The original (and better) ‘Prisoner’

With AMC’s miniseries remake of the seminal 1960s British television drama “The Prisoner” set to debut next week, the folks at A&E Home Video have decided to re-release the entire original series – which will be nearly impossible to top.

The premise is simple enough: A high-ranking British spy (Patrick MacGoohan) resigns from his post, but instead of being allowed to reenter society knowing all that he knows, he is abducted and made to live in the eerily picturesque Village, where names are replaced with numbers and there is no escape.

But “The Prisoner” is far from simple as the complex plot unfolds over the series.
The DVD set collects all 17 episodes of the original series with limited bonus features including trailers and an alternate version of the episode “The Chimes of Big Ben.”

While the bonus features might be slightly underwhelming, this set is definitely worth checking out to see the huge influence “The Prisoner” has exerted on modern film and TV. MacGoohan’s brainchild (he created, wrote, directed and starred in the series) is perhaps the finest moment in TV drama history, and it’s well worth it to catch up before AMC’s remake inevitably destroys it.