The Prisoner

Today I finally got around to watching the first two episode of AMC's recent miniseries titled The Prisoner. It's apparently a remake of a series dating back to the 1960s with the same name. This new series however goes the typical route of a remake in casting supposedly serious actors such as James Caviezel (The Passion, Thin Red Line) and Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings) which turn out to be a good thing since the acting so far has been really rad. The production value of this series seem to be very high and I really like the setting in the desert with the Village looking just a bit too pleasant and familiar to actually be pleasant.

The plot so far has been intentionally confusing in that 6 (James Caviezel) wakes up in the desert where he sees an old man, 93, being shot at and chased. 6 helps the wounded old man to a cave where the old man tells him to "Go to 554." before dying. 6 buries the old man and wanders into the Village where he finds himself grilled over the location of the old man he encountered by the mysterious leader of the Village 2 (Ian McKellen). The rest of the first double episode is spent mainly on 6 trying to escape the Village and find his way back to what he considers the real world while being opposed by 2 who is trying to convince him that his ideas of escape and freedom are delusions of an ill mind.

While I'm not really hooked into this series after merely two episodes I do feel that there is a lot of potential here. The main appeal to me comes from the fact that I'm a huge Kafka fan and I really love sci-fi mystery shows like Lost. The Prisoner really feels like a combination of these two with some 1984 thrown in there for good measure, which results in a cocktail that consists of three things that I appreciate. The most specific thing the show reminds me of is The Castle by Franz Kafka but reversed with the main character trying to get out. I'm not fully hooked yet but I do feel an incentive to continue watching and that's always a good sign.