Number Six is his own worst enemy. But you don’t have to take my word for it: just ask the administrators of the Village. For two episodes in a row now, they’ve used his own determination to smash the security of his prison and break free to drag him down deeper into their morass of mind games.
I think this is why Patrick McGoohan works so well in the role. Sure, he created the show, stars in it, wrote and directed several episodes, uses his own professional headshot for Six’s dossier photograph, uses his birthdate for Six’s right down to the second, et cetera. (This is partly why co-creatorship claims by McGoohan’s collaborator, the writer and script editor George Markstein, strike me as exaggerated.)
But beyond that, he’s developed a very physical style of acting that meshes well with the man of action he portrays. I’ve joked before that Six has three settings: lurk, lurch, and loom. His movements are sudden, almost erratic. Quick-cut editing makes them seem even choppier and more unpredictable. Even his style of hand-to-hand combat, which he’s deployed in two episodes running now, is all stiff punches. This guy’s gonna hit you till you fall down, full stop. He’s gonna get where he’s going at top speed. He’s gonna get answers from the people he wants answers from even if he has to chase them down and pop out of the woodwork to grab them.
He’s unstoppable, and that’s his problem.
I reviewed the fourth episode of The Prisoner for Pop Heist. Gift link!
Tags: pop heist, prestige prehistory, the prisoner, TV, TV reviews