A Man. And His Blog.

“You only think you are free.”

The AMC mini-series The Prisoner is an update to the cult favorite series from the 1960s about a government agent (James Caviezel) who is kidnapped and sent to a remote island known as “the Village”. When he wakes up in the middle of the desert, not remembering what happened, but having dreams and visions about his early life in New York, he tries to find out where and who he is. The government agent is called 6 by everybody and soon he has to deal with an old man named 2 (Ian McKellen), who he thinks of keeping him as prisoner, though 2 states that 6 is a free man. 6 finds allies in a doctor named 313 (Ruth Wilson), in a cab driver named 147 (Lennie James) and in 2′s own son 11-12 (Jamie Campbell Bower). 6 is looking for a way out of the Village.

Episode 01: Arrival
Ehm, yeah… Fascinating. Really. Maybe I should see the original, after AMC finished this remake, I only heard of it. Most interesting – even for me – is, that I almost knew nothing about the series before. I just knew the title, saw two promo posters for it, knew that Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel are in the main cast and that this one is a remake of an old original. Nothing from the story, and I read nothing about the series at all. And so, I am quite surprised after what I saw here. Really fascinating stuff; mysterious, deep, reminds me of a mixture of Meadowlands (which I could rewatch btw), Shyamalan’s The Village and a bit of Dark City. And maybe The Prisoner is a bit of all of them.
So, 6 wakes up in the middle of the desert, witnessing 96 being chased and killed. 6 has some kind of visions, he has memories about New York, his home, he knows names, he knows history, but he doesn’t know who he is or where he is. He has to learn that the Village is “the” Village – there is nothing out there. Maybe another village in the universe. The mystery part is definitely a great setting for the series, and the village itself really looks like the loneliest place on Earth. It already looks like that the village is some sort of a prison with persons, which original memories are wiped and replaced with new ones, which excludes everything outside of the Village. But where is the Village located and is it really that simple to understand? I think there is more behind all of this than just a prison with prisoners in it.
The episode itself was good. Jim Caviezel overacted a bit (especially in the scene where he meets 2 for the first time, when he smashes his hand on the table), but other than that he is a good “6″ (damn, now I am thinking of Battlestar Galactica…). Ian McKellen could have more screentime for the fact his name is billed first in the credits, I know nothing about his role, except he is the “2″ – now I am interested to know who (and where) is “1″. The rest is pretty much unknown for that. Here a possible love interest for 6, there the dying hope of a way out of the Village; here a cab driver, who possibly knows more than he says, there a kid, who starts to learn that there is more than this life. The first episode (as a part of a mini series I don’t really see it as a pilot) basically set up everything we have to know for the next minutes of the show. Lots of questions, a few answer, lots of possibilities how the story could evolve during the next parts. Only the cliffhanger seemed a little awkward and pushed the story more into a science fiction genre. Which, I think, could be a mistake story-wise. But I don’t know the original and I don’t know hoe the writers handled that at their time. I let myself surprise what’s to come and will not spoil myself. This is, after a long while, the first real series from which I don’t know anything. 8/10

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