I'm Robbie Dornin, and this is a serial fan and it's just the podcast for fans of everything. Welcome. Today, I'm joined by Yusuf Danik to talk about the prisoner, but Robbie, you guys have already covered every episode, you might say, and you'd be correct. But we haven't discussed the disastrous 2009 remake of the prisoner, and that is what we'll be talking about today.
We talk about the terrible, terrible writing, jean cabisals, bad acting, and what makes the original prisoner so special. Despite this show being utter trash, it was still fun talking about it with Yusuf. On to the discussion. Hello everyone.
I'm here. Once again with Yusuf Danik. Hey, we're talking about the prisoner again, Yusuf. Just, we sure are.
How are you? I'm okay. I made it through. Are you a number?
Are you a free man? I don't care. I'm at the end of it. We're talking about the prisoner again, but we're not talking about the 1967 television series of prisoners.
We're talking about the 2009 miniseries of the prisoner, very loosely based on the 1967 prisoner. I'm not sure that's what those words mean, Robbie. Hey, there's passing similarities. Yes.
They speak English. They are humanoid creatures. There is, in fact, a place called the village. People have numbers.
Yeah, exactly. It's basically the same. It's basically the same. I remember watching this when it was coming out.
Really? Some of it. Yet you elected to watch it again? Well, okay.
One. Not only that. Then you said, you know what? I would like to watch this again, but just like a chocolate cake.
It's taster if you share it. So who will I find? Yes, my friend. Let's watch this together.
We went on a journey. And it feels only appropriate that we go. We take this to the end. Okay.
You have to finish the journey. You know, sometimes you, you make a hundred percent of the misses. You don't shoot. I had 2009.
I had not watched. I didn't know what the 1967 prisoner existed. Okay. I never, I had not watched any of it.
I didn't know who Patrick McGoone was. I didn't know any of that. All I know is I was unemployed, living at home. And I had a television and a satellite television subscription that I could watch basically anything on.
And this was on and I started watching it. And I remember watching like two episodes of it and going, this is strange. I wonder what it's about. And then I never watched anymore.
That's probably what the executive producers did with the rough cuts of the show. Because clearly somebody was not like nobody was minding the store. Okay. This is bad.
Yes. It really is. It's a bad. It was a fun podcast.
I'll see you later. No, no, no, no. You don't get away that easily. No.
I want to just preface that at first. This is, this is a very bad show. It makes no sense. I'm looking at my notes and it is literally nothing but complaints and questions.
I will say this. I think this show, the idea that the show that this prisoner is built around, it could be good if it was an entirely different show. If they just, if they did everything differently. That's like seeing like honey, you have a lovely face, but just everything's just in the wrong place in the wrong dimensions.
You just need to like Mr. Potato Head. Just everything. Just all of it.
But you're really quite lovely. That's not fair. You stuff. Okay.
Because one television show is not a person. A television show is not, I'm not going to offend a television show by saying it's bad. Or it's ugly. Yes.
That's true. I wish it was a person. So I could harm it. Oh, geez.
He was just, he's very, he's, I don't mind generally, I've seen a lot of things. I generally don't mind him. He's very bad at this. He's like the grits that you get at the biscuit basket or cracker barrel.
The biscuit basket? I have this theory that like the cracker barrel, like if it were, if it featured prominently in a film, but they did not, they weren't able to get the licensing. Like maybe like there's a server that works at the cracker barrel, IRL, but then it couldn't get the licensing. They would call it the biscuit basket, which is a really good name.
And then everybody would, would know. They'd be like, oh, they're really talking about cracker barrel. But anyway, so like the grits that you get at the biscuit basket are made of glue. Yeah, they're bad.
And they're disgusting. That's, that's what this man reminds me of. I'm just, I'm only saying that I say that yourself. Like, yeah, the core idea, I think has merit and could be made into a good television show, even a good television show that is called The Prisoner.
