The Prisoner

The Prisoner:
Can 17 episodes make a series? Strange question, and I can’t place the original source of my fascination, although, possibly, it was something to do with the Lotus 7 in the opening sequence.

The Prisoner

With the inter webs, the confluence entertainment channels, old TV like The Prisoner can be resurrected and dissected, over and over. I’m not sure of all the locations, but I grabbed in Crackle. Free, on Apple TV.

The opening sequence is buried in my memory, over and over. That was more like a film opening, and in the middle of the first episode, the character, #6, rattles off his birthday, and the time of birth. Suspiciously, it turns out to be the actor’s real DOB, as well. For the sake of interpretation, though, I used London, as it was the character’s birth chart.

The question about the series, was it serious, satire, or some ironic combination? I recall a reboot version, not much to see. Another item from that original, the logo, a Penny-Farthing, with canopy. The name with a slightly askew typeface.

More questions, like the conundrum, the prisoner’s dilemma.

The other problem? Is it supposed to be psychological in nature?

The Prisoner (Original) – The Prisoner (Original)

The show’s “styling,” for lack of better descriptive term, is thoroughly Mid-Century Modern, cobbled together with definite Science Fiction overlay. Accurately presages the current state of our surveillance state.

From a cooly detached point of view, this is how the future looked from the middle of the 1960s….

“I am not a number; I am a free man!”

Odd trivia, filmed on the same set as Kubrick’s 2001.

#prisoner