The New Prisoner

 

I have a deep love for the original BBC series (or mini-series since they only made 18 episodes)of 'The Prisoner' starring Patrick McGoohan. Shown on the CBC after Coronation Street and before Space 1999, it was the first thing I really got into that wasn't easy for me to digest. I understood the basic concepts (like a person wanting/needing to be free) but missed most of the subtle ways these little reality plays were commentaries on life in during the Cold War and the counterculture society that accompanied it.

The story has a pretty simple set-up. A man who may have been a spy resigns his post one day and wakes the next day to find himself in a mysterious 'Village'. He no longer has a name but is given a number to identify himself - Number Six. The inhabitants of this village also have numbers to identify them. They believe that there is nothing outside the village and that it is perfectly normal for them to live as they do. If they ever had lives previously to their arrival, they are no longer remembered. The problem arises because Number Six DOES remember his past and this puts him at odds with the inhabitants and those who run the village from a large control room. Number Six proclaims that he is NOT a number. He is free man and spends the rest of the series trying to escape the Village and understand why he was targeted in the first place and by whom.

Number Six is constantly at odds with a rotating cast of characters that call themselves 'Number 2" and they continually ask for 'information' - supposedly the secrets that are still rattling around in Number 2's head. This leads us to believe that the Village is a sophisticated solution to the problem of dealing with those involved in espionage that are not longer useful to their government.

Those in charge try everything they can to get that vital information from Number Six. Using sophisticated mind breaking techniques they try to turn Number Six into a compliant follower but he is too smart and too stubborn to be anything other than the free man he is. The two concepts of individualism vs collectivism are the base that the whole story rests on. The comparisons between the democracy of the West and the totalitarianism of the Soviets are easy to see here.

The new series that started tonight stars James Caviezel as Number Six and Sir Ian McKellen as Number Two. The cat and mouse games are still the same.

The new Prisoner is the mind trip that it needed to be. Over the six hour running time, I was never quite sure what was going on. I felt the confusion Six (James Caviezel) felt when he fell through the rabbit hole and arrived in the desert outside of what is known as the 'Village'. We know that the Village is a prison but not one in the conventional sense. There are no fences or bars but there are jailers (including that white bouncy ball called Rover). Like in the original story lots of effort has gone into creating a compliant society where everyone is content. The inhabitants accept the fact that ONLY the 'Village' exists and that they do not have names but numbers to identify them to one another. Its supposed to be a perfect Utopian community. We know, however, that no system is perfect. It requires constant attention to fine tune the brains of the people living there so that they do accept the programming. The challenge of creating this 'perfect' society falls to the man in charge - Number Two (Sir Ian McKellen). Children are taught in the Village school that there is no Number One. That ranking would elevate Number Two to a top position and thus place him above all others in the social hierarchy. To do this would defeat the purpose. Everyone is equal to everyone else in this society. This too is an illusion. Number Two lives a more opulent lifestyle than the others and clearly he is the man in charge. To threaten his goals can easily lead to your death.

Why was the village set up in the first place? How were it's inhabitants chosen? If people like our hero - Number Six - were so dangerous back in the 'real world' then why were they allowed to live in the first place? It seems like a complicated and unsure way of silencing troublemakers. A bullet to the head would be much more effective and cheaper. People are unpredictable and stubborn. We have a unique hatred of captivity and would do anything to be free of that captivity even if it means our death. Everything about this 'prison' is designed to break down individuality and replace it with the more socialist ideal of 'from each according to his gifts and to each according to his needs'. If that sounds like socialist philosophy it's no accident.

The dance between Number Six and Number Two is fascinating to watch. They both challenge each other to at least consider the other's point of view. For this reason I know that Six is no ordinary prisoner of the Village. He is both hated and loved by Number Two who lavishes attention on Six when he simply could have made Six disappear after Six starts disrupting the Village with his radical ways. Is Six delusional and only imagining this 'other life' he speaks of? Why is Number 2 so bent on destroying Six's mind? Is he picking his successor or punishing Six for 'crimes' committed in the real world? Who are 'the Dreamers'? You can see this mini-series gives you alot to think about.

I believe the confusion is intentional so that we, like Six, discover the 'truths' at the same time. Having only seen the first four hours I have a feeling several 'WTF' moments are ahead of me when I watch the final two hours tonight. Or at least I hope so. With such careful attention to language where each phrase spoken by the characters has a variety of meanings I can't believe the revelations will be a letdown. It will be interesting to watch this again when I have seen how it ends. Seeing how the puzzle pieces are added right from the beginning and then assembled is the best way to enjoy this miniseries.