Hammy acting and a flimsy script ruin what should have been an interesting look at how we perceive reality and our ability to control or change our lives, society etc. Nice try, but done better before and after this show. Worth a watch, especially if you are interested in the 'baby boomer' genre. A strange cross between Get Smart, James Bond, In Like Flint and Dark Star. Probably a template for the Truman Show, which has a very similar premise. Rover, the murderous bubble, is my favorite character and a main character at that. If you are looking for the meaning of life, the universe and everything- look elsewhere. All episodes are available on you tube.

In ARRIVAL, the initial episode of THE PRISONER (Patrick McGoohan's brilliant teleseries), our hero learns when he hands in his resignation that there's no such thing in his profession (he's apparently a secret agent). He's gassed unconscious and later wakes to find himself a prisoner in The Village, an idyllic NINETEEN EIGHTY-FOUResque little hamlet. When he walks into a small shop looking for a map, the proprietor peers at him through fingers that form a "lens" and says, "Be seeing you." The implication is clear: The Prisoner is under constant surveillance. His designation turns out to be "Number Six." He meets Number Two, who informs him that (like the members of the current U.$. $urveillance $tate), "One likes to know Everything." Six explodes: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered! My life is my own!" To which Two calmly responds, "Is it?" During a tour of The Village, Six sees another man trying to escape; the man is chased (and eventually overpowered) by a large white balloon ("Rover," the surreal guard dog of The Village- and one of the greatest Fantasy constructs ever conceived). When a new Number Two arrives, Six tells him: "I'm on OUR side." Two refers to Six AS "Six." "I am not a number," he counters: "I am a person." "Six of one, half a dozen of another," the New Two grins. THE PRISONER remains one of the high water marks in televised Science Fiction/Fantasy. If only one in a hundred were THIS good...

The Prisoner was never intended to be a permanent TV series. The original plan was for something like six episodes, but it was extended mid-stream. No TV executive cancel led it; it was Patrick McGoohan's baby, and his decision. At least that's what I've read. Makes sense. Do you real think you could get seven seasons out of this theme, and maintain the quality? No. 6 joins a bridge club, No. 6 gets a dog, No. 6 gets married, No. 6 has grandchildren ....The series was so eerie because there was an element of truth to it, perhaps more than we knew at the time. With the trials of high level British officials for spying in the 1960s, the question "Whose side are you on?" was very real. There may have been an actual "village" for spies, of some sort, and the fellow sitting at the desk in the credits when McGoohan turns in his resignation may have been the connection. There certainly were "villages" for training spies.It should be noted that the Danger Man series pre-dates the James Bond franchise, and, along with Secret Agent, suggests some inside knowledge of the spy game. And then there's Ice Station Zebra in 1968. Ummm, wasn't this stuff supposed to be secret? How did McGoohan and company know? There really were American spy satellites sending back canisters of film, beginning in 1960. Of course, the Russians must have known, so it was only secret to the American people, I guess. Watch Nova: Sputnik Declassified, the documentary about America's Project Corona, the real basis of Ice Station Zebra. The Prisoner is the heir to George Orwell's distopian Nineteen Eight- Four. To watch this today, after the end of the Cold War, it might seem quaint. But then consider China, their long history of brainwashing, and their modern pattern of arresting political prisoners, who are then released as meek and apologetic as lambs. I'll bet you could get arrested for bringing DVDs of The Prisoner in to China. Patrick McGoohan was an extraordinary actor. He was able to project immense intelligence without hardly doing anything. And what makes The Prisoner so fascinating is his ability to convey a sense of his steely strong willpower, his ability to maintain his sense of self despite everything they could throw at him. The Prisoner is British television at its best, and, in my opinion, the finest television series ever created.

This series stands as a landmark contribution to television, to western culture, to man's affection for freedom, and to the ideological battle between individualism and collectivism. I was a grade school kid when the show came out in the late 60's; I was already a Star Trek fan (talk about doomed show choices of that era) and was attracted to the sci-fi / mystery aspects of the show on CBS. I never got to watch much because my parents owned the set; I was lucky if I got to see Star Trek on a regular basis. The images and icons of the show stayed in my mind; the tailored striping on the suits, the cloistered village, the menacing Rover, the high-tech surveillance center. I got a chance to see a few episodes of the show on PBS in the 1970's, however in an unsatisfactory presentation. It was a series called "The Prisoner Puzzle." A psychiatrist would comment on feelings of isolation and separation from society, then the Prisoner episode would be presented as an example of Number 6 yet again failing to fit in and deal with his social obligations. I suspected that was a topsy turvy way to use the show, but i did get to see the final three episodes of the series in this setting and wanted to see it all. THANK YOU AMC-TV for presenting the entire series on-line. I just watched all the episodes in order and I feel like a long-misadjusted part of my being has been properly aligned at last. What an experience. I know fans separate out "good" episodes and "bad" episodes (certainly we Star Trek TOS fans do it) but for me it was ALL GOOD. And all too brief. Thank you AMC, thank you everyone living and dead who made it happen.