Free At Last

[bryant]

If we lived in the future, AMC would put every episode of The Prisoner up for free viewing. There, isn’t that nice? I strongly recommend this if you’ve never seen it; it’s a perfect marriage of surrealism, British spy drama, and anti-authoritarianism.

Originally published at Imaginary Vestibule.

Comments

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

woo! I remember taping the damn things off the Chanel 68 broadcasts, way back when. Bookmarked, thanks!

[alex-victory.livejournal.com]

SWEET BABY JESUS THAT'S AWESOME.

[wemble.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Wow, who knew that pulsing white weather balloons were so evil!

Seriously, though, thanks for pointing this out. I've wanted to see the series for a long time - I remember one of my friends long ago in high school ranting about it, but at the time there was no way to see it.

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Okay, I finally finished watching all the episodes today. I was somewhat comforted to see that, as with any television series, episodes were hit an miss. By that I mean that I can't get worked up about it being canceled after one season and only having those episodes to watch. If every single episode had been brilliantly crafted, that'd be another story. Some were incredible (Hammer into Anvil), others were 'meh' (Free For All), and a few were just confusing (even given the punchlines at the end), but I can definitely see why it gained the following it did and how it has influenced sci-fi, in general, and folks like J.J. Abrams and Ronald Moore specifically. I'm glad I finally got to see them.

[bryant]

Yeah -- it's, hm. We're missing what might have been a lot less now than we would have been at the time, if that makes sense. :)

[death-by-monkey.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree completely. Which brings up an interesting thought - part of what makes it easier is knowing the doors that it opened up in the sci-fi/spy genres. It makes me wonder if 35 years from now we'll be seeing vague references to Firefly in sci-fi TV shows and movies. Although I imagine we'd be seeing that much sooner. I mean, we couldn't have Fringe now if it hadn't been for X-Files 15 years ago.