Comments on: The Prisoner – Free For All https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all Archive television thoughts Sun, 17 Jan 2021 04:34:27 +0000 hourly 1 By: Reggie https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-651 Sun, 17 Jan 2021 04:34:27 +0000 http://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-651 Having just seen the episode, I’ll take on the role of the sole naysayer(the Number 6, if you will!). I didn’t like it much at all. The satire was there, but all of it would’ve been far more biting if we’d been allowed to connect with Number 6 and feel the experience through his character as opposed to having him brainwashed throughout, not counting the odd moment where he tries to randomly flee on a boat. Instead, I spent the whole episode waiting to figure out what was up with him and what the point of brainwashing him to go through an election was to begin with. After all, he’d already made up his mind about participating and probably would have won and gotten to Number 2’s room if they hadn’t done that council baloney.

Shrug.

]]> By: H E Cooper https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-20 Sun, 08 Mar 2020 13:23:22 +0000 http://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-20 'Free For All' is among the most popular posts on this blog and I think it is one of the best episodes. Its satire is very accessible and interest tends to peak around elections. Alas, Anonymous, I am unlikely to have time to write anything more on The Prisoner any time soon. I really enjoyed doing these blogs at the time and deeply regret not making it through the whole series; if I were to revisit it again now, I think my interpretations would be rather different. One day…

]]> By: Anonymous https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-22 Sun, 08 Mar 2020 13:12:34 +0000 http://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-22 Good post but I was wondering if you could write a litte more on this topic?
I'd be very graterful if you could elaborate a little bit further.
Thank you!

]]> By: Anonymous https://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-104 Sat, 14 Mar 2015 08:33:11 +0000 http://visualmutterings.com/the-prisoner-free-for-all#comment-104 As a satire on elections and the press, I thought this episode was fantastic. I sometimes watch it around election time (along with the movies "The Candidate" and "The Manchurian Candidate") as a reminder to myself of the reality of what is going on. In this case, Number 6 is more like The Manchurian Candidate because he is drugged to fall into line and become a politician, although getting swept up in events is also seen here. I suspect there might also have been a bit of old-man-politician-poking in this episode, with that line about Number 6's good record "but he has no experience whatsoever of the manipulation of a community such as ours".

This episode, too, is wonderfully inside continuity for The Village. It mentions the fake alcohol again, we get a mention about how some of the people with numbers are actually warders and not prisoners, and so on. It really builds up the alternate-reality that is The Village.

Very good review.

Be seeing you.

]]>