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As you can see by the picture I'm talking about the 2009 mini-series, not the original ground-breaking tv series starring Patrick McGoohan. The mini-series is a new telling of the story about a man abducted and taken to a place where people are numbered, not named. Let me state for the record that I'm not principally opposed to remakes. Yet even the presence of top rate actors like Ian McKellen and Jim Caviezel can't save this catastrophe.
There are many changes from the original, certainly made with good intentions, because the writers didn't want to be accused of just copying the original, but in my opinion the changes are all detrimental. Let's just name a few:
1. The Village is situated in the middle of a desert, not on an island.
2. The Village is much bigger, more like a small town, with thousands of citizens.
3. In the original series lower numbers meant a higher rank, but in the new series Number 6 isn't given any special respect due to his number.
4. The new series concentrates too much on Number 6's history before coming to the Village.
5. In the new series there are groups of dissidents, but in the original series it was Number 6 vs the world. Much more Kafka-esque!
6. In the original Number 2 was exchanged in almost every episode, but in the new series it's the same character.
Even if you're a die-hard Prisoner fan, I can't recommend strongly enough that you give this mini-series a miss. It's a waste of time watching it. Don't say I didn't warn you. The original series is a masterpiece so if you haven't seen it yet, give it a try. It was recently released on Blu-ray. I haven't seen the remastered version yet, but I've read a lot of praise about the new image quality.
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Good information on the remake. I hadn't had a chance to watch it yet. The original was classic - the dearth of information was so tantalizing and a critical drive in continuing to watch the series to see if more would be revealed. It is one series where, for me, the final episode did not disappoint, tho really it did not provide any clarity or closure.
ReplyDeleteA small point of trivia: the series might have lasted longer if Patrick McGoohan had been more disciplined. He used to write the scripts at the last minute. He says that sometimes he was still writing on the bus when he was travelling to the studio to film an episode.
ReplyDeleteAnother point of trivia: when James Bond was to be filmed, Patrick McGoohan was offered the role. Sean Connery was the second choice after he turned it down. When Sean quit Patrick was offered the role again. And he turned it down again. Supposedly the reason was his relatively prudish nature. He didn't want to play Bond because of his immoral womanizing lifestyle.
Very interesting trivia! McGoohan would have made a great spy, even a great traditional Bond, but kudos to him for sticking to his principles. Given at the time the franchise was such that they weren't going to reinvent Bond, he would have had no voice in how Bond was represented.
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