LITTLE ROCK — What is it? The Prisoner, six 45-minute episodes on three discs from Warner Home Video.
How much? $29.98.
When? Now.
Isn’t The Prisoner a TV series from the 1960s? Yes. This is the miniseries remake (or, rather, re-imagining) of that cult classic.
After quitting his job, a man (Jim Caviezel) wakes up in the middle of a vast desert with no memory of how he got there. After wandering around for a while, he comes across a bizarre, homogeneous settlement where everyone insists on calling him Six.
This is The Village, where people have numbers, not names.
Everything is clean (if sandy). Everyone is polite. Everything is pleasant. Something’s obviously very wrong.
Six is eager to get back to his old life in New York, but his insistence on escape and that there’s another world out there is mostly met with confusion or amusement. A few residents react with fear.
For better or worse, Six is trapped in this pastel, paranoid “utopia,” where everyone’s constantly being watched, and the sinister black van may show up at any time to haul you off to The Clinic.
Six’s main nemesis is the charming, urbane leader of The Village, Two (Ian McKellen). As determined as Six is to escape, Two is just as determined to keep him there.
How is it? Not so good, unfortunately.
The tangled, mystifying story causes major problems, partly because the audience just isn’t given enough to work with. While the creators were probably trying to make viewers feel Six’s bewilderment by increasing the mystery, the viewer endsup investing so much in trying to figure out what’s going on that it’s almost impossible to get emotionally invested. Crucial information that might make sense of certain events or give resonance to characters is revealed so late as to be almost useless. As a result, parts that should be affecting feel hollow.
It doesn’t help that Caviezel, while looking the part of the determined hero, falls somewhat short of compelling, though McKellen does a creditable job.
Is it close to the original? No. There are some pretty big changes, but I’ll say no more than that.
Extras? Aside from two audio commentaries and a few deleted scenes, there are two documentaries, eachabout 15 minutes in length. One is your typical “how we did it” featurette but the other, “Beautiful Prison: The World of The Prisoner,” gives some helpful information about the show’s themes and mythology. There’s also an 11-minute question-and-answer session with producers and cast members at ComicCon and a brief interview with the charming and amusing McKellen.
New this week: Alias Smith and Jones, Seasons 2 and 3; Dallas, Season 13; Emergency! Season 6; The Oregon Trail.
Next week: Falcon Crest, Season 1; Heartland, Seasons 1 and 2; Merlin, Season 1; Perry Mason, Season 5, Volume 1; Xena: Warrior Princess, Season 1.
Style, Pages 54 on 04/11/2010