Art imitating art
The story behind the more recent series mirrors the classic ever so slightly. Number Six is a man that resigns his position at an agency that is ultra top secret. Not liking that he has resigned, and quite frankly thinking he knows too much, the agency delivers him to a place called ‘The Village’. Everyone in the new place is happy-go-lucky and has no idea that there is anything outside of ‘The Village’. Regretfully for number six, he has memories of his former life and desperately tries to find a way out from the village. Convinced of a conspiracy, he begins to piece together memories and begins to gather a group of individuals together that will eventually help find a way out of the place.
What I really liked about this show is that the stories were almost individualized. You get some different aspects and you get some different takes on minor characters. For example, there’s an episode where the taxi driver number 147 (Lennie James) and his wife lose their child to a strange hole that appears in their backyard. It’s emotionally charged and it says a lot about their characters and how much their daughter means to them. It also says quite a bit about what type of character 147 is as a father and human being. What’s even more important about this episode is that it silently sets up future episodes that revolve around the hole in the ground and what it means for the residents of ‘The Village’. Each episode focuses in on particular characters and relationships, which makes them individualized (the episodes). You’ll find this throughout the entire series and it’s impressively consistent in terms of importance.
Good aside, there were some questionable motives about the remake.
There is certainly nothing wrong with recreating an already classic show, it’s not right to change directions with it. The more recent series from AMC changes up the game just slightly. While both the 1967 version of the show and the 2009 play heavily on the psychological aspects of the main character, number six (played now by James Caviezel — you would know him as Jesus in The Passion of the Christ), there is a particular point in the show where the story breaks off from the original and starts taking a shape of its own. I don’t want to get into it much, but the move is bold and the payoff isn’t quite as satisfying. Some things, when doing a remake, simply don’t need a conclusion. While the creators of the show certainly felt otherwise, the ‘climax’ of the story simply doesn’t do the original any justice. In fact, the original show’s ending is far more exciting, which says quite a bit about how important character and story development can be.
Caviezel and McKellen’s performances in this show are fantastic, for the most part. You understand through the eyes of Caviezel how important it is to get out of ‘The Village’ and expose McKellen’s wicked ways. McKellen plays a fantastic villain. He knows how to shake the cage of his protagonist and quickly find a way out. The problem is that the show really takes both performances and stretches them out as far as they could possibly be stretched. So by the end of the entire show you’re exhausted for feeling sorry for number six and you’re annoyed by the endless evil ways that number two can show. At the end of the day you’ve got a strong show that dies out about three-fourths through and never recovers. As a viewer you’re not waiting for that ‘one definitive’ moment; you’re simply waiting for the sucker to wrap-up.
Shifting gears just slightly, the features on the DVD set are actually very interesting. Here’s what you’re looking at:
– Unaired scenes
– Commentary (two episodes)
– Beautiful Prison: The World of the Prisoner
– A 6-Hour Film Show in 92 Days: The Diary of the Prisoner
– The Prisoner Comic-Con Panel
– The Man Behind “2”
I think the features actually help the overall story along pretty well. The diary of The Prisoner featurette was very interesting. It’s remarkable what they could get done in a short amount of time. The unaired scenes were certainly worthy of not making it to the final print. The commentaries were good, but I wish they had been on all the episodes.
Overall, these are solid features packed in with an almost great show.