Because the nature of adaptation, the nature of a remake or whatever, I don't think you can make it more straight forward remake where you just basically do the same thing, but with, you know, modern, more modern setting and more, you know, current actors and all that. I don't think that would be good. Probably not. But I don't think it would be as bad as this.
No, but I think it would not, there'd be no purpose to it. You know, I think that a straight up. Well, then we're, we're, we're in the same neighborhood. What would be different?
I am not defending the show. I'm just trying to spark a discussion around the original prisoner and what made it special. It was very special. And it was flawless.
It was, it was not a perfect thing. There were episodes that went so off the rails. Right. But this doesn't even.
Well, I think it fundamentally misunderstands. Like the way to remake something or so to adapt it. For either like a modern audience to say, Oh, well, you know, it's from 1967. A lot of it doesn't make sense.
It doesn't wrap up well. It has a lot of cultural references and weird, like, connotations to show, like, you have to, like, watch, no, Patrick, you can roughly think about, like, what danger man was to know what, like, you know, it's from 1967. Like, it's a lot of weird things you have to understand before you can watch that show and get any kind of real understanding about it. But like, you could remake it and take the same themes, the same tone and make it into day.
And I don't think it would be as good because I think there's something special because of those weird artifacts of that time. Because of the weird artifacts of the fact that it's such a kind of a, it is more singular creatively than a lot of things because Patrick and was so fundamental in its creation. I would agree with that. And I understand that anytime you remake a thing, it's, you know, there's going to be comparisons.
And I was doing my best not to, like, play the comparison game. But then, you know, looking at the episode titles. Yes. Arrival, harmony, handball, skits away, check me.
Darling. It's like we were naming them kind of after the original episodes in no discernable order or anything. So it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's like, you know, it's in, in no discernable order or anything. So it's like, oh, look, just when you thought there was nothing to do with the original show, look at that.
And then, uh, Hattie McGee's number six, his original car shows up in like a second, uh, on, uh, on episode five. It's like, I, I had to rewatch it three times. So it's like, there are these, I want to call them Easter eggs. Yes.
That's what they are. I mean, is, is this what it, it's like when, when a Christian hears me talk about Easter and they're, they're just like, you have no context for what this really is. Like when I say Easter eggs, Easter eggs imply that there is content or that there's thought or like some guile or craft or like a reference. I don't think that's what Easter eggs apply.
I mean Easter eggs are like, look at this. This is a clever thing that I put in. I think Easter eggs are, I think Easter eggs are a fan service. They aren't, they're not clever.
They're, they are clever things are hard to do. Easter eggs are easy. I guess you're right. I guess you're right.
It's just, it's just a fan service. It's like, hey, you like that. Here's the car from it. Here's that one dude at the very beginning.
He's dressed up like number six from the original. Yeah. Because Hattie McGee. I don't believe I will be in this.
I would be number two. If you make me, if you make me number two, I will consider it. Yes, which is great. That's like, if somebody like offers you a French fry and you're like, no, I would like your whole meal.
Give me the whole meal and I will maybe perhaps say yes. I wish I think the show. I don't know. It'd be better.
Make your hand in the number two. Not even at least, not even at least be something there. Not even the problem is we they're not, he's not number two. He's two.
They don't use the word number to describe. He's just six. He's two. They never say you're number two.
You're number six. You're six, seven. You're 11, 12. You're never, they don't ever say, you know, number 11, 12.
Like maybe we have the original prisoner. They shorten it. Yeah. I don't know why.
It doesn't make a difference. I don't think they do. I mean, well, because okay. I watch this.
To be fair, the second to last episode I watched at one and a half speed just to get through it. And the last episode, I, I simply couldn't just sit and watch it. So I wasn't assembling a shelf in a closet while it was playing. I would argue that the last episode is the only one that's watchable.
It was, I was trying to watch it. I really was. And I. It's the only one I didn't actually understand what happened.
Yeah. I, well here is a, have you read any spoilers or explanations about the shows plot? I, I did. Okay.
And I did watch it. It was in his brain. It was just he made it up. No.
