Rating: ***
Review Date: 8/10/24
Cast: Patrick McGoohan
Contains 17 episodes
A secret agent (Patrick McGoohan) storms into his boss's office and angrily resigns. He then hastily packs his bags for a vacation getaway, but is kidnapped and brought to a strange place before he can leave his apartment. He is now a prisoner in a quaint seaside resort called "The Village" and referred to only as "Number Six." The Village is a facility where people who know too much are sent for retirement so that they don't potentially fall into enemy hands. Or is it a facility designed to extract information from enemy agents? The question of "which side" The Village represents is never answered, and its enigmatic nature remains a mystery throughout the show.
Each episode revolves around a battle of wits between Number Six and Number Two, who is the constantly changing mayor of The Village. The premise is as brilliant as it is absurd. Number Two wants to know why Number Six resigned from his post, and Number Six refuses to answer. Drugs, torture, mind control, psychotherapy, aversion therapy, behavioral therapy, social conditioning, gaslighting, ostracization, and all manner of psychological manipulation are employed to break Number Six, but he never gives in. It's a battle of attrition, and even though Number Six rarely wins, it's clear that Number Two always loses. The show is a perfect example of "sticking it to The Man," which always ends in a stalemate. You can fight authority, but the best you can hope for is to simply survive.
Given its allegorical nature, there is little to no continuity and most episodes exist in their own unique version of The Village. Having a new Number Two in each episode is brilliant, which represents a new campaign against Number Six every week and helps keep the concept fresh and intriguing. It also reinforces the idea that failure is not tolerated, which makes the unseen Number One all the more menacing. The Village itself is also full of mysteries, and while it primarily serves as a retirement home for spies, it's also teeming with young people as well as children. The villagers themselves are a strange group. Everyone has a number, and it's not clear who are prisoners, who are warders, and who are just staff members who work there. The only thing the villagers have in common is that they're all brainwashed and follow authority without question. In one episode they completely disappear, as if it were part of a practical joke, while in another they sentence Number Six to death, and in another case they elect Number Six to become the new Number Two. In many ways, the villagers are as much an enemy as Number Two. They represent conformity, mob mentality, and the constraints that society places on the will of the individual. They're pleasant and docile most of the time, but are easily riled and always extremely vague and unhelpful.
It's a fascinating show, but also endlessly baffling and frustrating. While Patrick McGoohan claims the answers are all there, they're certainly not clear and everything is open to interpretation and debate. The final episode, "Fall Out," is infamously bizarre and left fans reeling in anger and bewilderment. What was it all about? Who is Number One? What is Number One? Why did Number Six resign, and more importantly, why does anyone care? Was it all just a psychedelic fever dream, or is The Village an allegorical prison that mirrors modern life? Perhaps The Village is McGoohan's own personal Wonderland; a fantastical place where he alone is sane in a sea of insanity. Or is he the one who's crazy? As best as I can tell, the show is a study of the never-ending battle between society and the individual, as well as the inevitable corruption of those in a position of power.
In general, the production values of the show are quite high, and McGoohan wisely insisted on shooting the show in color. Location shooting in the resort village of Portmeirion is beautiful, although most of the show was filmed in a studio. Not surprisingly, the difference in exterior sets versus location footage is glaringly obvious. It's also disappointing how much recycled footage and rear projection is used, and the continuity errors are distracting. Clocking in at 3.5 minutes, the show has the longest opening credits sequence I think I've ever seen, but hearing Number Six shout, "I am not a number. I am a free man!" never gets old. Originally conceived as a 7-part miniseries, the show was extended to 17 episodes in order to sell it overseas. As such, the concept wears itself out fairly quickly, and the show starts losing steam after the first dozen episodes. McGoohan was reportedly extremely difficult to work with and was under a lot of pressure as writer, director, producer, and star of the show. His temper, ego, and mental state resulted in several key people leaving the production halfway through the series, and the radical shift in tone and direction during the latter half of the series makes that apparent.
Not surprisingly, my introduction to "The Prisoner" came from listening to Iron Maiden back in the 80s. Since then, I'd always been curious about the show and its imagery, and finally took a chance on it when I happened to see a Blu-ray box set for sale at my local music store. While it was certainly a product of its time and touches on a lot of social issues that were prevalent in the 1960s, the strange and ambiguous nature of The Village gives the show a timeless appeal and its meaning is still being debated. It's a very cerebral show, and the questions that it raises are left for the viewer to sort out. As the show states, "Questions are a burden to others. Answers are a prison for oneself." (which also happens to be another Iron Maiden lyric) Or perhaps we're overthinking it. Perhaps the entire point of the show can be summarized in one of its most poignant scenes, which is a violent gunfight accompanied by The Beatles' "All You Need Is Love." As with the rest of the show, interpret that as you will.