Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Prisoner of Leonids

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Did anybody else get up at three a. m. to look at the Leonids today? Marianne and I drove out to Valley Forge for the occasion. This was not an affectation . . . it's simply the closest place to Philadelphia where the light pollution is low enough to have a hope of being able to see anything. We didn't see a lot of falling stars, but it was worth it just for the experience of being there.

Which is way more than I can say for the remake of The Prisoner. I'd been wondering why they decided to revive this ultimately-flawed classic of the Cold War era today. Then, seeing it, I was baffled as to why, with such a crisp original to use as a model, they'd made such a limp, plodding, lifeless bowl of oatmeal out of it. (*)

My theory after dozing through either two or eighteen episodes -- I'm not quite sure which -- is that the producers wanted to make the next Lost and, having an option on the old Patrick McGoohan miniseries, decided to use it as a platform.

It makes as much sense as anything in the show is ever likely to.

(*) Ian McKellan gets a free pass from my criticism, though; he's magnificent.

*

2 comments:

TN-Tanuki said...

Happy Birthday, man!! And many more--by which I mean stories as well as years!

All the best,
Bill

mcp said...

One thing we realized is that deer are very loud eaters. It was distinctly ... odd ... to be standing in darkness, staring into the sky, while creatures chew noisily all around.

Marianne