Dream. No. That's not what happens. Well, see, I, I watched three episodes, which is, it's a six episode minute series.
But you didn't, you didn't watch all of it. No. Wait. You said, I'm telling you a story.
Let me finish the story. Okay. I'm sorry. I was upset for a second.
Cause I thought I watched all of it. And you didn't. I'm sort of like, I made two of me. I literally, you only made one.
I literally just said that the sixth episode is the only one that's watchable at all. Apparently you just dismissed my, you don't even listen to what I say or take in what I say. You've already seen this. And then you elected to see it again.
So I don't know what you're doing. Well, I only see two. I saw two episodes of it. 10 years ago.
So I'm not watching the entirety of the thing. And I watched it when I was unemployed and sad. So I don't take that. I don't necessarily believe I absorbed any of it.
Originally, I just remembered to be a little wandering through a desert and a magneto was in it. So I was very, magneto again off in this weird television show. What's going on? So I watched three episodes and it was so terrible.
It was boring and terrible and poorly written and bad acting and full of what everything. And I'm like, I need to know what I, at that point, I look up spoilers for what was happening. And I think that on the, it made the latter episodes more enjoyable. Knowing the mystery, the secret.
It's not much of a secret. But it is the thing that we don't, they don't tell us until the last episode. And here is my, it doesn't really make sense. First of all, the actual reveal.
You have to buy into a lot of nonsense for it to make sense. Okay. I'm glad to hear you say that. Like one, it's a bad, it's a bad mystery.
Like this. Okay. The problem with the show other than a bad execution, a lot of things. Bad writing, largely the largest problem.
Bad writing. I think you could save this and make it watchable with keeping them kind of current structure if you just had better writing, if you just had characters with substance, you know, and they were just trapped in this weird, weird, weird place. And that would save a lot of it, you know? Yeah.
I think that's all it would take. It wouldn't make it good. I think it would make it okay. It would make it, you know, like I was fine.
I wouldn't watch it again, but it was fine. But the writing is bad. But the mystery, this is, the show is built around a mystery. It is a mystery box show.
You know what a mystery box is? You said. Presumably you, you're watching the show so you can find the puzzles to open the box. Correct.
It is a J. That's a J. J. I'll be making of other prisoner reboots.
Lost. Is it, is it, is it the, kind of the, the four, the foremost example of a mystery box show. It's, it's like, yeah, you're constantly putting weird mysterious things in front of the viewer, in all ways that's the carrot. You always want them to continue to watch because they want to know what this mystery is, you know, it's, and the show can.
I might not ever find out what that polar bear is. You probably weren't. Sorry. In.
Lost. There are good mystery box shows that actually do fulfill their promises and tell you what the things mean and makes sense. I liked Lost. I even liked the finale.
I like lost to. I don't, I'm not going to defend all. Yes, it's still good. It's so entertaining and I still like it.
It has way better writing on an episode by episode basis than this does and that's I think that's the very true that Redeam's lost in the long times. It's like, even if the mysteries aren't ultimately meaningful, the characters are meaningful. You grow to like it. It grew attached to many of the characters lost in a huge cast and they're all varied and interesting.
This is built in that kind of mystery box way where we don't know where, you know, six is dropped in this village and we don't know what it is and we don't know how or why and they're not trying to get information from him, which is what the original prisoner is built on. No, the word information is only said in the finale. It says it to number to number to number to see I was paying attention and that shelf is exquisitely constructed so I am a man of many talents. You said, if you exactly remember.
No, I'm sorry, six. You can identify any of the I can I remember three characters specific numbers. There's six there's two and there's 1112. Everyone else is like it's the cat driver.
It's the lady 1112 is the son. There's a cat there's a cat driver and his wife and their kid and there's the lady and then the real life lady and the spy, the guy who gets killed by the son. And then there's the weird psychologist twins. I don't remember any of the twins.
There were two of them. I don't appreciate them. I don't appreciate this. Yes, there were two of them.
