Movie Reviews for The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)

The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)

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Movie Reviews of The Prisoner - Complete Series Megaset (40th Anniversary Edition)

Movie Review: Better than LOST
Summary: 5 Stars

I remember watching this series orginally when it was aired with my father, then they shown it again on PBS, and I really love this series, and that wishing to go to the place at where they film it, and that each episode does ask questions, my favorite is ABC, and the General. Then I purchased the VHS set in not knowing soon that it will be on DVD, so I bought the DVD set but the 40th anniversary set. That it has extra features, out takes, map of the village, triva questions, etc. Very much love the series, and when I show it to my girlfriend that she like the first episode, and the village itself, so we are going to the village for our honeymoon that it will be an experience, and a venture to witness a very good series, and to be where they film it...

Movie Review: No Way Out
Summary: 3 Stars

The Prisoner series is unique insofar as it combined a compellingly intense actor with an intriguing concept and some for-the-time very special effects. As other reviewers have provided synopses of the storyline I'll simply focus on the good and the bad in these stories.

First the good: though the sixties motifs seem now rather silly and trite they add to the overall ambience. The Village (actually Portmerion in Wales) is both jolly and sinister at one and the same time, visually appealing while being small enough to induce claustrophobia fairly quickly. The exploration of society as a prison for the individual is several times touched upon but never really developed. Our hero Number 6 is a lone wolf but it is in fact perfectly valid to ask where such lone wolves really fit into a society that works only on the basis of cooperation and some degree of mutual trust. This society, however, is rotten to the core and that's another sixties theme that hasn't really worn the test of time.

The first half-dozen episodes are nevertheless very entertaining and we watch the newly arrived Prisoner attempting first to escape and then gradually settling down to a life of pacing his cage and resisting where he can.

Unfortunately, the plot lines are at best highly implausible and at worst downright risible and there are enough loose ends that you'd go mad trying to look for logic or consistency. Even the dialog is frequently tired, saved only by McGoohan's intense delivery and hypnotic screen presence. Worst of all, the team clearly had no idea where to take the series nor how to end it. The final half-dozen or so episodes are embarrassing in the extreme and the Grand Finale is really just a tedious exposure of McGoohan's utter inability to rise to the occasion. It's really best to watch just the first six or eight episodes and then imagine for yourself what could have been, rather than watch the painful reality of what was done with the series.

If the rights were available there's enough good ideas in this old TV series for one really good 150-minute motion picture, perhaps starring a really compelling actor-with-an-edge like Daniel Craig. But it would need competent script writing and a sense of where to go, both of which are catastrophically lacking from this 17-episode set.

Movie Review: Just the way I remember it.
Summary: 4 Stars

The best way to view the series is as a historical document. It came from the same milieu that brought us The Forbin Project and 2001 A Space Oddysey when the dehumanizing aspects of technology were on everybody's mind.

Of course, today it seems that all our worst fears have been realized but maybe my perspective in unique on that score.

Movie Review: This set is NOT newly remastered or restored!
Summary: 3 Stars

Yes, this series is wonderful and the DVD set is enjoyable, but be forewarned that this is not the newly restored/remastered edition that was released in the UK by Network last year. This is the same set that was released by A&E back in 2001 but with new packaging. I have not yet seen the new set, but apparently, the difference in quality is like day and night!