And as such, I am reveling in my new box set of The Prisoner, Set 2 DVD, which I think only just came out. Tonight I watched “Checkmate,” and I said, for the fourth-and-a-half time, “this is my favorite episode.” I love being an amnesiac when it comes to film and television. This might be the best television show ever! Tonight.
Survivor fans, take note: The Prisoner is similar in concept, only far meaner, more clever, far better filmed, totally fictional instead of editorially contrived, and far cooler on drugs. And the biggest asshole wins, just like on commercial television.
Just a heads up for those of you heading into the off-season.
Yeah, I’ve been wanting to get it too, but I’m gonna wait 'til they release the whole series - watching episodes 1-8 (or whatever) and then not being able to see the remaining shows would piss me off. What’s the hold up? Or, Sofa, is this the second set of Prisoner DVDs you’re talking about?
A piece of trivia: The Prisoner was the first mini-series ever shown on American TV. I’m also waiting for the entire series to be available before buying. I can never understand why companies parcel out releases like this.
Set 2 has been out for a while; I have both. I like the quality of the DVD sound and picture, and the ability to do a clean freeze-frame. However, the manufacturers, for some odd reason, decided to make an already confusing issue even more so. The order of episodes differed between the US and UK broadcasts. I no longer remember why, or how either of the broadcast sequences related to the filming sequence. But the DVD manufacturers are releasing the episodes based on their interpretation of continuity: i.e., “Checkmate” is designated the fourth episode because someone offhandedly said to Number Six, “You must be new here”. In light of that, it would be a good idea to wait for the complete series, and watch them in your idea of the “correct” order!
I was pondering this and, you know, I think I might agree with you. Also, I think, there was a time when the first runs of both this and Monty Python (my alternative ‘number one’) ran in the same weeks. Halcyon days!
Unlike Python, it was actually made by a commercial tv channel – I have no idea how they got a market for it back then as it seems pretty radical to a lot of people even now.
The box set of the entire series was released last year. Also, the second season of Buffy is coming out next month on DVD. Mind you, that’s about it in the way of plusses as far as DVDs go.
Hammer into Anvil and Living in Harmony are pretty good too.
DVDs, eh? All I have is my ten-year old VHS box set… should I consider upgrading to the DVD version? Any cool extras? The only extras the VHS set has is the alternate version of the Chimes of Big Ben and a “The Best of the Prisoner” programme which is basically just a compilation of clips.
I don’t normally do “me too” answers, but in this case I can’t help it. The Prisoner is the best, the coolest, the most intriguing show ever produced. It stands alone after all this time. It even wears well, after all these years (more than thirty, and eternity in TV land).
I still await, with no expectation but eternal hope, the long promised Prisoner movie.
I’ve never seen The Prisoner, but I’ve heard nothing but good things about it. I suppose I should check it out sometime, eh?
FWIW, my vote for best TV series ever goes to Twin Peaks. Supposedly it’s coming out on DVD this year. I’ll believe it when I see it. They keep freakin’ delaying it, dammit!
The first season of “Twin Peaks” was pretty damn good, but even so, it was no “Prisoner.” And another vote for “Hammer into Anvil” as the best single episode. Or possibly “The Schizoid Man.”
(My own personal theory was that Angelo Muscat was the brains behind the entire operation.)
“Questions are a Burden to Others; Answers are a Prison for Oneself.”
You know, Ukelele Ike, I’ve also wondered if Angelo Muscat was the one who really ran the Village. After all, he was the only one who seemed not to be subject to the whims of whoever was behind the Village, and to the rules the inhabitants had to live by.
As long as we’re mentioning favourite episodes, I’d have to vote for The Chimes of Big Ben and (IIRC) The Girl Who Was Called Death.
The latter particularly was enjoyable for its James-Bond-ish scrapes: Number Six normally never had to put up with this childish kind of stuff, and it was interesting to see his reaction to such things when he is more accustomed to psychological warfare. And the O. Henry-style ending was the perfect capper.
“The lighthouse itself is the missile!” Spoken in tandem with the nutcase criminal mastermind in the Napoleon outfit, with that great little McGoohanesque facial expression that seemed to say “Oh god, how many cliches CAN we squeeze in here?”
You BET Angelo was the Big Cheese! You noticed how he ended up going HOME with Number Six in that final episode? Can’t beat the reaper, man.
I saw all of these on the big screen back in my college days in 1978. I remember everyone going AWWWWWWWWW when Number Two was mean to Angelo in “Hammer into Anvil.” And that bastard got HIS clock cleaned, didn’t he?
This thread is worth resurrecting because I just got an e-mail today informing me that sets 3 and 4 go on sale on the 24th of April. Amazon is currently knocking off ten bucks on their exhorbitant prices if ordered in advance.
The release of sets three and four makes, as best I can tell, fourteen of the seventeen episodes, leaving room for those felchers to nail me for at least one more set. That’s okay. I’ll just wind up watching 'em all over again anyway.
What the DVD offers is pretty scanty by comparison to the VHS set. There’s an alternate take of… one of the episodes, an interview or two, some trailers, and an interactive map of the village (without, as best I can tell, any easter eggs, which is unfortunate). The picture quality is top-notch, though.
And toss in my vote for “The Schizoid Man.” I’ve often wondered if King Crimson is refering to this episode in the song “21st Century Schizoid Man.”