The Prisoner
Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy • 2009 • 1h 0m
Arrival
6 wakes in the desert, where he sees an old man, 93, and several pursuers shooting at him. 93 is dragged into a cave by 6, where 93 tells 6 to 'go to 554' before dying. 6 buries 93 and wanders into the Village, where he meets 2 and is grilled about 93's location. He finds a confidant in 554, who is killed on 2's orders.
Harmony
6 struggles to find allies to escape from the Village. 2 introduces 6 to his brother's family to convince him he belongs. As 6 begins to doubt himself, his brother admits to the façade and the pair make a failed attempt at escape. His brother drowns in the attempt—as 6's had many years ago—following an encounter with Rover, but 6 finds renewed faith. Meanwhile, 2 and 11–12 discuss the latter's apparent lack of childhood memories.
Anvil
2 offers 6 the opportunity to become an undercover agent, spying on suspected dreamers. 6 accepts with ulterior motives. He works with 909, who is spying on him. 6 follows 909 into the Go Inside bar, where he finds him meeting with his secret lover, 11–12. Rather than allowing the relationship to be discovered, 11–12 kills 909. 6 blackmails 11–12 to help him rescue 313, who has been captured and sent to the clinic.
Darling
The Village Matchmaking Service targets 6, pairing him with a woman, 4–15. 6 recalls 4–15 from a brief encounter with his previous life, shortly before he was taken to the Village. 4–15, however, pretends that she does not remember 6. They become lovers and plan to marry until 313 intervenes. 4–15 reveals to 6 that she is indeed Lucy, the woman Michael knew in New York; 2 has brought her to the Village to break his heart and spirit. 4–15 apparently dies by jumping into a mysterious, bottomless pit; in a concurrent flashback to New York, Lucy is apparently killed by an explosion in Michael's apartment.
Schizoid
2 has embodied 6's animal desires in an identical double named 'Two Times Six'. 6 must find a way to reconcile himself with his desires or risk being manipulated by 2. Meanwhile, 11–12 confronts his mother, 313 sees more visions of her past, and 2 relaxes for a day as 'UnTwo'. In New York, Michael returns to Summakor to find answers. 11-12's mother reveals that bottomless holes appear when she is awake.
Checkmate
6 encounters new arrivals, which contradicts claims that no world exists. 2 shows off new houses, indicating the Village's expansion. This is later revealed to be to increased pressure on 6 to replace 2 to stop the holes from destroying the Village. 6 confronts 2 about the newcomers, but soon forgets as 2 reveals he has afflicted 6 with a disease that will kill him. 6 confronts 11–12 when he meets him at l 909's grave and again at Go Inside.
Cast
Reviews
## **The Prisoner (2009) Review: A Pointless, Soulless Imitation** To call this 2009 miniseries a remake of Patrick McGoohan's legendary 1967 masterpiece is an insult. It is not a reimagining; it is a defacement. Where the original was a brilliant, surreal, and fiercely individualistic critique of Cold War paranoia and societal control, this version is a tepid, confused, and utterly boring soap opera that completely misses the point. ### A Hollow Village, a Hollow Plot The core premise remains: a man, known only as Six (Jim Caviezel), wakes up in a bizarre, isolated community called The Village with no memory of how he got there, searching for a way to escape the clutches of a manipulative authority figure, Two (Ian McKellen). And that is where all similarities end. The original's enigmatic, psychological terror is replaced with a plodding, nonsensical mystery box that fails to deliver a single satisfying payoff. The profound philosophical questions—"Who is Number One?" and "Who is the prisoner, who is the jailer?"—are reduced to a literal, laughably simplistic family drama. The revelation of the Village's purpose and its connection to our world is not mind-expanding; it's a contrived and underwhelming mess that feels like the writers wrote themselves into a corner. ### A Catatonic Hero and a Wasted Villain Jim Caviezel's performance as Six is tragically miscast. He spends the entire miniseries with a single expression of constipated bewilderment, devoid of the fiery rebellion, cunning, and raw charisma that defined McGoohan's Number Six. His struggle feels passive, not revolutionary. The one glimmer of potential, Ian McKellen, is shackled to a woefully misguided script. His Number Two is given a mundane, domestic backstory that drains all menace and mystery from the character. Instead of a chilling, ever-changing adversary representing a faceless system, we get a grumpy suburban dad with administrative duties. It is a catastrophic miscalculation that neuters the central conflict. ### The Ultimate Sin: It's Boring The original *The Prisoner* was challenging, bizarre, and often infuriating, but it was never, ever boring. It was a televisual hand-grenade. This 2009 version is a sedative. The pacing is glacial, the "twists" are predictable or nonsensical, and the final "revelation" is an insult to the audience's intelligence and a spit in the face of the source material. ### The Verdict **2 out of 10 - An Abomination** This series earns a single point for its handsome cinematography and another for Ian McKellen's valiant, but doomed, effort to inject gravitas into the drivel he was given. **Watch this if:** You need a cure for insomnia and have no knowledge of the 1967 series. **For everyone else:** Do not waste a single minute of your life on this travesty. The only acceptable way to experience *The Prisoner* is to watch the original, a show that was, and remains, lightyears ahead of this pointless, soulless imitation. This isn't just a bad remake; it's proof that some classics are utterly untouchable.
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