Thread: The Prisoner

I caught some promos on AMC last night during Mad Men and it looks very promising (It's a remake of the trippy 1967 British TV series). The Prisoner premieres on AMC on Nov 15 and stars Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen. If AMC puts half the writing, acting and production value into it as they do for Mad Men, it should be something special!

Here's the trailer:

Since the original was easily one of the 10 best TV series of all time, it would be hard for this remake to not fail miserably, like all remakes of intelligent series.

For one thing, if this were even remotely as intelligent as the original, it would easily be one of the worst rated series of all times, because Joe Average would tune out (cf Kings for a recent example, and that even threw in moronic soap opera content).

By the way, like most networks, AMC does not make series, they just write checks.

Also, like a number of other quality series, like Deadwood, Rome and Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men has entertainment value for millions of people who do not really understand what went on in the episode they watched. There is no way The Prisoner can do so.

I'll give it a shot, however... I can start out being positive about " their taste in what they chose to remake "...

PS Short and simple premise of the original series: A British secret service agent resigns. As he is packing for his well deserved tropical vacation, he is kidnapped and awakens in a small village which is actually a comfortable prison, designed to get the prisoners to reveal every secret they know. His problem is that he does not know whether the prison is run by the British or by "the other side"... However, the actual subject matter of the series is the relationship between the Individual and Society, and as such, it was often on the level of post-graduate college courses...

Originally Posted by kstuart

Since the original was easily one of the 10 best TV series of all time, it would be hard for this remake to not fail miserably, like all remakes of intelligent series.

For one thing, if this were even remotely as intelligent as the original, it would easily be one of the worst rated series of all times, because Joe Average would tune out (cf Kings for a recent example, and that even threw in moronic soap opera content).

By the way, like most networks, AMC does not make series, they just write checks.

Also, like a number of other quality series, like Deadwood, Rome and Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men has entertainment value for millions of people who do not really understand what went on in the episode they watched. There is no way The Prisoner can do so.

I'll give it a shot, however... I can start out being positive about " their taste in what they chose to remake "...

The original Prisoner, which I caught on some cable channel in the early 1990s, was definitely one of the most memorable TV experiences I've had. I will attempt to put my expectations and memories aside and enjoy this one for what it is, which given the dearth of quality scripted TV right now (especially on the networks), it should be better than most shows out right now.

Watched all Three Episodes. Talk about LAME. I was really hoping for a good remake, unfortunately it was NOT good at all.

I talked it up to my relatives (before it aired), our family is from England, so I thought it might interest all of us. After finishing the last episode my Aunt called and asked me what I thought of it (She had recorded the entire ARC), I told my Aunt and Uncle not to bother.

John

It was seriously sad. A total waste of time.

I got very bored with the first part, and after reading the few comments here, very likely won't spend any time watching the other two parts sitting on my DVR.

Anyone have anything positive to say about it?

In all honesty, as the OP, I recorded all three 2-hour parts, but have yet to start watching, and these comments here are making me even less eager to check it out. This would've worked much better for me as a six-week 1-hour/episode series as I just keep finding things I'd rather watch than one of these 2-hour (minus commercials) mini-series segments.