The Prisoner tv show (old)

Cool - I had forgotten that

 

One of the coolest shows ever !

 

And by the way, notice that it's the American SOMETHING NEW in the jukebox!

Harry

 

Dhani Harrison raved about the show during his Studio Sessions appearance and explained that his band name, The Newnumber2. was copped from it.

 

I can just see Number 2 grooving to that Leslie Gore EP.

 

Heck, Johnny Rivers told us that almost 50 years ago: "Secret agent man/They've given you a number, and taken away your name."

Bumped because I'm binge-watching the show right now (the 2009 DVDs, borrowed from an acquaintance) and had forgotten just how odd the whole series was, not just "Fall Out".

 

This was one of those shows that roped you in, but slowly...you either got it or you didn't. CBS re-aired the series in the early 1990's as part of their "Crimetime After Primetime" block (now occupied by "Letterman").

 

Built around the enigmatic McGoohan

 

A genuinely strange show for it's time.

 

The Prisoner is now streaming for free on Sony's new video on demand service CRACKLE. I watched the opening episode the other day. Great!

 

Got the old DVD box, yet to bd upgrade.

 

"You won't get it."

 

Got the Bd of the new series, snooze fest.

 

By hook or by crook, we will.

 

The Blu-ray of THE PRISONER put out by Network in the US is without a doubt one of the finest examples of how Blu-ray is superior to DVD. The amazing work that was done to restore these films for Blu-ray is beyond exemplary. I'd say the old line, "it looks like it was filmed yesterday", but it's better than that. By the time we get to see stuff filmed yesterday, it looks all pale, or washed in some unearthly color, and features the inevitable shaky-cam. THE PRISONER, by contrast, looks like a brilliant old Kodachrome slide.

Seek out the Blu-ray, if you can find it, or at least watch a streaming Hi-def presentation.

Harry

 

Agree Harry, the Blu ray is absolutely stunning. I was introduced to this series by my wife via an old DVD set she owns. The BR upgrade is phenomenal.

 

You know, I just checked out the Crackle stream and found it lacking in two areas. First, while it seems to be the remastered versions, the Blu-ray player wasn't getting the stream in HD. It looked soft and mushy. Just to check it out, I put a movie on Crackle and it worked its way to HD before the opening credits were through. THE PRISONER never got there, remaining soft. I checked two episodes.

The other problem on Crackle is that the episodes are sped up. I don't know if its an artifact of being British, or a broadcast syndication speed-up, but episodes were timing out at 48 minutes. I know that they lasted more than 50 originally.

Harry

 

The DVD is mediocre, and the blu ray is almost reference quality, by far one of the biggest upgrades I have ever seen.

Considering it was a normal TV show from 50 years, ago, it may rank as one of the best transfers of a vintage show ever.

 

It had some interesting visuals, some really cool ideas, but overall, just lacking in excitement and fun or spirit or something.

It was depressing a lot of the time, and a bit mysterious other times, and a bit confusing and dreary.

Glad I watched it, (( I'd rate it 5 out of 10 maybe...)) and glad they did not do a carbon copy re-do of the old show, but it was just to dreamy and not sensible at times.

 

Its even worse, I realised I said DVD when it should have been VHS No wonder the BR looks so good!

 

Glad I scored the Blu-Ray when I did. Now to just find time to watch it!

 

I need to watch it again in the preferred order as found on The Prisoner fan site. It supposedly has better continuity.

Scroll down this page for a suggestion.

http://prisoner.gigacorp.net/beginner.html

Here is another one:

http://www.reocities.com/doniacorp/prisoner/prisonerpage.html

 

Has anyone here watched all of the 2009 mini-series? Watched maybe the first 2 parts, but the conceit of the original show was ruined by the choice of showing you his reasons for quitting. To me that undid all the tension and mystery of the original and tuning out seemed the best option.

There sure are a lot of tunes inspired by the show...


More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prisoner_in_other_media#Related_music

 

Absolutely incredible show. I remember seeing just a bit of it as a kid, about the time it came out, and being in awe at its weirdness, and beauty. You never knew just who was going to be the character to turn on him, or when. And that evil giant bubble-gum bubble was fantastic. What a beautifully strange concept. By the time I ever saw the entire series, and the final show, with 'All you need is love' at the end, I was a huge Beatles fan, and was amazed the song got used. Also was blown away when I spotted the American album cover on the jute box, especially as it is one of my favorite Americanized lp's. For me it is one of the most perfect tv series ever. PM was the epitome of secret agent men. Well, he and Patrick McNee. Gotta love them British Patrick's.

 

I watched it all, but have forgotten a lot of it, and never had the desire to watch it again. I did enjoy some parts. McKellen did as good a job as he could with the material.

For some reason, I most remember a bizarre subplot about the Prisoner's friends' child falling into a bottomless pit in their yard.