Entertainment Review: "The Prisoner" Pilot Episode

With a leading cast made up of Jim Caveisal and Ian Mckellen, the American Movie Channel has spent the last two months heavily promoting The Prisoner as a thrilling new Tv Series in the vein of LOST. The premiere of the series took the form of a two hour long introductory episode that had both very strong and very weak moments, overall showing considerable potential for the rest of the series.

The pilot's beginning is it's weakest point, the setting is introduced unrealistically quick and the main character goes from being almost feral to civilized in an equally short period of time. It seems as if the shows writers wanted to jump right into the mystery that makes up the shows premise but disregarded realistically setting the stage for the story to unfold upon. About forty minutes into the episode I became extremely interested and captivated by the cinematography and acting on the part of Sir Ian Mckellen, who gives a performance up to par with the rest of his career. Mckellen's character is extremely spooky and disconcerting making every scene in which he plays a part entrancing and nerve wracking. On that note it is important to say that Ian Mckellen(the only true star member of the cast) is frequently part of the action, despite his character being a reclusive villain, AMC makes no attempts to hide their "prize fighter" throughout the pilot.

The writing fell short of my expectations at moments, often leaving me more confused then in suspense and wishing that the characters would be less cryptic and more believable. After a while listening to members of the town in which the series take place give oblivious statements as to their location in the world stops being eerie and starts becoming annoying and played out.

Overall 'The Prisoner' shows alot of promise, and it's pilot while not quite as accomplished as some other big budget series like LOST or 24, was nothing to take lightly. Hopefully the writing will become more believable as time passes and will be up to par with the performances of the principal actors and the camera work.

3/5