Ruminations of an Old Goat

Another week has passed and I have finally started watching The Prisoner. I've only managed to watch the first two episodes but can already see many differences between the original and the new version. Bear in mind that it's been over 20 years since I watched the original series, so please forgive me if my memory is faulty. Call me on it, but also forgive me.

The new version takes itself far more seriously than the original did. The original had a sense of fun about it that is entirely missing from this new version. I believe a lot of that stems from the very different approaches taken by Number 6 in the two versions. In the original, with some obvious exceptions, Number 6 plays by the rules of the Village. Essentially, he studies what Number 2 is trying to do and then beats Number 2 at his own game. This always led to Number 2 being replaced after each episode, yielding the recurring line "I am the new Number 2." By the end of the episode, Number 6 would have gotten the better of Number 2, paving the way for yet another new Number 2.

Alas, it appears you don't hire Ian McKellan to be only the first of several men to play Number 2. Instead of Number 6 maintaining his sense of self as we had in the original, we've got Number 6 showing signs of doubt and confusion. Yes, he's trying to figure out what's going on, but he's going about it in the tried and true manner of an action hero. This Number 6 reacts to Number 2 rather than making Number 2 react to him. He sneaks around asking questions on the sly, regularly slips off to areas that are supposed to be off limits and has flashbacks from his last night in New York.

And we all know flashbacks are just what we need to complete the story, right? After all, it works well on Lost (which it does), so it ought to work just great on The Prisoner, too? Through the flashbacks, we discover that Number 6 worked for some mysterious corporation as an analyst. Of course. This is the 21st century. We're beyond secret agents, right? Government is our friend and, as Ian McKellan has so recently told us in interviews, capitalism and corporations are enemies of the people. Or perhaps he was just feeding the publicity machine for The Prisoner, though I rather doubt it. Anyway, we slowly build up a back story for what Number 6 was doing prior to coming to the Village. I assume we'll learn more as the story progresses, until we know the full story. Yet we managed to enjoy all 17 of the original series without learning anything more about Number 6's background than what was shown in the title sequence at the beginning of each episode. If a bit of mystery was perfectly acceptable to TV audiences in the late 1960s, why is it assumed the supposedly more sophisticated 21st century TV audiences will be unable to handle it?

The new version has something else that the original didn't have; fear. Everyone in the Village fears Number 2, who is rarely seen without some big, beefy bodyguards close by. We've also got some other Hollywood staples -- explosions, guns and even a hand grenade that Number 2 seems to enjoy playing with every now and then. I don't recall ever seeing weapons in the original series. There were no bodyguards for Number 2 nor did anything blow up. The only "weapon" was Rover, the strange bouncing ball that kept anyone from going beyond the boundaries of the Village. Rover, at least, is still around in the new series. But the modern Rover doesn't just subdue people, it also kills them.

There was no attempt made in the original series to deny the existence of anything outside of the Village. The subject may not have come up very often, but there was no attempt to convince Number 6 that the Village was all that existed in the known world. Further more, there was a distinct feeling in the original that everyone except Number 6 was "in" on the plan. Anyone who confided in Number 6 would, in the end, turn out to have been acting on behalf of that episode's Number 2. In the new version, you get the idea that most of the people in the Village have played the same part Number 6 is playing. Their sense of reality is warped and they question what they think is real. It's almost as if the Village is a miniature version of North Korea or something. Paranoia is found everywhere, even among those who are supposedly part of the "staff" of the Village. This modern version of the Village, after watching two episodes, seems quite unlike the original Village.

There's one other thing I feel I have to mention. Perhaps future episodes will explain how this was done, but the current version of the Village has also had something flat out impossible happen. Number 6, along with two other people, went out of the village, which is in a desert, and found their way to the ocean. They actually get their feet wet, so it wasn't just an illusion or mirage. Later in the same episode, Number 6 leads the woman doctor out to show her what he's found. When he gets to the top of the dune which previously overlooked the ocean, all we see is more desert. In the original, nothing this impossible ever happened. I hope I'll receive a satisfactory explanation for the disappearing ocean in a later episode. But even if I do, that scene yanked me right out of the show by the sheer impossibility of it all.

Lest you think I hate the new version, let me say that's not the case. I won't really be able to judge the series until I finish watching it all, but I am both intrigued about where they're going and concerned about what I'll find when we get there. I find myself wishing the producers, directors and writers had brought more than the basic idea of the original series into the new series. And I wonder what Patrick McGoohan would have thought of the remake had he lived to see it aired. Maybe I'll have a guess once I finish watching the series.

In the meantime, be seeing you.

Monday morning follow up:

Well, I watched the third episode last night after writing this column. I still won't say I hate the new version. At least, not yet. But if things don't improve dramatically in the second half of the series, I probably will end up hating it. The third episode spent almost as much time showing with the points of view of other characters as it did showing Number 6's point of view. The original series stayed with Number 6's point of view through out, helping to build the character's sense of isolation. The approach the new series is taking does the exact opposite, as the person who seems most isolated is Number 2. That's a complete perversion of McGoohan's original vision for The Prisoner.