted through the six-episode mini-series, I'll try to comment on it without releasing any spoilers. Anybody know when it's on in the UK?
I'm a huge fan of the original 1960's series. My email address wouldn't refer to it otherwise! However, I'm also open to reinterpretations of past classics - reference the Battlestar remake, which I loved more than the original, even though the original had a cherished (albeit cheesy) place in my heart.
This new 2009 version of "The Prisoner" is not a classic. Neither does it borrow (to my mind) from the original as much as - say - the 2005 version of "Doctor Who" does from classic "Who". What it does strive to do is take certain key tenets of the original, and update/evolve them for a 2009 audience.
Does it succeed? My answer to that would have to be a qualified "Yes". My main issue is with Jim Caviezel. I loved his hippy drifter in "The Thin Red Line" - it's in my top five movies of all time. However, I'm far from convinced he's able to carry anything else - "Deja Vu" was a let down because of his failure to grab as an enemy, and in "The Prisoner" he also fails to stir his audience as either a goody or a baddy. Patrick McGoohan was irresistible as a 50/50 love/hate character in the original, all ego and self-belief. Jim just can't convey that strength. Perhaps he's better at being a soft touch, but Number 6 needs to represent a whole lot more. Perhaps the producers cast him because he's a bit of an every-man, neither this nor that?
But enough of my doubts - the long list of positives starts with Ian McKellen as a wonderfully ambivalent Number 2. He has such inner mental strength despite his advanced years and peace and yet is capable of unspeakable acts (indirectly) of utter horror. He's much more in keeping with the Number 2s from the original series - as you'd imagine from his casting and his previous roles such as Magneto in the "X-Men" trilogy. Lennie James is fantastic as Number 6's confident and friend, though his role isn't a million miles away from his part in Jericho. Ruth Wilson is also terrific as the main female interest. She does a great job of keeping Number 6 and the audience on their toes as to whether she's a mole, or genuinely interested in his tales of "another place".
The producers make much more effort to ensure each of the six parts slots into a core plotline about Number 6's past, the The Village's future, and that works out pretty well, too. It's certainly less bewildering than the original (especially the conclusion), but still doesn't deem its audience to be complete morons. Much of it is still ambiguous and left to the viewer to interpret, which is fine with a decent supporting framework underpinning it all. Episode themes such as "The Schizoid Man" are borrowed but reshaped into something new. Existing fans probably won't know where it's going, and that keeps interest levels high.
For those that aren't familiar with the original (shame on you! Buy the superb Blu-ray release right away!), it's a blend of "1984", "The Matrix", "Wild Palms", "Jacob's Ladder", "The Island" and other similar films and series that deal with warped realities, dictatorships, individualism and paranoia.
Whether you're familar with the original series (and love it or hate it), or not, I recommend you seek this new interpretation out. It's thought-provoking, stimulating drama with a fairly subtle sci-fi subtext; many of its themes are hugely relevant today, as they were in the 1960s and probably for ever more...
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John
Is The Stuff in your fridge?!
