I've long been dreading the new 'Prisoner', not only because of my love for the original but also for the alarmingly number of bad remakes we have unfortunately endured in recent years.
'Arrival' opens with the Prisoner ( Jim Caviezel ) waking up in the desert, suffering from amnesia. He sees an old man ( John Whiteley ) chased by guards, and goes to help. The man - 93 - tells him to find 554. The Prisoner encounters a place called The Village, where everyone seems happy although no-one knows why. No-one has names either, only numbers are used. The Prisoner's is '6'. He keeps having flashbacks to an earlier life, when he resigned angrily from his job. Other Villagers also dream about their pasts. 554 ( Jessica Haines ) turns out to be a waitress, and she pays a terrible price for helping 6...
I liked this more than expected. They were right to just use the basic idea and not slavishly copy the original. The Village as seen here put me in mind of Jean-Luc Godard's 'Alphaville', a community that looks normal but is not. Ian McKellen's '2' is as silkily smooth as any of his 1960's counterparts. As '6', Caviezel is less impressive, coming across as far too bland. Maybe he will grow on me. The references to the original series were nice. 93's house was almost a replica of Number 6's in the original, and the appearance of the Rover balloon at the end startlingly welcome.
The earlier series was tied into the Cold War, so we knew exactly from the start what the Village was for - to intern potentially dangerous ex-agents. But the reason for the existence of the new Village is not yet clear. Maybe its some madman's idea of Utopia. Or, like the death trap-infested prison in the 'Cube' movies, it does not need a purpose, its just there.
So a grudging thumbs-up from me for the first episode. Wish they'd retained Ron Grainer's theme though.
'Arrival' opens with the Prisoner ( Jim Caviezel ) waking up in the desert, suffering from amnesia. He sees an old man ( John Whiteley ) chased by guards, and goes to help. The man - 93 - tells him to find 554. The Prisoner encounters a place called The Village, where everyone seems happy although no-one knows why. No-one has names either, only numbers are used. The Prisoner's is '6'. He keeps having flashbacks to an earlier life, when he resigned angrily from his job. Other Villagers also dream about their pasts. 554 ( Jessica Haines ) turns out to be a waitress, and she pays a terrible price for helping 6...
I liked this more than expected. They were right to just use the basic idea and not slavishly copy the original. The Village as seen here put me in mind of Jean-Luc Godard's 'Alphaville', a community that looks normal but is not. Ian McKellen's '2' is as silkily smooth as any of his 1960's counterparts. As '6', Caviezel is less impressive, coming across as far too bland. Maybe he will grow on me. The references to the original series were nice. 93's house was almost a replica of Number 6's in the original, and the appearance of the Rover balloon at the end startlingly welcome.
The earlier series was tied into the Cold War, so we knew exactly from the start what the Village was for - to intern potentially dangerous ex-agents. But the reason for the existence of the new Village is not yet clear. Maybe its some madman's idea of Utopia. Or, like the death trap-infested prison in the 'Cube' movies, it does not need a purpose, its just there.
So a grudging thumbs-up from me for the first episode. Wish they'd retained Ron Grainer's theme though.
