The Prisoner Mini-series on AMC Review

My Father used to tell a joke to all my friends when I was a teenager.  He was quite proud of this joke, and when a friend hadn't heard it, he made a large production leading up to it.
He called it the "Shaggy Dog" joke.  In a nutshell, there is a peasant who has a large shaggy dog.  A neighbor notices how shaggy the dog is, and proceeds to rave about its shagginess.  He suggests that the peasant bring the dog to the king.  The peasant decides this is a good idea, and makes his way to the castle.  On the way, the peasant is stopped by numerous people who can't believe how shaggy the dog is.  My Dad would have the peasant stop with about any early Medieval title he could conjure up.  Archer, Viscount, Duke, Starbucks Barista, etc.  The joke was usually 10-15 minutes in length, and would pinnacle with the peasant showing the dog to the king.  Upon seeing the dog, the king would always say, "I don't think it is that shaggy."  And then my Dad would pause...waiting for the imminent storm out the room, or perhaps the double-flipoff.  He thought this was hilarious.  (I think there is a golf-ball joke that is similar)

The Prisoner on AMC is the TV equivalent of the Shaggy Dog joke...only on LSD.

I saw a few commercials leading up to this mini-series, and it looked quite interesting.  I knew it was a re-make of a show in the 60's, but I had never seen the original  Unfortunately, AMC used the term "mini-series," which conjures up images of The Langoliers, The Andromeda Strain, and The Storm.  In fact, isn't the term "Good mini-series" an oxymoron?  (Band of Brothers and Battlestar Galactica are exceptions you psycho mini-series freaks already typing your hate mail)

I am going to attempt to lay out the basic plot of this mini-series without confusing you:
Jim Caviezel plays a man who wakes up in a strange town called "The Village."  The end.  After this, there isn't a plot-line.
Ian McKellen is the other star of this show, but don't expect a "Lord of the Rings" type acting job here.  I understood roughly 34% of what Ian says in this show.
Did I mention that there isn't a coherent plot-line until there is only 30 minutes left in the show?  This is after 6 HOURS OF FILM. (I suppose it's only 4 after commercials)

If you enjoyed the Lost Highway, What dreams may come, or any other movie that would incite boredom, confusion, or a mixture of both, then The Prisoner is for you.

I'm not sure why I kept watching.  It's like I was daring the writers/producers to come up with an ending that would take this hailstorm of confusion, and make it real.  Did they?  Sure...was it worth it?  No.

Think back to when you were in college, and your buddy swore that there was a party off-campus where he guaranteed you'd score?
You follow him to the party which ends up with a dude/chick ratio of 7.5.  Your buddy dissappears, and you have no ride home.  By the end of the 4 hour "party," you end up with puke on your shoes, a nicotine contact high, and eventually end up with a 27 year old masters student name Tina with terrible acne.  Do you just end up walking home?  No...you make out with Tina as you don't want the night to be a total waste of time.

Looking back, you wish none of it had ever happened.  Not Tina...not the party....none of it.  This is how I feel about The Prisoner.

The Prisoner ends up with a 1-star rating, ONLY because there was some sort of explanation at the end of the show...as weak as it was.  In truth, it's titled the Prisoner as that's what you become after 6 intense hours of boredom.