They're literally sitting next to each other. That's the whole point of that bit is there's one and then there's one behind him that is his twin and they share a number. There are two sixes, not no, no, no, no, the episode where six goes get interviewed for his like my psychologist. There's a psychologist and then there's a second psychologist sitting right behind him.
That's his twin. Watching this show is like simultaneously helping someone's mom with the computer and being that mom. So, I'm just, I'm, there's a lot of it. Like you expect me to remember any of this.
It's all garbage. It's all nonsense. It doesn't matter. Number six says to 1138 or whatever the son, he says, I need your information, whatever.
I need your information so I can get you out of here. I can get out of here or something. He says the word information. Okay.
It was. Yeah. Okay. That's good.
I, you know, I will say having watched this. I understand why sometimes my students won't do the reading yet pretend that they did like I have greater empathy for that. Because there were times when I genuinely considered perpetrating a ruse as to whether or not I had watched these. It's only six episodes.
It's not that much. They're 45 minutes each. It's not that long. You said you have many hours of terrible substance.
I've watched every week. I do it. I watched, I watched an episode recently. It was, it was like, it's the season premiere or something.
Oh, season 30. Yeah. I don't remember what it was about. That's about right.
That was a week ago. And then I just remember like feeling just empty. I mean, there's, there has been one legitimately good season 30 episode and then a couple of okay ones and then mostly skips. I was just worried.
I couldn't experience joy anymore. Like, I assume that I was the part because I was. You're an amateur. You said, I don't want to hear you whining.
I complain about watching something bad. Okay. I watch. Wait.
Wait. I do it every week. I'm experienced for this. This is nothing.
This is bad, but it's short. It's only six episodes. It's easy. There's six bad episodes.
The original person probably probably. Probably. Yeah. The original person, even it was bad.
It was interesting. When this is, this is bad and not quite interesting. And okay. We were, we were, I was getting somewhere before we started talking about the information.
So the show ends with the reveal of the mystery of why this is all happening. Why is six here? Why is number two here? Why is it going on in this weird, weird village?
When there's weird holes forming in the ground and there's doubles of everyone running around. What's going on? And it is revealed that the entire village is in, is in two's wife's head. She is a dreamer, as they say.
And that is why she's always sleeping. That's why he gives her pills to make her sleep because she needs to say a sleep to let this world continue. I guess. And everyone else is in this shared subconscious space while they're still awake in real life.
That is the explanation. That is the explanation. And the constant, the cuts back to number six in real life and everyone in real life in the real world is, is not, it's not flashback. It is happening at the same time because that is just spectacularly stupid.
And number, number two is, is, is pull these people into this shared subconscious space because he believes that they'll be able to work through whatever problems they have in this safe area in the safe space, if you might say. And then when they are when they finally leave, they will be better people. Like if you look at the, the, the, the, there's not a lot scenes in the real world, but you look at them and all those people are bad, you know, they'll talk about being bad people, the, you know, the driver in the real world is the cab driver in the village. And he talks in the real world, he talks about, yeah, I used to have a temporary step.
I wanted to kill, I wanted to attack everyone or something. He's everyone was an enemy or something like he says something like those lines. And it's very much like, well, and now he's better because he's, he's, he's a better person because he has work, he works now for the, he doesn't see a better cab driver. It doesn't, I don't think anything to do with being a better cab driver.
It's better, a better person in the real world. And this weird subconscious version of him is has to stay in the village for that to happen. And that's why, you know, like that character in the village talks about, oh, I don't know why I'm here and it feels like I'm just doing the same thing every day. And, you know, that is the way that he has made the real life.
Number two is made the real life version of that driver better by trapping this subconscious version of him. So he's had to work through his problems. So real life driver is driving around New York doing his job at the same time as subconscious driver is stuck in the village and that's making real life driver a better person. Yes, because the, all the problem, all your mental problems, all your, your anxieties, all your, your, your issues with emotion, whatever problems you have as a person, whatever flaws you have as a person that is a place where you can confront them directly in a confined safe area.
