THE (ALMOST) UNDELETED

Anyone remember The Prisoner? Here is a blog about the remaking of this series.

sigh:((

You know, as much as I liked that show, I think it is incredibly dated and culturally its just a tad too far out there for me to understand completely. I welcome a remake, but I will be watching closely to make sure that they take no shortcuts or otherwise screw up.

My mom wouldn't let me watch it when I was a kid. Which of course made me want to all the more.

They were showing it on one of my satellite channels over here a while back but I didn't get to catch many of the episodes.

Always LOVED the ball thingy. (Bouncy bouncy AAAAAAGH! )

What was it called?

The Blob.

While it may be dated on one regard it isn't in others and I just don't know if they can capture the paranoia.

Rob

It will be hard to capture the paranoia without all the drug culture stuff that was prevalent in that era.

Here is some more about this. Still going to watch it.

Omphalos wrote:The Blob.

Rover.

I don't like this trend of remaking cold war paranoia stories, and recasting terrorists as the heavies. It just isn't analagous enough to make any sense. Cf. the remake of 'The Manchurian Candidate'.

Ragabash wrote:

Omphalos wrote:The Blob.

Rover.

I don't like this trend of remaking cold war paranoia stories, and recasting terrorists as the heavies. It just isn't analagous enough to make any sense. Cf. the remake of 'The Manchurian Candidate'.

D'oh! Rover.

The Prisoner was much more that an "us v. them" though. It was more about "us v. us," which in my mind gives it an element that all those other cruddy remakes don't have, especialy coming off of the Bush years.

I don't think I ever saw the show but I remember the Iron Maiden song.

Freakzilla wrote:I don't think I ever saw the show but I remember the Iron Maiden song.

Ok, I have got to find a smiley throwing the horns. My perfect reply is now RUINED.

Here is the new trailer for this show. Looks like they have added some terrorism motifs (Klashnikof rattling in the background, exploding buildings, Middle East), have boosted the techno-spy stuff, downplayed Rover (Boo!), and have made the Village into a cult of personality centered around McKellan. I wonder how much a copy of Lost this will be? Ill probably still watch it.

Jesus' and Magneto's show will air for three nights starting 11/15. Ill give this a shot.

I was going to post about this some where, never got around to it.

IFC showed the first three original 67 episodes last friday,
showed three more this friday, apparently are going to air
the entire series before AMC launches the new show.

now, last week, the boys played an away game, almost
150 miles away, and I couldn't see going that far to see
them just get beat down (which they were, & badly), &
this week was was a bye, so I actually stayed home to
watch this.

I didn't see all the originals the first time around, was trying
to recall when they were shown in America, on what network,
etc. - I don't think it was on until the fall of 69; maybe google
can deliver the answer....

anyway, I kept thinking several things:

1) wow. this sucks. really, really stupid.
2) wow. how high were we in Austin in the late 60s ?
3) wow. this is worse that the original Star Trek.

then, in the last episode (#6, I guess) I remembered - it was just
the costumes - when everybody showed up in the tuxedos, top hats
and black sun glasses, I remember that one.

for some reason tho, I really thought this thing had been in black & white.
(again, how high were we ?) (and also only half-hour episodes ....)

the premise is/was okay, I guess, and for the time period, I guess this
was pretty damn cool - now, it just looks silly (like Star Trek).

home games the next two fridays, tho, so I can not watch the rest of it ...

I really liked the original when I was young. My dad showed it to me when it re-aired on PBS some years ago. I just got the remastered discs a few months ago (in preparation for this, actually) and couldn't finish them.

I've been watching them online and if you can get past the 60's-cheese they are pretty good.

The premise of the new series looks waaaay off, it makes it seem like No.6 starts working for the organization and tries to rebel but gets pulled back in. As much as I love Ian McKellen why would they cast only one No.2?

From what I recall of from the ads I saw, it looks like they are going to make the Village some sort of cult of personality. They are going to shy away from the big evil government ideas and focus instead on one indiviudal's abuse of power. If Im right about that then having one number 2 makes sense. I think this thing will be pretty different than the old series.

And just what's wrong with 60s cheese?

Some fine things came out of the 60s.... (ahem)

not everything from the 60"s is cheese. I simply meant that some of the tv shows use some rather silly yet still creative methods in their cinematography.

No. No, no, no. Everything from the 60's = cheeze, with a "z." No exceptions.

It ain't eazy being cheezy.

I recently finished watching the original series, for the first time ever. Very very strange show. Some parts of it were brilliant, others confusing, others downright silly. What kept me watching was Number 6's constant and unrelenting refusal to cooperate with his captors -- you have to admire that. But I agree that it's incredibly dated, and I'll be interested to see how this remake turns out.

Cheezes, Mary & Joseph you're a buzz-kill sometimes, L-K!

It really cheezes me off when you speak to my other members like that.

SandChigger wrote:Cheezes, Mary & Joseph you're a buzz-kill sometimes, L-K!

Yeah I know.

But what part of my post above prompted your observation, I'm curious?

It was nothing to do with the content, not to worry! Just that you went back on topic (not a bad thing, ever!) when everyone else was being cheezy/silly.

SandChigger wrote:Just that you went back on topic (not a bad thing, ever!) when everyone else was being cheezy/silly.

Isn't that the normal state of affairs here?

Liege-Killer wrote:

SandChigger wrote:Just that you went back on topic (not a bad thing, ever!) when everyone else was being cheezy/silly.

Isn't that the normal state of affairs here?

Jacurutu, too.

Back on topic...

Comcast has all the original episodes of The Prisoner on demand right now.

Freakzilla wrote:Back on topic...

Comcast has all the original episodes of The Prisoner on demand right now.

That's how I watched them. I wish they'd put more older shows on there like that.

Did anyone watch this?

I only got through the first hour and quit. It bored me to tears. McKellan and Caviezal can both be fine actors in certain roles, but in this case they did nothing for me at all. And the feel of the thing was the same as the original show; there wasn't anything refreshing, no new angle to it that got my interest. Did it get any better after the first hour?

I tried to tune in only to learn that.....my wife nuked AMC from our cable package! Oh well. Sounds like I didn't miss much.

I think AMC's marketing was partly to blame for my feelings about the show. I had an extremely lazy day Sunday -- it was a crappy cold rainy day, couldn't do anything outside, didn't feel like reading at all, didn't feel like going online. So I just parked on the couch and watched tv all day. Which ended up being mainly the entire Matrix trilogy being played on AMC. And EVERY SINGLE commercial break ALL DAY LONG included spots for The Prisoner. Not to mention those little pop-up ads at the bottom of the screen during the movies. After hearing about the "movie event of the year" for about the hundredth time, the idea of even watching the thing was getting tiresome. But, I did watch the first hour, and even then the annoying behavior didn't let up. During the commercial breaks, there were little recaps and quizzes about what had just been shown. "Did you notice what happened in this scene? In 30 seconds we'll tell you more about it!" After the first hour of this, I was so weary of all the hype, I just gave up. Way to go, AMC.

I think they surreal'd this series to death. I watched the first 2 hours, but I doubt i'll watch anymore. I think they spent way way way too much time beating us with the "It isn't real, maybe?" stick.

The new V series at least maintains some air of "we might be doing something different" until you realize they are saying "look at what we stole from BSG". It's still watchable. The Prisoner of AMC was just too WTF-ish that its not worth following.

Ampoliros wrote:The Prisoner of AMC was just too WTF-ish that its not worth following.

Well said, you captured it exactly.