Review of “The Prisoner” (2009)

* D

Back in the 70’s, Patrick McGoohan co-created and starred in the bizarre psychological spy drama The Prisoner. The show became a cult classic, and in 2009, AMC decided to remake it as a miniseries starring Jim “Reese” Caviezel as “6” opposite Ian “Gandalf” McKellen as “2”, with Ruth “Alice” Wilson as “313”, 6’s doctor and love interest. If the remake had ended as strongly as it began, I could at least have recommended it to fans of the original.

The remake manages to be even weirder than its source material. It holds promise, but the all important ending did not work for me. In the original series, when Number 6 finally escapes from the Village, he finds that he was in London the entire time. The remake has an equally surprising premise to reveal. Unfortunately, the one thing that is never explained is how people are brought to the Village, and leaving the mechanism unspecified felt like a huge cop out to me.

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