They got Ian McKellen to play Number Two, which is great, but I dunno…an American Number Six? A Village which looks actually spooky and evil instead of charmingly insouciant?
Mixed feelings about this. I figure I’m good for about an hour and then I’ll give up and break out my box set of the original series and re-watch “Hammer into Anvil” or “A, B, and C.”
Depends. If it conflicts with football, it loses. Otherwise, I’d like to see it. When is it on, and what network?
I borrowed the entire original series back when I worked at a library. I doubt the new series will be able to recreate the same tone as the original, but I’m gonna give it a shot. I love the BBC Office and was able to get into the new Office despite them going in different directions, so who know? The new series might be good in its own right.
Oakminster: Sunday night on AMC. Original six-part series. (The original was 17-part, but some of it could have been considered padding. Like the “Living in Harmony” episode.)
Also, the new Number Six kisses girls. Ewwwww. You would not have caught Patrick McGoohan, may he rest in peace, kissing girls.
Seriously, the new Village creeps me out. All those uniform candy-colored A-frame cottages. And the desert.
Sunday night, during football season?
I’ll have to DVR it I guess.
I’ll probably give it a shot since it was filmed in Namibia.
The original series was very uneven. Some brilliant episodes (“The Chimes of Big Ben” and “Schizoid Man”) and some absolutely awful ones (“The Girl who Was Death” and “Once Upon a Time”). Hopefully, they can cut out the awful.
He did on Danger Man/Secret Agent, though I was unimpressed by the overall quality of British pulchritude. And he probably did at least once in real life, as he was married for 57 years and fathered three children.
drop: Yes, I know; it was only while playing Number Six that he skipped the girl-kissing. Which was kind of neat and original, considering the morals of the typical 1960s secret agent.
RC: I LOVED “The Girl Who was Death.” High camp. “You have just been poisoned.” “The lighthouse IS the rocket.”
Pass. the original was a great product of its time. This version just looks stupid. Just like the people who thought it up.
I’m gonna watch it. I’m lucky enough to not have seen the original so I won’t keep trying to compare it the whole time.
Is Mel Gibson involved with the series at all? He owned the rights at one time, and Jim Caviezel was Christ in “The Passion of the…”, but I haven’t heard his name come up in interviews. (Gibson was friends with McGoohan, like him a very devout Catholic but to my knowledge sane, which is why McGoohan was in BRAVEHEART.)
The original’s final episode was so… “Uh… yeah” that I wonder how this one will proceed.
I always had a theory about The Island: it’s where James Bonds went when they were retired. In my theory James Bond was more or less a title and persona that the agency occasionally refilled, thus Connery/Moore/Brosnan/Dalton/etc. were each different men who bore the persona. (Of course the fact that Moore and Connery used it at the same time is problematic.) When somebody didn’t relinquish it they were sent to the island.
McGoohan had no connection to Ian Fleming to my knowledge, but without ever confirming he more than hinted that Number 6 was John Drake (James Bond-like lead of his previous hit series Secret Agent Man, best remembered for its theme song). McGoohan even recycled a couple of SAM scripts to fit The Prisoner.
I’ll be seeing it.
At least once.
I am definitely looking forward to it. I was a big fan of the original, but I’m objective enough to know that it is long overdue for some sprucing up. Some productions, however brilliant the concept, just don’t age well…TRM
I wasn’t a fan of the original–it had a strong start, a few OK episodes, a bunch of filler and a weak ending. I like the idea of a six-episode series but I don’t think the premise could last more than a season or two.
I haven’t seen The Prisoner since I was a kid, and I probably would have had to Google it if not for McGoohan’s death and an Iron Maiden bit about how they got him to let them use to opening monologue.
I’ll watch the first episode, at least.
Pass. The original was like an ass sandwich slathered with a raspberry-infused habanero sauce. Pretentious, but still an ass sandwich.
It looks OK (I don’t like the addition of romance to the series, keep it in your pants when you’re trying to escape buddy) but I wonder if it will suffer the same problem as the musical CHESS did. CHESS was originally set in 1983 against the Cold War one-upmanship of international sports, when, as the musical pointed out over and over again, chessmasters played for their countries’ reputations as well as themselves. By the time it came from London to Broadway in '88 the Cold War happened to be winding up and it lost a lot of its punch.
Of course, there’s still plenty of intrigue in the world but since large swaths of it are off-limits to us ignorant Merkuns, I don’t know what they’ll go with. CIA defectors and retired military guys don’t get put away in scenic villages, they go on Larry King and flog their books. I’d love to see the story of a disillusioned Al Qaeda or Shining Path ex-operative dealing with real and deadly mindgames, but nope, gotta be an American, gotta be cute, and Rover’s gonna be three stories tall apparently.
I’ll definitely watch; it’s already scheduled on the DVR. As a big fan of the original, I was initially prepared to be very disappointed, but having seen the 9 minute trailer, I’m mildly optimistic. It’s definitely going to be very different, so I’m trying think of it less as a remake and more as an alternative take on the idea.