You can't actually hurt anyone. And then you mix that is reflected back in the real life person. And like, because the number six character is a surveillance guy in real life, he is looking at people and he is actually the person that finds the people that get put into the simulation gets put into the shared subconscious space. He is, he looks at, he watches cameras and he finds people and puts them in there.
That's why he is, that's why he knows all these people. Why he recognizes them for real life is because he is the person that put them all in there. He finds them for number two and the number two decides that six is having problems. So he also puts number six in there because he wants, either he wants to generally help six or he wants to make him placid and helpful in real life and not question the job he's doing.
Okay, none of this is communicated at all in the show. Okay, I'm glad because I, again, I did watch it and I did try to pay attention and take notes. But what if my notes says, Oh, a river. I mean, that's fair.
There is a river. You go a river. I like their little, I like their little resort. They go to the chairs in the pool.
Yeah, I. I'd like to go to one of those places eventually. Yeah, the village, not the resort, but the village itself is kind of, it's fine, I guess. It doesn't, it doesn't have it.
There's not the desert is a problem. It's not distinct enough. It is just, you know, like the desert, I think they're trying to go for like a kind of ice, they're trying to create isolation, feeling of isolation by like, Hey, what's, what's an isolation isolated place and you have the desert and you have mountains everywhere. And it kind of, you know, you drive out in the desert, it all looks the same, you know, and you could have the clear, you know, beach analogies when you get out to the sand.
But yeah, it's just not doesn't feel special like the original village does. Yeah, and I guess it doesn't need to because it's not like some various organization. Right. They're helping people.
Well, that's the question. It's not, and that's the thing. The biggest problem, I think I isolated it, you said, aside from like, obviously, quality writing is important in any good show. So I'm going to try and dismiss that, but yes, because it's terrible.
It's so, it's just people just saying how they feel does all that just stay, staying out. I feel like this now simultaneously feeling nothing. And while that's showing it at all, they're just like, I feel angry and you're like, Oh, we don't look angry. And that's obviously a very fundamental problem.
But I think the structure of the thing is the other biggest problem, like take it by the fact that it's like some weird prisoner show. Like, I'm not going to try and that's a different battle as well. But they, they think that this mystery is good enough to carry people through this miniseries. And the mystery itself is nothing special.
Like, even, okay, even if I present that, like, I just, I just literally just told you what the mystery is what the reveal is. Yes. It is not very clear in the television show. No.
It's obtuse even in the sick. Episode six is the reveal of all this stuff. And it's even then it's obtuse. It doesn't make it all clear.
Yeah. All you have to do is put the reveal and episode one. Yeah. Or episode two.
You make an episode of Columbo. You see the murderer and then you see how he solves it. And then the rest of the show is, let's, let's these characters deal with what's going like. It means nothing like 1112 doesn't exist in the real world.
Wait, I thought he, oh, was he born it? I thought 1112 wasn't born in the village. 1112 wasn't born at all. He's not real.
He is, he's entirely a construct of two's wife's mind because she wanted a child and they never had one in real life. Ah. So in this world that she's built in her mind, she, they have a child. And then 1112 kills himself in the final episode because he realizes, I'm not real.
This world is not real. I've been made up for this world. I'm a fictional character. And he kills himself because he can't deal with that.
There is no other place for him to go. Like everyone else actually does exist in the real world. So when they say, oh, they're, when they have the feelings of like, I feel like I'm trapped. I feel like this place isn't real.
They're, they're correct. They're right. Because there is the weird subconscious version of them is trapped. And there is more.
But for him, there is no more. If he leaves, there is a leaving. There's no wavering to leave because there's no real version of him. Imagine being stuck in that.
I would tell myself to. It's a, it's a fair reaction. And it's, it's the, like, there is, like, I felt nothing when that happened. I forgot that he killed himself.
Yeah. I watched it yesterday. I'm sorry. It's, I mean, they had the funeral and he, you know, to his, you know, has some of those.
