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Pergament: Easy to get ‘lost in ‘The Prisoner’ redux
If you think ABC’s “Lost” is confusing, wait until you see AMC’s “The Prisoner.” The six-hour miniseries, which runs at 8 p. m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on the cable channel that gave us “Mad Men,” is a maddening, complex “reinterpretation” of the classic 1967 series that starred the late Patrick McGoohan.
TV Review
THE PRISONER
Three stars (out of four)
8 p.m. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, AMC
The original “Prisoner” is credited with having a great influence on future series in the science fiction and fantasy genres. That would include “Lost,” which has more than its share of similarities with “The Prisoner.” They include a mysterious setting; a manipulative, controlling leader; the use of flashbacks; and the determination to escape and go home.
A viewer unfamiliar with McGoohan’s “Prisoner” may be literally lost. The symbolism is as thick as the sand and as tall as the big buildings in the distance in “The Prisoner.”
Shot in Swakopmund, Namibia and South Africa, the American-British co-production is a strange, mind-blowing adventure. It isn’t an easy ride. It can be frustrating to think about what writer Bill Gallagher is trying to say in his economical script about the quest for freedom, the intoxication of power, the danger of increased security measures and the value of individualism, family and therapy.
In the opening scene Sunday, a puzzled Michael (Jim Caviezel of “The Passion of the Christ”) finds himself on the sand in a desert on the outskirts of a city called The Village, and he has no idea how he got there from New York City.
“Where am I?” he asks, quickly followed
“What is happening to me?,” “Why am I here?” and “What the hell is this place?”
All good questions that it takes six hours for Michael— who resigned from his job watching people as an analyst for a security company—to answer as he attempts to reclaim his freedom and former life. He soon becomes known as Six in the new home that is run by a seemingly all-knowing, manipulative, tricky, creepy family man called Two (Ian McKellen).
Everyone in The Village goes by a number, is blissfully happy and doesn’t seem to mind that their lives are orchestrated and they are stuck in a dreamy world where all homes look alike.
Six is the suspicious lead dissident, who dreams of his past life and escaping, wants to see the ocean and New York City again, and is not content eating an occasional cherry cake or wrap sandwich, or watching mindless soap operas.
Also, several, confusing science-fiction tricks allow characters to have alter egos and live in two worlds. The series also deals with the chemistry issues that explain the meaning of love and contentment and the manufacturing of emotions.
McKellen, the Shakespearean actor who may be best known to American audiences as Gandalf in “The Lord of the Rings,” is mesmerizing as he delivers the philosophy of Two to the numerical characters trying to find happiness in a boring, structured, seemingly perfect world.
“A man with nothing to hide is a man with nothing to find,” according to Two, who is one consistent character in this “reinterpretation” after being played by several people in the original series.
“The louder a man shouts, the more profoundly he’s wrong,” Two later philosophizes.
“We always save our best lies for ourselves.”
“Fear is always guilt in disguise.”
And this classic: “There is something thrilling about honesty.”
The handsome Caviezel— who looks a little like Jeff Probst of “Survivor” in certain angles—doesn’t overwhelm with his acting range, but he ably captures the feelings of being overwhelmed, frustrated, confused and determined.
“I am not a number, I am a free man,” Six says repeatedly.
The cast includes a couple of pretty actresses, Hayley Atwell and Ruth Wilson, who become romantic interests of Six, and Jamie Campbell Bower as Two’s rebellious son, 1112.
While the mind may go into overdrive during the six-hour ride to try and uncover what The Village is, why Six was taken there and whether he can escape, the heart is rarely stirred.
For all of its smoke and mirrors, “The Prisoner” can’t manufacture the emotional power of “Lost.” It also doesn’t have enough action or tension.
But that’s just one man’s thoughts. You may be more content. One of the best things about American television is that viewers are free to have their individual opinions and aren’t prisoners of collective thought.
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