I've just finished watching The Prisoner and, before anyone starts asking awkward questions, I've never actually seen the original series.
My knowledge of the classic version was limited to this:
A bloke is trapped in a village.
If he tries to escape, giant white balls chase him.
I'm not making that up.
Those are literally the two things I knew about The Prisoner.
Despite my complete lack of knowledge, I was hooked almost immediately. Within the first ten minutes I knew I was in.
In fact, I have a little test for TV shows. If I'm constantly checking IMDb to see what else the actors have been in, it's usually a sign that I'm enjoying myself.
I spent a lot of this series on IMDb.
Without giving too much away, The Prisoner is weird.
Very weird.
It's trippy, confusing and occasionally feels like somebody dropped an episode of Lost into a blender and added a dash of existential crisis for good measure.
But that's also what makes it interesting.
The mystery kept me watching, and even when I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, I still wanted to know what happened next. It's one of those shows where every answer seems to generate three new questions.
Some people will probably love that.
Some people will want to throw their television out of the window.
I fell somewhere in the middle.
The best thing about the series is that it only runs for six episodes. It's just enough time to tell its story without outstaying its welcome.
Although I do have one question.
Six episodes?
For an American series?
What's that all about?
That's barely enough episodes to introduce the cast, kill off a few characters and have somebody wake up to discover it was all a dream.