Oh, that's for the future. Yes. That was his son. It is.
I want number six or number six is the one or something. Yeah. Number six is the one. Number six is the one.
Oh my God. That's so bad. If, if that review, if the reveal of what this place actually is, is much earlier in the show. It actually lets us understand these things as they're happening and appreciate the sadness of them.
And like it, not just in retrospect. It is. I don't want to feel feelings all at once at the final bit. I would like to feel feelings towards my television show the entire time.
Yes. You know, from the beginning to the end. And they, I think fundamentally they misunderstand the value of this mystery because it's not that could have a, oh, they share a dream. There's many shows and televisions and television shows and movies that have done that premise.
You're not special. This is not a special idea. No. And it didn't even have like cool paintings or Robin Williams.
Robin Williams. Yeah. Remember the classic film that we all remember what dreams may come. Oh, what dreams may come.
I was thinking of the classic who done it identity. Identity? Is that another Robin Williams joint? No, that is a, that's a ensemble cast.
John Cusack is the main, the main star, but John Cusack and Amanda Pete. And there's other other character actors in there. It's a big cast, but it's identity takes place on a dude's head. Oh, like Herman's head.
Yes. Just like Herman said. Or St. elsewhere.
We're the Bob New Archo. Yeah. What is that? We're in the, the, the, the McGoo and West fall universe.
I don't know. I'm just saying that this is not a special idea. It is not. And to build the show about the reveal of, oh, it's just in this lady's head.
And that's what this is. And you're just like, oh, that's what this was. Now that I need everything to make sense. But how do they get everybody in her brain space?
How do they do that? Great question. Do they hypnotize them? They give him a drug or something.
I mean, he does talk about, maybe he talks about there being multiple sub-consciouses, sub-consciouses. So maybe, I don't know, it's, it's a hard premise to accept. I would prefer that these people get abducted and put in like a stasis or something like that, where there's at least, at least, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, you know, you need a, you need a matrix, you need a ports one. Yeah, you got, you really, for that kind of data transfer, you need a hard connection.
You need a jacket, you need a jacket and you can't, we're a Wi-Fi brain. Yeah. Sometimes you can't stream your, your, your playstation, you know, just from the, from the Wi-Fi router. You got a hard connect running, running a cable.
I don't think that's honestly not the deal breaker for me. It's not that way of that. It's more the, the misunderstanding of, I think they all, they ultimately also misunderstand, ultimately misunderstand what the original, what was special about the original prisoner? Yes, I would agree with that.
that. Because I think on a very broad scale, when you describe what the prisoner is to someone who's never watched it, you have to give them an idea of what the plot is. What is the plot? And you go, oh, well, okay, there's a spy.
He resigns, and we don't know why. And he gets taken, he's abducted, and put in this village. And every episode, he faces off against a number two. Every one of the village is a number.
And the number two is trying to get information from him about why he resigned. And then that is the premise of the prisoner. And that's what you tell people at first. And then, and like at a basic level, you're like, oh, and then you can say, well, who's number one?
And then, well, they don't ever tell you who's number one until the end. And then it's a very bad answer. But that doesn't matter. The mystery, the central mystery of like, where is the village?
And who's number one? And who was number six? And why did he resign? Those questions don't matter, ultimately, in the original prisoner.
Yeah, it's very stylish and fun and punchy. And it's about every episode about is it's kind of more about the micro scale versus the macro scale. It is more about like, what is going on in this episode? What is six facing in this episode?
What is six in this episode? What is number two in this episode? What do they mean? What are they trying to get?
You know, it's this battle of wheels about understanding what these kind of bigger ideas are. I also, the original prisoner, OP, has like sort of commentary on the day. This, I thought this was going to like, it seems almost obvious that it would. You know, when you talk about like surveillance, terrorism, thinking, I don't know, we need to talk about something you say.
Yeah. The two towers in the desert. Oh, yeah. When you see those two towers for the first time, what do you think?
Yeah. I think, I mean, you know, obviously the World Trade Center, right? Right. Yes.
