NationStates Jolt Archive

Okay, so I just finished watching "The Prisoner" on BBC America. Tonight was the final episode, "Fall Out." Last week's offering, "Condition Absolute" was more than weird enough, but tonight ?????

I mean WTF. What the hell is that all about? Everyone, including the BBC, keeps on saying it's some kind of masterpiece, but really now. The series starts off OK - even interesting perhaps - then just becomes more and more camp and incomprehensible. But just when you think it is a totally crap sixties spy drama, then BANG, there comes these last two episodes. They are just bizzare and meaningless (at least as far as I can tell). They never explain anything at all. Not even in the slightest.

So answer me this. What the hell are these last two episodes about? What happens to number six? Do they mean anything at all? Who is number one? Or is it, as I suspect, a load of crap and no more than a clever con trick by Patrick McGoohan.

Anyway, explain yourselves for putting it on BBC America, which is bad enough at the best of times.

(to be fair Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders should be included because I hear they saw it too.)

Plus the names alone could be twisted for poltics explain that.

Yeah. Someone gotta lotta 'splaining to do.

So answer me this. What the hell are these last two episodes about?

They were written extremely quickly when it was announced that there would be no more programmes after them. IIRC McGoohan wrote the script for the last one in a weekend and structured it so that lots of props from previous episodes could be reused.

What happens to number six?

He escapes the confines of the village, and discovers who number one is (but he does not completely escape the system behind the village - witness the door closing automatically behind him when he returns to his home at the very end.)

Do they mean anything at all?

Debateable: but the Village was only ever a microcosm of the society outside it, and we see in the final episode that although it is possible to rise to power within it, it is impossible to conquer it.

Who is number one?

That all depends on whether you interprete the opening lines of most of the episodes as either:

Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.

or

Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are, Number Six.

The comma makes all the difference.


Or is it, as I suspect, a load of crap and no more than a clever con trick by Patrick McGoohan.

Given the constraints the final episode was produced within I consider it a remarkable peice of television. Yes, it is incredibly strange, and resolves little, but it does so in a magnificent and audacious fashion. somewhat like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it may be wrong, but it is definitively so.

They were written extremely quickly when it was announced that there would be no more programmes after them. IIRC McGoohan wrote the script for the last one in a weekend and structured it so that lots of props from previous episodes could be reused.



He escapes the confines of the village, and discovers who number one is (but he does not completely escape the system behind the village - witness the door closing automatically behind him when he returns to his home at the very end.)



Debateable: but the Village was only ever a microcosm of the society outside it, and we see in the final episode that although it is possible to rise to power within it, it is impossible to conquer it.



That all depends on whether you interprete the opening lines of most of the episodes as either:

Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are Number Six.

or

Number Six: Who is Number One?
Number Two: You are, Number Six.

The comma makes all the difference.




Given the constraints the final episode was produced within I consider it a remarkable peice of television. Yes, it is incredibly strange, and resolves little, but it does so in a magnificent and audacious fashion. somewhat like the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it may be wrong, but it is definitively so.


OKay so you actually know about this show. That's good. Am I right when I think number six pulls the monkey mask of number one's face and sees himself? It was kinda fast and blurry. And what's with the beatles and number 48 aka "young man", is that a reference to the youth counter culture of that time?

BTW, I loved Douglas Adams Hitch-Hikers. The books, the TV show and what I heard of the radio plays. But I never found them confusing at all. This, on the other hand, well........

*small voice* err I also kinda like Dr. Who..

bump escape

ah the prisoner, I have vistited the place where that was filmed alot, its called Portmeirion (http://www.virtualportmeirion.com/), great place. anyway I used to see the prisoner there from when I first went when I was younger, and I have never understood at all but the odd ending was due to the series being cut short as it was orginally going to be 24 episodes but they cut it down to 17.

I been there too! It was really nice weather when I went there. I was on holiday in Wales and it wasn't too far from where I was staying, a place called (I hope I spell this right) Aberystwyth.

Please don't blame all us Brits for the Prisoner, I've seen some episodes and not only is it incomprehensible, it's also strange and rather boring. I mean, giant white balloons following him around... what? Come on, this is the sort of stuff that gives Star Trek a bad name.

Mikorlias of Imardeavia

BTW, I loved Douglas Adams Hitch-Hikers. The books, the TV show and what I heard of the radio plays.Have you been listening to the new radio series? Twenty years late, with some of the original cast dead - but at last made and broadcast. Finished last week, so it won't be available on Listen Again on the Beeb's website - but it'll be on CD soon.

yea, don't blame the British for "The Prisoner" cuz they'll blame us for "The Matrix" Trilogy. :D

It's fantastically entertaining. It might try too hard sometimes, but the characters are all pretty interesting and it's likable enough.

Number 6 is tricked into thinking he's escaped, but really he's still trapped. Number 1 wasn't really number 1. That's just my opinion, anyway.

If you have to ask, it aint for you...

(old american who loved it the 1st time around)

I won't have this bashing of The Prisoner! Stop it, at once!
Portmeirion's cool, at least people are right about that. If this were an RP forum, I'd probably be telling you that the capital of the Pantisocratic Island Village of Beddgelert is in fact Portmeirion, but, uh, I shan't bother :)
I couldn't resist running across the sand. Nobody sent a balloon after me, though. I was sort of disappointed about that.

Portmeiron is mint. Haven't a clue about the topic, but the fact stands..

Why do we, the British, have to explain ourselves, if you do not understand the Prisoner?

For a start not all of the 60 Million population of Britain made it, and secondly, if you don't like it, why try to bring the British people to account for it?

Why do we, the British, have to explain ourselves, if you do not understand the Prisoner?

For a start not all of the 60 Million population of Britain made it, and secondly, if you don't like it, why try to bring the British people to account for it?

Because it was on BBC america, the US arm of your national broadcast service.

Anyway, I'm not "bringing" people to account. I'm looking for explainations. If I were bringing people to account the thread title would be. British People: I am bringing you to account.