The Prisoner - IS Nothing Sacred???

[kopite]

Well Just sat through the American remake of the prisoner and am in complete disbelief.

I loved the Original Prisoner and watched them again this year on blu-ray.

Firstly has America really run so low on ideas that they are now remaking obscure uk shows from the 60`s?

Sir Ian Mckellan as number 2 was quite a good casting choice but Part of the original was that number 2 was different in pretty much every episode. By giving him a family and a sick wife it would be hard to carry over the same mechanic.

Also the original village was similar in style to the timeframe number 6 was from. This time they have modern time outside the village but A 60`s mess of uk and us styles mixed up.

what does everyone else think?

[sammyc]

I meant to see this just to give it a chance but didn't get to it this evening. Definitely have my doubts over this, & not only because of the usual suspicion of remakes. The Prisoner was so 'of the 60s' that it warrants being left alone, preserved in its own time - even if a remake proved to be good in its own right, why not just make something new.
I did think they should have re-run the lot last year after Patrick McGoohan's death tbh, would have been about time.

[Jay]

I will never even think about watching a remake of The Prisoner, never mind a US remake!

[MSIC]

I would like to watch a Prisoner remake, although I fear that this may be poor.
For me, it was never going to be about sets, or even to some extend that characters involved - my most overriding memory of watching the 60's prisoner for the first time was a deep sense of anger and injustice at a cruel depersonalised world - I think there is surely still a very strong place in modern society for such a message?

[cptwhite_uk]

I got bored about 40 minutes in. I think the problem with setting it in the "real world" would be the guy would pull out his smart phone. Find his location on GPS, go "look we're here mate". Go to street view and show everyone New York, use 3G and his Spyke app to ring his mum and ask what's for dinner. Game over.

With modern tech you can't isolate yourself as easily as you could in the 60s. I think that's the main reason it's set in the past - the premise just isn't workable in the modern age.

In any case, I found the remake boring, implausible (in a way that the original could get away with), badly acted and the story just completely pointless.

I agree with MSIC that it could have been made relevant, unfortunately I didn't think this was it.

[Saracen]

I will never even think about watching a remake of The Prisoner, never mind a US remake!

I sympathise and could quite easily say the same. However, I recorded it and will watch it (or try to), I'll give it a chance. It might surprise me.

But for it to be worth watching, for me at least, it doesn't want to be a cheesy attempt at a remake. It needs to be a new vision of the idea, not a fourth rate pastiche.

I loved the series when it was first on. It had something, and I'm still not quite sure what it was. Maybe merely that you never were quite sure precisely what the agenda was. Maybe that it never was fully spelt out. It certainly was a classic, an icon even. And any form of remake or re-interpretation has one hell of a mountain to climb, no least that they're messing with a sacred cow.

I'll give it a chance .... but not much of one.

[TheAnimus]

What channel is/was this on?

[sammyc]

http://www.itv.com/Drama/cult/ThePrisoner/

[switchmode]

I got bored about 40 minutes in. I think the problem with setting it in the "real world" would be the guy would pull out his smart phone. Find his location on GPS, go "look we're here mate". Go to street view and show everyone New York, use 3G and his Spyke app to ring his mum and ask what's for dinner. Game over.

With modern tech you can't isolate yourself as easily as you could in the 60s. I think that's the main reason it's set in the past - the premise just isn't workable in the modern age.

In any case, I found the remake boring, implausible (in a way that the original could get away with), badly acted and the story just completely pointless.

I agree with MSIC that it could have been made relevant, unfortunately I didn't think this was it.

I have not watched but the digital life could all be "Faked / spook/ed" by the little men, so nothing digital is real. repeat nothing is real...

[Brucelles]

The reviews I cared about were all negative, and let's face it, even the original now looks kind of naive, so I couldn't be arsed. When I was much younger I went on a pilgrimage to Port Meirion, because I loved the show so much. The last thing I would want to do is urinate all over the memory by watching an American remake.

[kopite]

Well i`ve just watched the series finale.

If they would have done it as a completely separate program with no links to the original prisoner it might have been ok but as a remake/reimagining it was awful.

[yamangman]

It was at its best in 2.4 children. And that was rubbish .

[acetoo]

It is so rare that a remake of anything matches it's original.

So much money and time is spent getting the rights, that becomes the only hook on which to grab the audience.

I'm struggling to think of a remake that's better then the original?

[cptwhite_uk]

acetoo - Battlestar Galactica

[acetoo]

Okay, I'll give you that one. Although I have great fondness for the original battlestar.

Although it was a shock when I saw Starbuck... I wonder how many people have never seen the original?

[kopite]

In the case of the prisoner I know my missus never saw it. My parents have vague memories of it and the majority of my friends didnt even know of its existence.