I Am Not A Viewer - I Am A Free Man!

Well, I watched the first 45 minutes of AMC's remake of The Prisoner. And then I turned it off. Now, some of you will immediately object and ask how a six hour show can be judged by just the first 15%. But that's not my problem, you see, it's really the producer's. As one gets older and more experienced, one's patience erodes, (and I had very little to begin with in this life). We've seen/heard it before, we know what we like, etc., and we don't need to waste precious time on repeats and twaddle. If a book doesn't pique my interest within 50 pages, I put it down; and if a show can't arouse my curiosity or sense of wonder in the first 10-20%, I go elsewhere. It's not worth sitting through shit. I've done that before - things never get better, only worse, and a good writer/producer/creator knows that. A good one is good right from the beginning. Anyone who say that they want their audience to wade through hours of boredom for "the big finish" is simply being lame and lacks talent. And this remake is lame.
It's no wonder that McKellen was so vicious in his criticism of the original series in his interview with the NYT. This production obviously hates it - #6 (more on numbering later*)has all the gravitas and force of will of a wet noodle. McGoohan's character was strong, resourceful, and VERY dangerous. The Village is both puzzled and fearful of him - he says he'll tear it down, and you're left feeling that he'll succeed. The whole point of #2's coming and going serves a variety of symbolic points (I won't bore you with details), but we're just left with Mac, who doesn't come across as menacing, so much as an irritating and arrogant old twat; (Linda and I are big fans of the old series, Rumpole of the Bailey. McKellen's character reminds me of nothing more than the worthless old frauds, the judges, in that series. The ones that good ol' Rumpole would run circles around). McKellen clearly has enough "star power" that it was felt wise to make #2 a permanent and equal player to #6 - even giving him a family! (A wife! C'mon, Ian....). And so we are presented with the #2 soap opera. Yawn. The penultimate example of authoritarian bureaucracy and criminality is reduced to a nattering old fart dealing with a teenage son. And the symbolism of revolving masters is left in the dustbin.
And we always knew why McGoohan was in the Village - we have no idea what this new clown is there for. He doesn't seem very important at all, or even worth the trouble, (and don't tell me I should've stayed tuned for the answer. The original took care of that quickly and efficiently in the opening credits).
And then we have the love interest. The producers obviously feel there's not enough of a plot going on to hold our interest, so we'll titillate with a woman who contains enough botox in her lips to give Daffy Duck a run for his money.
And so, in 45 minutes, I'm left with some guy I STILL don't "know" or care about, trying to run away from a crotchety old fart in a town built of Alpine architecture in the Namibian desert (another slight irritation to me - I'm told it's real. If so, I can only say that I look forward to wikiups in Tyrolia...).
Look, if you like it, go ahead and watch it, I don't care. But do yourself a favor, catch the original series. It's so much more interesting. Patrick McGoohan was a genius, please check it out.

*In a show that was based heavily on symbolism and metaphor, it's amusing to see the current production miss out on it. In the original, everyone is NUMBER 2, or 6 or whatever. Now, it's just the number. We're all so informal now, even the dehumanizing numbers have been reduced to nicknames like Skip or Dot. The original series knew that the word "Number" had to be there in one's moniker, to prevent any lack of familiarity and as a constant reminder to one and all of their state. But in this new version, we have Classification Lite. I don't know why AMC was so keen to make this. They obviously didn't like or understand the original.