The Prisoner
It (almost) always begins with this:
Prisoner: Where am I?
Number Two: In the village.
Prisoner: What do you want?
Two: Information.
Prisoner: Whose side are you on?
Two: That would be telling…. We want information…information…information!
Prisoner: You won’t get it!
Two: By hook or by crook, we will.
Prisoner: Who are you?
Two: The new Number Two.
Prisoner: Who is Number One?
Two: You are Number Six.
Prisoner: I am not a number; I am a free man!
Two: [Sinister laughing]
The Prisoner, a television series created by Patrick McGoohan (1928 – 2009), is my favorite piece of visual media. Ever. It has had a profound impact on my life and much of how I live my life is based on what I have learned from this show. It is a 17-episode television series that aired between September 1967 and February 1968. It covers themes of liberty, identity, perseverance, the progress of man, man’s inhumanity to his fellow men, politics, war, philosophy, and more. It also features the Lotus Super Seven car in the beginning of nearly every episode, which is a major bonus.
The show is many things to many people. It certainly has a cult following that exists to this day, which includes an international fan club called Six of One that meets every year in Wales at the original filming location. It certainly is not entertainment… unlike McGoohan’s previous television series, Secret Agent Man (yes, the one with the famous theme song). It certainly is difficult to understand at times. McGoohan had to go into hiding because the series did not resolve many of the mysteries it introduced to the viewer, which is another reason why I think the show and McGoohan are so cool.
Where Am I?
A man known only as Number Six is kidnapped from his London apartment and brought to a mysterious island on which every person is identified with a number. Number Six becomes a “prisoner” on this island village and, while not confined by shackles or chains, he is not allowed to leave the island, nor is he afforded any personal privacy. There are cameras everywhere on the island watching its inhabitants, most of whom are seemingly not even aware that they are also prisoners in this police state.
McGoohan had a prophetic vision of the evolution of government coupled with man’s technological advances and its invasion into our daily lives. He used the penny farthing bicycle to represent this notion of “progress” wherein man had taken a perfectly good invention and made it ridiculous. Throughout the show, computers are made to look ridiculous and incapable of doing anything meaningful, used merely as invasive tools of voyeurism.
What do you want?
The people who run the village already know everything about Number Six’s life except for why he resigned from his position as a special intelligence agent for the British government. They are afraid of Number Six defecting and/or selling national secrets to another government or intelligence group. The people behind the village stop at nothing to get this information, including physical, emotional, and psychological torture/experiments on him. It is Number Six’s perseverance and commitment to personal liberty that give him the resolve to endure everything done to him.
McGoohan frequently demonstrates that raw data about a person only has so much value. A man’s intent, patterns of thought, spiritual and personal essence cannot be captured in data or quantified. We may each have an identification number and the “powers that be” may know nearly everything about us, but we are each unique and individual persons. Information allows a man (or machine) to make an educated guess or assumption about a person, but leaves out the critically important fact that people are emotional and capable of change, variability in behavior, etc.
Whose side are you on?
While living in the village, Number Six rarely meets an individual who decries the injustice of having his/her life stolen. McGoohan appears to do this for several reasons. In the episode “Free For All,” Number Six takes to a megaphone and yells at the villagers:
Unlike me, many of you have accepted the situation of your imprisonment and will die here like rotten cabbages.
When he tells them, “I am not a number, I am a person,” the listening villagers are silent and burst into laughter. Yet, in the episode “A Change Of Mind,” Number Six is deemed “unmutual” by his fellow villagers. Number Six becomes lonely and forlorn, which leads him to change his behavior to become socially acceptable once again. These examples raise the questions: Does McGoohan see most people as sheep living mindless lives or are they collectively more intelligent than Number Six gives credit? Is Number Six an extremist generally not worth paying attention to? Is his fellow man generally aware of his own imprisonment and accepts it for what it is?
You won’t get it!