Right. And I, anyone, this is me in 2009. Okay. This is not happening concurrently or before 9-11.
This is in 2009. Enough of a window that you could tell this story without, you know, in a proper way. And I think it's very clear. Whenever anyone, I think at least anyone in Western culture, I think anyone in the world probably, because it's probably a universal enough symbol for most people to recognize.
And you see two towers right next to each other. It's immediately, you're not thinking about Hobbits. No, you're thinking about 9-11. You're thinking about the World Trade Center.
You're thinking about that. It's funny. It's funny. You say that.
I had been anesthetized to such a degree by watching this show that when I saw that, I must admit, I thought none of those things. Well, you share a similarity with this writer of this show because every review I've read talked about the Twin Towers and expecting something to do with terrorism, with insurgents, with radicalization, revolution, something. That would at least justify the existence of a reboot of the prisoner. Well, the writer says, I didn't even, there was no intention there.
They were just, they were just something for him to see in the desert. It was a frame. It's just completely coincidental that there are two towers. Wait, where are the towers?
Like his, like, wasn't that the reflection of the office building? Yes. Which that's weird too, because you can see himself in the dream out of the, I don't know. It's not a dream yourself, shared subconscious space.
Oh, shared subconscious space. They just say dreamers because it makes us, it makes it easier to say that than a person who's a prisoner, I guess. But is it, I mean, isn't, isn't their job to say things? The number of times I wrote the word lazy in my notes is staggering.
It is, it is, this feels like a first draft. It doesn't feel like anyone ever looked at it except for the one writer and no one else even, like he didn't even turn it into like somebody was like, Hey, could you get like lance of this and say if it's okay? It doesn't, it just feels so broad and so so unfinished. It feels so, it, there's no polish.
It's just, it looked like he watched the prisoner from 1967 one time and then went, had, and then had some previous script that he had written about people trapped in the shared, entrapped in some dream together. And so I will make these two into one. There is a bit of shoehorning to this. That doesn't make sense.
You know, okay, so you know how like science, science people look back and they're like dinosaurs, we, we know what their bones are. We can put them together, but we don't know what their, their, their, their skin looks like in the outside of a dinosaur. So let's, let's speculate. I bet they look like they have spots or something, but they might have feathers or who knows or fur.
We can't know. I think that's what like, that's the level of correctness that this adaptation has. It's just, there's no, there's not even bones though. It's like if you had like a, like a toe bone and you're like, I will construct the entire creature from this.
I shall call it the, the dinosaur. It doesn't, it doesn't, it doesn't understand what the prisoner was. The prisoner was about, about at the end of the day, a man, basically. And that's, and most of the time it wasn't about more than that.
It was about this one dude in this situation and what he's willing to do to try and get out and what that says about him. And he has clear things that he wants and is trying to do. Yes. So just from like a plot, there were times when I felt like I was the one in the room who was supposed to be caring about this man doing something because he certainly didn't indicate that he cared about anything.
Or like, when the cab driver, he's like, we're real sad about our kid falling in a hole, but they got over it. The kid did fall in a hole. Yeah. You got to watch out for that.
Yeah. And they were like, real fine with it. Like in the episode, it wasn't even just like, we're just not going to refer back to it. Like within the episode, they, that's like when you're saying something, you forget what you're saying mid sentence.
It's, let's talk about the cast. Yes. So Ian McKellen is number as number two. It's great.
He's great. Ian McKellen is great. Not in this though. I, here's, here's what I'm going to argue.
Yes. Yes. I would argue that Ian McKellen does everything he possibly can with this material. He does.
He does. And more than, more than Jim DuVisele does, which they're the two leads. And Jim DuVisele does, I mean, the writing is bad. He cannot elevate it, which I think is actually pretty accurate to what kind of, how good an actor Jim DuVisele is.
He's, you know, he's all right, but he's not going to make, he's not going to elevate material to something like something that is written average. He, it's going to be average. If you, if you give him something great, it will be great. If you give him something bad, it's going to be bad.
