Member-only story
The Prisoner’s Dilemma
We’re all prisoners, and we’re also the guards
Back in September 1966, filming began on what was to become one of the most iconic TV shows of the period: The Prisoner. Starring actor Patrick McGoohan as the nameless prisoner (he’s only ever referred to as “Number Six”), the show captured 60s zeitgeist from its pop-art costumes to its core theme: the inherent conflict between the desires of the individual and the accepted moeurs of society.
In the show, Number Six is a former British Intelligence operative who, for reasons we’re never privy to, resigns and is then drugged and kidnapped. He awakes, seemingly in his bedroom but in fact on an island (or an isthmus; the ambiguity is never resolved) that contains a population of former spies and informants, all contained with in The Village from which escape turns out to be impossible.
(For anyone unfamiliar with the show, this link will take you to Episode One: Arrival)
Number Six represents the individual battling to maintain his identity and core values against the demands of society, as represented by his unknown captors who are instantiated by a series of replaceable Number Twos. The other inhabitants of The Village are largely depicted as passive burned-out husks who doubtless ceded their individuality in return for continued life and a tranquil existence within its confines.