I don’t want to spoil one of the greatest endings of a television series, but I will say that Number One is technically revealed at the end, but it’s nothing that’s easily understood or even acceptable. Certain other things are revealed to the viewer at the end of the show, but unsatisfactorily in most cases. The show closes in much the same way as it opens: with a lot of questions. And this is part of what I love about it.
The Prisoner is an exploration in human psychology and so many other things. It’s hard to define and it’s accomplished something that will never again be accomplished. For decades, it was the most expensive television show ever produced and yet it left viewers incredibly upset! I cannot imagine something happening like that again, although I have heard that Lost left viewers with a fairly open-ended ending.
All this to say: you probably won’t get it. And when you think you get it, you realize that there’s yet even more to “get” just a few weeks later. I call it “the gift that keeps on giving.” It has literally been food for thought in my life for 20 years and I don’t expect myself to ever stop thinking about it.
Who are you?
That’s a great question and one that a true Prisoner fan will continue to ask himself. It’s a question a true fan will ask of others as well. The show teaches the valuable lesson of looking inward and outward to understand the context of daily life, people’s expectations, yada yada.
The issue of identity is such a critical one in my life. Alongside my personal religious identity, which is the most critical aspect of my life, I have an identity that comes with a set of expectations, goals, behaviors, tendencies, and ideas. My identity allows me to identify the inputs and outputs of my life. It also determines which battles I choose to fight and which ones I choose to let slip by. Make no mistake, there is no shortage of battles in everyday life. Where there’s a goal, expectation, or idea, there is a battle to be encountered. Life stands in the way of our plans, but it is up to us to persevere.
Number Six does not compromise his identity once. Once of the most famous quotes from this show is:
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is my own.
Nothing will stand in his way of achieving freedom, even if it’s an impossibly lofty thing to successfully achieve.
Who is Number One?
That would be telling.
But, I would like to take a bit to discuss the value of the individual in the context of this show. The individual is the penultimate archetype in this series. This has never been more true than it is today, although (as the show demonstrates) the true individual can often be detrimental to himself. To be an individual is something to be sought in a tempered fashion. The individual ultimately needs no companion or relationships, but this is contrary to human nature. I needn’t spend the time defending that statement.
We live in a society where most people shop at the same stores, watch the same movies, listen to the same music, etc. We need individuals to remind us that there’s something worth aspiring to. The individual is counter-cultural and mankind needs individuals to shape the unknown. The individual should also be consistent in thought, word, and action. I have no idea where I’m going with this so I’ll stop while I’m ahead…
I will leave you with the fact that McGoohan often said that mankind’s worst enemy is his own self.
“I am not a number, I am a free man!”
Have more heroic words ever been spoken? Honestly, this show is filled with statements that are ironic, humorous, courageous, heroic, and timeless.
Questions are a burden to oneself, answers doubly so.
A still tongue makes a happy life.
Number Two: I’m the boss.
Number Six: No. One is the boss.
Despite all this, the show is clearly a product of its time. It is unmistakably a show from the 1960s, which really adds character and even some (unintentional) levity. It’s ridiculously psychedelic at times. There is a monster on the island known as “Rover” that’s a giant white weather balloon that suffocates whoever angers it and gets in its path. Rover has the ability to also transport people by dragging them across water and has an angry roar. Some of the show is laughable, like all the lava lamps, but if you get past all the 1960s goofiness, you’ll find a timeless, precious gem of creativity and innovation.
Wonderfully, the entire series is available on Blu-Ray and the quality is unbelievable. Worth every penny. It really is a masterpiece. I can assure you I am not the only person out there who calls the show the most important/interesting/mysterious/progressive/prophetic/philosophical television show ever.
I should also mention that I am forever indebted to my father for exposing me to this show when I was pretty young (around 8 years old). Ever since, I have been infatuated with this show. I almost use it as a “friend barometer.” I’ll suggest it to a friend and see his reaction to gauge the level of depth at which we’ll end up conversing. I do have other metrics, but The Prisoner is an interesting place to start.
File under: Television