And that's what this is. Ian McKellen, I think, is a problem in this because he's great and he can elevate bad to, he elevates this, which is bad, to average ish. He elevates his material to average, I would say, and makes it interesting because of the choices he makes with his performance. However, that is a problem in this show where everyone else can't do that.
Yes. And it makes it shiniest and kernel in the turd. The problem is like, I think if this was worse, it'd be better. Okay.
If it was aggressively bad, I think it would be enjoyable to watch at a certain level. You know, if there was some emotion, if it was just very like heavy-handed and insane and lots of running and fun drums instead of like that like sleep-inducing violin soundtrack that we constantly get, what about the theme song? I can even tell, I can even, I don't, what theme song? I can't, I can't recollect.
It's like a, this whole show is like a, like, like an ambient commercial. It really is. It is incredibly boring. I don't, I don't know if we've accentuated enough.
Like this is bad, but it's mostly bad because it's so boring. Nothing happens ever. This is like, I feel like- I cheered when a little girl fell into a hole because it was something. Wow.
That is just, it's bad. It's spectacularly bad. It's, and it's, it's just because it's so boring and it's largely the problem. Like, I think that's the thing.
Like Ian McAllen is too good for this, this beautiful, this beautiful mess. And he should, like, they should, if it was like, um, do diamond Phillips or something or like someone who's like, or fitting for like a basic cable movie. Like someone like that is the person, like, fulfill all these roles because frankly, like most of these people are way better than this. Like Ian McAllen is definitely way better than this.
Hayley Atwell is a good actress when she's not in this garbage. Ruth Wilson, Lenny James, all these actors, I've seen movies with them in them and they're good and they're good actors. And that suddenly you watch this and they're like, Oh, this is terrible. What's going on?
The cab driver does a nice job. You know, like he, he's the least objectionable character just because he seems like a person. Yes. Inside forgetting the fact that his daughter- Well, that's not his fault.
That's well, well, no, but she gets swallowed up by a hole and he's like, real, he really gets over it. Well, I mean, it's, but he- The lead actor. Jim's talking about him. Jim Camisele.
He- Jesus himself. He's a trash person. What's a trash person? He's a trash person.
He, like, protested, vehemently stem cell research. Okay. Like, like he was involved in, like, all sorts of weird, like, religious stuff. I mean, he played Jesus.
I know that. He sure did. And he insisted on wearing a shirt in a sex scene because it wasn't, you know, chased or something. I don't know.
He just, he had proper casting. He sucks. This show. I mean, I feel- I feel better about insulting his performance after learning that he's also crazy.
I agree. Oh, he's going to be Jesus again in the trash on the Christ sequel. Wait, there's a sequel? It's coming out.
What happens? The resurrection of the Christ. But he gets out. Jesus comes back.
Did you know? Oh, he came back. Yeah, Jesus died and then he died for us since. He died on the cross for us since.
And then three days later, he rose again. Okay. I know a lot about Jesus. Well, will there be a part three?
Uh, I hope so. The crisis was not, uh, not alive again for a very long, but then he ascended directly to heaven. So I assume part three will be him in, like, a, be like some melodrama in heaven while he's, like, trying to deal with, like, angel politics or something. Nice.
Okay. So why did Jesus do when he came back? What do you mean when he did when he came back? Like, he came back.
Like he came back. Like, you say he spent all his time, like the same. Yeah, I'm back. It's fine.
The same sort of stuff. You know, you help people. You taught people stuff. Nobody was like, are you sure it's him?
Like, did he have, like, a password? You said we're not getting, we're not doing a Bible as a literature course in this podcast. I'm just curious. I, we can, I don't want to teach you a Bible as a literature course in this podcast.
So when you went away the first time, no, no, no, no. Okay. Jim Givesl is very bad in this television show. Okay.
Yes, he is. He's very bad in this television show. And his character is an idiot. That is incorrect, you said, because he is not a character.