If you've read the other reviews you know this is not a remake of the original TV series of The Prisoner. This is much smarter, more obscure, certainly more existential. Not so much about trying to escape from an externally imposed imprisonment as a study of reality and self-delusion. This is not a straight-forward linear plot, but one that challenges the viewer. It's a wonder that it ever got made for television.That's the substance of my views, but I'll add that the acting is stellar, the cinematography is haunting, and the crisp directing and editing demand that the viewer pay attention and make an effort to sort things out, which some viewers may resent.The wide range of viewer scores for this six-episode series produce an average score of 6.3 (in November 2015), which is meaningless. Those who liked this series loved it and those who didn't like it, for whatever reasons, hated it. There are not many opinions in between the best and the worst, so the average of 6.3 only indicates that slightly more people loved it than hated it.

It is difficult to remake a beloved drama. Either you make something very similar to the original, in which case people question the point of it, or you make something radically different, in which case people say, that's not what I loved in the original.I made it through about a half hour of The Prisoner, but I'm not sure if I would have given it more of a chance if I hadn't seen the original. This is very different from the original, which had a group of ex-spies being held prisoner in a quaint English village. It was small scale and increasingly surreal (I've heard that the two people in charge had two different goals; one wanted a spy miniseries, the other wanted a symbolic tale of the human condition). It constantly toyed with its protagonist and its audience, but while it had many mysteries, you usually knew what was going on from one moment to the next.In the remake, or at least the first 1/2 hour, you have no idea what's going on. The protagonists continually drifts into flashbacks and hallucinations, and the whole thing feels very disorienting and rather exhausting.**** SPOILERS BELOW ***** Because it is so disorienting and untethered to reality, it felt more like a dream than reality, I almost immediately thought that this whole thing is a dream, and after reading a plot synopsis on wikipedia, it turns out I was right. That's disappointing; it's more fun to persuade the audience something is real and then spring 'it's all a dream!' on them. **** SPOILERS END *******As a remake, the show compares poorly with the original, lacking its wit and style. But as its own thing, it feels too gimmicky and formless. While I can't say for sure whether I would have given this more of a chance had I never seen the 60s classic, my best guess is the chaotic feel would have driven me away in any case.

Let me start by saying that I am 56 years old, and most certainly 'old school' when it comes to watching and collecting TV and movie material:I generally prefer productions which use the real, (and rapidly vanishing), art of model making, design, backdrops etc rather than the constant wham, bang, thank you man, cheap CGI stuff of today; (which, despite it's popularity, has no weight when it comes to objects such as spacecraft, dinosaurs etc...CGI simply cannot convey a sense of weight and to my eyes, those generated images are not detectable by a sharp brain as being really present, not as with a model for instance, and thus a generated image is little more than a 'good' piece of animation)...and note I prefixed this paragraph with 'generally...as I loved the movie Avatar...so there are a few exceptions to my 'rule'. So yes, I'm biased...I admit it, and am usually in favour of the 'good old' days'..but not when it came to this TV mini series: I was REALLY surprised how good it was. Certainly, I began watching with more than a little trepidation, believing that surely, nothing could match, let alone surpass the original Prisoner series..but I was wrong; how gob-smacked was I to find nothing over-the-top, nothing flashy about this production at all...just pure class through and through. Words alone cannot describe the stunning performances by Ian McKellen, Jim Caviezel and Co, or the great and often surreal storyline, (which was equally as good as the original, if not better, there was even a nod to Patrick McGoohan in the opening section of the first episode with a look-alike being used. Worth mentioning also are the breathtaking desert location shots, plenty of vintage vehicles, a giant and more realistic CG Rover, (now there was a sensible and tasteful use of CGI), I mean, the list just goes on and on. For those stick-in-the-mud's I say this: did you honestly believe that the unbreakable No6 would be forever kept in the old Village? or did you get the sneaking suspicion that one day he might be moved on somewhere else, to another, different type of 'Village'? (one that uses more harsher techniques to extract the truth), of which there were bound to be quite a few dotted around the world, for purposes of intelligence-gathering/interrogation, (or now, extraordinary rendition/detention as the process might be called)...well this new setting is simply one of those "other" villages, and is located at Swakopmund, Namibia...just open your mind a bit for heaven's sake! use your imagination! participate in the story as when you read a book...(you do read books don't you?), things have moved on since the 70's...and I am quite willing to do so when it comes to something good like this. To summarise, I think this was a superb effort...a wonderful production and I now proudly own the boxed set, (which has some neat extras on it too), and have watched it several times, learning something new on each subsequent viewing. Like the original, The Prisoner 2009 was simply ahead of it's time, hard to understand for some perhaps, (but those people who didn't 'get it' first time around, should watch the series again), and it is sure to become just as much of a cult classic as its forerunner; speaking to others I get the sense that many people are coming around to accepting that The Prisoner has simply moved into a new millennium, and with some style!PS: Check out this viral marketing website made specially for The Prisoner 2009: The amount of work and attention to detail here is absolutely phenomenal; and if you didn't believe in conspiracy theories regarding our Big Brother society, and/or the NWO - The New World Order, before this, then you might start thinking harder after visiting http://www.summakor.com/ because already, since the making of that site, many of these things have already come to pass.

I came to this mini series without having seen more than a couple of episodes of the original series. If you're looking for an update of the original series, skip this mini series. That's not what it is and as you can see by the reviews, you'll only make yourself mad if you try to find it.As a free standing mini series, it's fantastic. An interesting idea well executed. Jim Caviezel does a good job of portraying the confusion and quest to rebuild his broken mind. Ian McKellan was a magnificent choice to play #2. He managed to play the terrifying totalitarian dictator and the benevolent father without any real change.If you like strange, cerebral science fiction, you'll enjoy this. If you're looking for a tale of cold war paranoia, this isn't your mini series.