CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

GeorgeSickler This was a fantastic summer replacement when I saw it as a kid in Dallas, back in the days when many normally scheduled shows took a break to give actors and crew a time off.Until the final episode. We thought it would all tie the loose ends together and finally figure out what it was all about. Instead, the final episode was so bizarre, off topic, off story line, non-senseical, defies common sense - you name it - that the viewers felt that they were grossly cheated.I understand that the viewers in the UK were so outraged, disappointed and disgusted, there were huge protests against the studio, writers, producers, actors, etc. Some allegedly went into hiding for awhile until things simmered down. Anyway, still a fun and highly creative short series. Especially, all these decades later, to see the final episode.

baldrickadder First review for me today, I've been reading reviews for a little while, so much so that, I;ve been more entertained reading them and missing all the good programmes I could be watching.Anyway regarding The Prisoner and the theories of what it may mean. I feel it could be any number of things and that's the beauty of using your mind. Like life, there's not just black and white, one person's reality of something will always differ from somebodies else's reality, but see the same thing.Personally I think it is just a sixties trip and better if you are chilled out, so to speak.

A_Different_Drummer I can't believe I just started a review with an excuse, with an apology, but that is the only way to explain this series. It was the 60s.(A smart reviewer would end the review after that simple 3-word sentence, but I can't, IMDb has minimums, and you don't mess with their rules.) The spy thing had more or less peaked by 67, but McGoohan's street cred was still amazingly high. Of all the spy guys, he was the only one that had insisted (Danger Man) that violence be kept to a minimum and guile to a maximum; he was the only one to have achieved such a strong international demand that a UK production actually was being repackaged (with a new name and theme song) for American audiences (Avengers notwithstanding, save that for another review!); and he even snagged a middling role in an international movie entirely on the basis of his spy "persona" -- ICE STATION ZEBRA. Well, against this backdrop of success (and, I repeat, IT WAS THE 60s!) Patrick pulled a "Tom Cruise" and put together his own production, based on on his own idea, and starring (surprise!) himself. It was quite successful. Never mind that no one completely understood whether the story was to be taken literally or allegorically - the last episode ended with the head of the village revealed to be a simian! -- and never mind that it was PAINFULLY obvious from day #1 that he was never going to escape (otherwise, what is the point?), the series snagged both a mainstream AND a cult following (wow) and remains both popular and enigmatic to this day. Now, if you have read my other reviews, you know that this is the point in the review where I usually explain why a series like this was so oddly successful, in spite of the terminal gloominess, the repetitive plot arcs, and the fact that even McGoohan's charisma has its limits...? Three 3 word answer? It was the 60s.

kwoods-5 Last night, I finished watching The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan's gloriously trippy series, in glorious Blu-Ray. I have a very dim memory of watching it as a child during its initial American run on CBS in the summer of 1968. I'm not even sure whether I saw the whole series, but I remember liking what I saw. In any case, I wouldn't have been able to appreciate it then as I can now.I find it amazing that such a bizarre show was actually made, and I find it even more amazing that it was picked up for American TV. I guess the CBS execs thought it would be successful, based on McGoohan's previous show, Secret Agent (called Danger Man in the UK). They clearly had no idea what they were actually going to get. It has to be the strangest show ever broadcast on a major US network. I can't think of anything else that even comes close.The show simply would not have worked with anyone but McGoohan playing the lead. His sheer intensity and forceful personality make you buy into the whole concept and make you feel his anger and frustration at being trapped in an insane situation. From the commentaries and the making-of documentary, McGoohan was clearly difficult to work with, but he was a tremendous talent, not only playing the lead but writing and directing some episodes as well.I was surprised to find that the show is largely episodic rather than serial. Other than the first episode and the last two episodes, it doesn't make much difference what order you watch them in. Any way you watch it, it's unlike anything else I've ever seen. Some old shows seem very dated, but The Prisoner seems more relevant to society now than it did during its initial run. The show had much to do with the Cold War, but the idea of being under constant surveillance is more of a problem now than it was in the Sixties.The final episode of the series is easily the most insane hour of TV I've ever seen. Nothing compares to it. Apparently, viewers were angered by the "ending" (as with the recent Lost finale), but The Prisoner ends on a far more ambiguous note than Lost did. I love the ending, but I can understand how it baffled and angered many people. The beauty of British shows is that they don't run forever (as American shows often do), so they can end the show at just the right point, instead of beating a dead horse. The Prisoner was only seventeen episodes, and it went out in a blaze of WTF???. It's a classic.