Well I haven't seen the original and have next to no idea what's going on, but that was an extremely interesting two hours of television. The big white ball was pretty damn cool.
My only complaint: the way they quick cut to a different camera angle every 3 seconds. I'm sure it's supposed to add to the confusion, but it gave me a grapeache.
I'll wait for it to come out on DVD.
Because I don't have AMC.
Quote from: R-V on November 15, 2009, 09:09:18 PM
Well I haven't seen the original
Well, you don't have much of an excuse, since AMC is also streaming the originals (http://"http://www.amctv.com/originals/the-prisoner-1960s-series/"). I'd suggest a "McGoohan+1" truncated order:
Arrival > Dance of the Dead > Free for All > Checkmate > Many Happy Returns > The Chimes of Big Ben > Once upon a Time > Fall Out.
Having just finished watching the first four episodes, I'm more impressed than the lukewarm reviews that I've seen had led me to expect. I almost wonder whether it's attempting some sort of Markstein-McGoohan synthesis--the "crazed pantomime" of the "non-conclusion" is dolloped out regularly (along with seeming nods to THX 1138, Brideshead Revisited, Brazil, and Exorcist III, offhand), but episode 4 particularly seems to want to veer toward the cheapest "we are all prisoners" plonk.
Really, I wish the thing had been constructed around Lennie James as Number 6 rather than as taxi guy, but I'm sure this would have badly inconvenienced someone, somewhere. Whether the next two hours end up more "that's a mess" or "but I put it there" may come down to the ability of Matthew Fox Lance Kerwin James Caviezel to portray cleverness.
Quote from: Wheezer on November 17, 2009, 08:47:14 AM
Having just finished watching the first four episodes, I'm more impressed than the lukewarm reviews that I've seen had led me to expect. I almost wonder whether it's attempting some sort of Markstein-McGoohan synthesis--the "crazed pantomime" of the "non-conclusion" is dolloped out regularly (along with seeming nods to THX 1138, Brideshead Revisited, Brazil, and Exorcist III, offhand), but episode 4 particularly seems to want to veer toward the cheapest "we are all prisoners" plonk.
Really, I wish the thing had been constructed around Lennie James as Number 6 rather than as taxi guy, but I'm sure this would have badly inconvenienced someone, somewhere. Whether the next two hours end up more "that's a mess" or "but I put it there" may come down to the ability of Matthew Fox Lance Kerwin James Caviezel to portray cleverness.
Try to gay fuck this up all you want Wheezer, but I enjoyed the first 2 hours of it. I'm saving the final 4 for tomorrow, but it's a good show. I also liked The Truman Show.
In one of his best roles, "Atlantic City", an aging Burt Lancaster says to Susan Sarandon, "You should have seen the Atlantic Ocean back then. Boy, that was some ocean." If you start me talking about the original "Prisoner" as compared to this new one I am going to sound like Burt. (Maybe even a little like Ernie, too)
Why doesn't anyone in the Village seem to notice that their relatively small town (I don't recall hearing any numbers above 5,000) is able to manufacture such a diverse amount of goods (automobiles, televisions, refrigerators, street lights, public address systems, etc)? As there's no outside world, that means the Village also has the capability and manpower to extract and refine the raw materials needed to produce said goods (steel, oil, coal, glass production, etc).
I've only seen the first two episodes, so maybe this is addressed further in or even during the original run, but it seems like a pretty sizable plot hole.
Quote from: ChuckD on November 17, 2009, 01:56:59 PM
Why doesn't anyone in the Village seem to notice that their relatively small town (I don't recall hearing any numbers above 5,000) is able to manufacture such a diverse amount of goods (automobiles, televisions, refrigerators, street lights, public address systems, etc)? As there's no outside world, that means the Village also has the capability and manpower to extract and refine the raw materials needed to produce said goods (steel, oil, coal, glass production, etc).
I've only seen the first two episodes, so maybe this is addressed further in or even during the original run, but it seems like a pretty sizable plot hole.
Any time you notice something like that, a wizard did it.
Quote from: Kermit, B. on November 17, 2009, 02:21:50 PM
Quote from: ChuckD on November 17, 2009, 01:56:59 PM
Why doesn't anyone in the Village seem to notice that their relatively small town (I don't recall hearing any numbers above 5,000) is able to manufacture such a diverse amount of goods (automobiles, televisions, refrigerators, street lights, public address systems, etc)? As there's no outside world, that means the Village also has the capability and manpower to extract and refine the raw materials needed to produce said goods (steel, oil, coal, glass production, etc).
I've only seen the first two episodes, so maybe this is addressed further in or even during the original run, but it seems like a pretty sizable plot hole.
Any time you notice something like that, a wizard did it.
Fear not, MikeC! I think I found where all those stimulus dollars went.
Quote from: Richard Chuggar on November 17, 2009, 09:07:28 AM
Try to gay fuck this up all you want Wheezer
You're not going need the likes of me for the rest. Spoiler alert: It's voodoo!
Forty years down the line, and the upshot is Swedenborgianism with Calvinist frosting? WHERE'S THE FUCKING COMET?
[Edit.--I did forget to mention my appreciation of the overalls-painting nod to "Godspell."]