Talk about overdue! (This post, I mean. Well, Prisoner material too. But mostly this post, which was written 23-02-2010 and posted 24-01-2011, almost a year later.) Copy... paste:Here's what I like about this remake of the now classic Prisoner story: it's contemporary. Sure, the endearing qualities of McGoohan's masterpiece are missing; perhaps there is little to endear us at all in this 2009 vision. But how could the quaint elements so compelling in the late 60's have delivered the same punch 40 years later? Man, if Number 6 had been living in the age of GoogleMaps, he would have been spotted on StreetView at the Village cafe.
I like the retelling of stories. I love it, in fact. I love to hear the same story told from a different perspective and to hear a story re-told in a new time. I wasn’t expecting this retelling of the Prisoner to be true to the original in plot nor in tone and this, I believe, set me up well to hear this story being told again.
I liked the re-imagining of the village. I liked the re-imagining of the back stories of the characters and the characters themselves, but what I liked most, keeping in the story theme, was the idea that the remake put forth that sometimes living a story is better than living the truth. That our lives aren’t always going to live up to our dreams, that living the highs in life come at the expense of having to live the lows. But in stories we can assign meaning to our lives in ways that reality never can, we can find the happy endings we long for yet often do not find and we can make ourselves better than we know ourselves to be. And because we can imagine it, if even for a moment, does it matter that that isn’t the truth, that it isn’t real?
And so goes the remake of The Prisoner, blurring the lines of story and reality for the characters, pulling us as viewers along into the mystery of what the Village is and who the people are who inhabit it. As in the original, the ending is a surprise. I didn’t expect McGoohan’s Number 6 to ever successfully leave the Village, especially in the romp that he did, and nor did I expect Caviezel’s Number 6 to stay, in a much quieter fashion.
I’ll admit that a year later, I am less able to piece together the storyline of each episode than I am able to do so of the original episodes which we watched much earlier. I found McGoohan’s Number 6 to be much more memorable, more quirky, more intriguing that Caviezel’s was perhaps a bit too understated. McKellan, though, made a Number 2 who rivalled any from the original series.
And so, a year later, what do I remember most…that I liked the retelling of this story, and that in the Village, not is all as it seems, but then again, neither it is in real life.
-as.
No, the location of the Village, as with many elements of the story, has been updated to be characteristically congruent in the modern world. The cautionary notes are similarly conspiracy waking, but point to agendas and technology that have more recently emerged. The clothing though leaves something to be desired: where are the capes?! But oh! My goodness, Rover is awesome.
After the 6-part series wrapped up (it took two evenings of the valentine's weekend), I was impressed by the respect for the original material and the freshness of the new take. The questions pulling us along bordered at times on too mysterious, the movement between times and places was maybe a tad more disorienting than it needed to be, and McGoohan is an awfully tough act to follow. But. Coming into the home stretch, what a great dovetailing of story threads, satisfying reveals, a twist or two from left field, and nothing left dangling. Nicely done: entertaining, thought-provoking, engaging.
A note to anyone fishing for reviews: Quite of few of the detractors I came across online didn't give the series more than half the episodes. Some even predicate their scathing reviews by admitting they didn't get through the first episode. Others, I suppose, were expecting something more like the original and were disappointed. Fortunately, I avoided that fate by reading ahead of time that this remake was a departure. If you're thinking about seeing this series, I highly recommend it... I also recommend watching the episodes without too much time between them. Try three at a time, as they were broadcast originally.
-DM
I like the retelling of stories. I love it, in fact. I love to hear the same story told from a different perspective and to hear a story re-told in a new time. I wasn’t expecting this retelling of the Prisoner to be true to the original in plot nor in tone and this, I believe, set me up well to hear this story being told again.I liked the re-imagining of the village. I liked the re-imagining of the back stories of the characters and the characters themselves, but what I liked most, keeping in the story theme, was the idea that the remake put forth that sometimes living a story is better than living the truth. That our lives aren’t always going to live up to our dreams, that living the highs in life come at the expense of having to live the lows. But in stories we can assign meaning to our lives in ways that reality never can, we can find the happy endings we long for yet often do not find and we can make ourselves better than we know ourselves to be. And because we can imagine it, if even for a moment, does it matter that that isn’t the truth, that it isn’t real?
And so goes the remake of The Prisoner, blurring the lines of story and reality for the characters, pulling us as viewers along into the mystery of what the Village is and who the people are who inhabit it. As in the original, the ending is a surprise. I didn’t expect McGoohan’s Number 6 to ever successfully leave the Village, especially in the romp that he did, and nor did I expect Caviezel’s Number 6 to stay, in a much quieter fashion.
I’ll admit that a year later, I am less able to piece together the storyline of each episode than I am able to do so of the original episodes which we watched much earlier. I found McGoohan’s Number 6 to be much more memorable, more quirky, more intriguing that Caviezel’s was perhaps a bit too understated. McKellan, though, made a Number 2 who rivalled any from the original series.
And so, a year later, what do I remember most…that I liked the retelling of this story, and that in the Village, not is all as it seems, but then again, neither it is in real life.
-as.
