I finally got around to watching the remaining four hours of AMC’s new version of The Prisoner.
After watching the first two hours when they ran last week, I can’t say I was terribly impressed. It had potential, sure, but it was missing something. And it seemed a bit more surreal at times than the original (which, if you remember the original, is saying an awful lot). But, I figured, maybe the two thirds would clear some of that up.
No such luck.
First, let me give credit where credit is due. This show is darn pretty. The sets and scenery have just the right feeling of “off” to them to echo that sense of unease one should have while watching the goings on in The Village. Scenes flow pretty well from one to the other and the music choices are interesting, atmospheric, and just as disconcerting at times as the visuals. James Caviezel as Number Six does an adequate job (with what he was given to work with) and Ian McKellan as Number Two catches some fantastic nuances of that character as it’s written in this iteration.
But none of that good stuff can balance out the lack of spunk and downright disjointed writing that fills the space between good bits.
Without question, there should be some of that off-balance and lost feeling in this show. The main character doesn’t know what’s going on, where he is, why he’s there–he doesn’t even have a clear memory of who he is. It shouldn’t all make sense. There should, however, be some baseline of “normal” to judge things by. For a while, it seems like there is, but as the hours drag on (pacing is another issue all together), things become more and more surreal and disjointed instead of more coherent.
Having watched all six hours, I’m pretty sure I know what the point was and what the filmmakers were trying to do with their splicing together of two (or three?) realities and time lines. It was done sloppily. The cues separating one from the other just fell apart, leaving the narrative dangling in an ambiguous space.
Which would be fine if this were some avant garde art film with a two hour or so run-time. In a six hour television series, you’re not going to make any friends with your viewers if you do this–unless you do it very, very well. (HBO’s Carnivale managed to do something similar to what The Prisoner has attempted, but managed to keep it organized and tight enough that it didn’t get in the way of the story.)
The problem of lack of solid ground to stand on was exacerbated by total lack of story flow from one hour to the next. More than once, I was left wondering if I’d missed something important–if there was some reason Number Six or Number Two or someone else was suddenly behaving very differently than he had been. Some of it is explained, but too much of it just “is”.
Worst of all, though, this Number Six spends most of his time brooding, moping, or swooning. Lacking is the sharp and impassioned verbal banter between Six and Two that was a high point of a number of episodes of the original show. The rivalry–and kinship–between the two key characters is much more subtle and drawn out. Again, something that would be OK if there was more solid ground to set it against.
Over all, I’m less than impressed with what AMC did to this franchise. It managed to suck out most of the life and all of the mystery while adding nothing but some pretty scenery and confusion.
It comes out on DVD in March. Without some very compelling special features, there’s no way I’ll be buying it. I’ll stick to the full box set of the original series I picked up years ago (which, oddly, I still haven’t gotten around to watching all of).
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