Thursday, August 17, 2006

In the Village

We never had re-runs of The Prisoner when I was growing up, so I've never seen an episode of it. What I know about it is two things: a) all my friends who've seen it, love it and b) it was cancelled before it ever revealed what the heck was going on. I'm afraid that b) has always overshadowed a) and kept me from being too interested.

But now, Christopher Nolan (Memento, Batman Begins, The Prestige) is reportedly very close to signing a deal with Universal to direct a movie version. I may never know (or care) what it was like to watch the original series, but I'm always up for a Nolan film so this is close enough.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Kinski says...

...whatever friends you've been talking to have been misleading you a bit. Not only was the Prisoner not cancelled, the network asked McGoohan to expand beyond his conception of a smaller (like 7 episode or so) series into a more full season's worth.

As for revealing what was going on ... well, let's just say it is more deliberately obtuse than incidentlly obtuse ... and leave it at that... Ha!!!

Michael May said...

So, by the end of it, were your questions answered? I guess I don't care if everything was clearly spelled out or not, but did you have enough information to be satisfied that whatever theory you came up with to explain it was a good one?

Anonymous said...

Kinski thinks ....

I think, on one level, it's the only ending that seems possible after the road #6 has traveled to get to that point. It's not the easy answer (and it uses a little too much Beatles music for my liking), but I was satisfied with it. It was too obtuse for Chris though ... she likes the surreal wierdness of the earlier episodes better than the more stark absurdism of the last few. They're kinda like Beckett or Ionescu done in the style of Man from UNCLE. Are you satisfied that you are still waiting for Godard? Or that no one cares they've turned into Rhinoceri? Or have I said too much? Ha!

Popular scuttlebut (which I don't know whether is true or no) is that the ending caused mini-riots in England ... and caused McGoohan to not come back to the country for several years. Quien sabe??

Michael May said...

See? That doesn't sound like something that I'm going to think has a "satisfying" conclusion.

I don't know though. Maybe if I went into it expecting to be dissatisfied with the end, I might be able to think more analytically about it and appreciate it more.

I'm still inclined to wait until after the Nolan movie before I give it a shot though.

Anonymous said...

Rent it already mike, I grew up watching it on PBS all the time. It was one of the few shows my dad and I would watch together. Then right after I got to watch The Sandbaggers (Best spy series ever)

Michael May said...

I haven't heard of The Sandbaggers. I'll have to check that one out too.

Anonymous said...

from the early 80's and on DVD and well worth it! Stars Roy Marsden who most people know from the PD James mysteries that were on TV.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sandbaggers

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