@@gleep23Regardless of where people think it falls chronologically, the plot is above the rest. I love the whole series but Hammer Into Anvil is *number one*. Heh
I'm surprised you didn't mention the anecdote about the remake they did in 2009 where they approached Patrick McGoohan to play the old man who dies in the opening moments of the first episode to which he apparently replied that he would only join the show on the condition that he be allowed to play Number 2.
This re-pop wasn't great, but it wasn't ALL bad & put a cheeky little twist on the end that wrapped it up neater than the original, IMO. The biggest weakness was having McKellen play No.2 throughout instead of pitching the protagonist against a new adversary every episode...
i appreciate how oddly relatable the premise of being introduced to the series by your father at a young age and then being somewhat traumatized by it is to many people, including myself lol
Interesting choice for Leo to make a long, comedic, detailed video essay about a niche topic, instead of his usual "bald man goes wild and sexy" content
About the bicycle as a symbol: In the early 20th century there was a fascist Italian art movement that loved violence and speed called Futurism. The bicycle was feature in some of their work since the wheel was one of its most important symbols "We want to sing the man at the wheel, the ideal axis of which crosses the earth, itself hurled along its orbit." which matches nicely with the alternate end titles. Some other highlights from the manifesto are: "We want to glorify war - the only cure for the world - militarism, patriotism, the destructive gesture of the anarchists, the beautiful ideas which kill, and contempt for woman." and "We want to demolish museums and libraries, fight morality, feminism and all opportunist and utilitarian cowardice."
Wow. At least they wore their hearts on their sleeves with that one. They didn’t disguise it like pussies the way the modern right wing party does in the US.
Wow, their ideology seems pretty incoherent. Damn. Usually fascists don't like Anarchists, and why would they be AGAINST utilitarianism? It's a pretty shitty moral framework which seems perfect for fascists.
This is a great observation. I'd also add that the Futurists have a direct link to the historical formation and ideology of Italy's fascist party. Filippo Tommaso Marinetti wrote both the Manifesto of Futurism (1909) and Fascist Manifesto (1919) which went on to be influential on the policy of Mussolini's government. Today to make allusions to Futurist ideology may seem too farfetched or esoteric, at the time much closer to WW2 they were probably more familiar with the link between Futurism and fascism, making your reading more plausible.
thanks forever + ever for invitin me to have a segment on this weird-ass wonderful show. the next leo vid is gonna be a normal amount of minutes probably.
Woah woah woah, is this the “100 subscriber mega-palooza party & brunch” guy? IN THE COMMENT SECTION OF A LEO VADER VID?!?? I never thought I’d see the day
I watched this show on Amazon Prime not knowing anything about it other than it starred (like you mentioned) that guy from Columbo who directed the weirdedst episode. This was a great vid! You are geniuenly one of my favorite essayists/creators/artists on youtube. You work in these completely vulnerable, beautifully worded moments shrouded in humor that punch me right in the gut. It's sucha joy to go on these journeys with you. You're a unique voice and I appreciate you pushing the envelope even if someone is telling you no. This show definitely influnced my love of Leo Vader. As an aside it took me way to long to realize you were dressed like The Prisoner this whole video.
"Books! I read two books for this, and I know this might seem impossible to you, but me? I could knock out a couple of books in, really, no longer than half a year if it's my job." Thank you for this gift, Leo, I truly appreciate it.
Now that this platform has been flooded with cheap, mindless "video essays" which are actually plot recaps and pretty much nothing else, you have achieved something increasingly rare: your work has got me truly interested in another work. Thank you for making this!
well, that's one thing i can cross off my bucket list. finally someone gave this series the love and respect it deserves. what an insane piece of media. the first ever fan backlash for a tv ending? cheers for this, tremendous work.
Thank you so much Leo! The Prisoner is one of my favorite TV shows of all time and I can never seem to convince anyone else to watch it. I understand why other people my age aren't into it, but I can't even get my boomer dad to watch the show, and he was alive for the original run!
I want you to know that this comment made me stop watching this video less than a minute in so I could go binge the show. I'm on episode 10 and thank you for the outstanding recommendation. I may not have been your target audience, but I'm grateful all the same 👍
I really think, personally, the Prisoner says why he retired in the final episode to the committee when they're interrupting him, and it breaks him. He goes quiet immediately and his face falls so hard, and the rest of the episode he's lost it, from seeing number one to the shoot out. I think it finally broke him, and his reward for compliance is getting to go 'home', but of course London is just the village, society is the village. The Prisoner lost. I love the last episode so much because it feels heartbreaking to me, that shift in McGoohen's face after he yells something we can't hear as everyone shouts is the shift of someone going from breaking to broken. Especially because the President calls for silence like immediately afterwards.
If you're talking about Six attempting to speak before the masked people in Fall Out, he talks about the British pound being devalued. This actually had happened at the time and had a major effect on the world economy. It seemed like an odd subject, but McGoohan was good in math and had managed a bank early in his career. McGoohan does not say what event, program, or information caused him to resign. He says he knew too much but not what he knew. That what the Village wanted.
Not only is Leo Vader back but he’s made a feature-length video about one of my special interest shows and favourite actors? Am I dreaming? Yooo he even gave a Danger Man shoutout? Crazy
I'm excited for the surrealist era of Leo Vader. So glad I watched this right away. The title was so understated compared to all the points and connections you made. I'm shocked this series isn't more well known! Or maybe it is, but either way I'm surprised to not have heard of it! Also- so many jokes from Austin Powers are based in this show, and I'm only now realizing.
Robotto Paluta, an animated kids’ show for NHK, used to give me nightmares as a child because of a guy named Robokuro. Eventually, my mom had to explain that Robokuro was just an alarm clock with arms and legs stitched on. When Leo mentioned Little Leo’s fear of the kidnapper from episode one, that childhood memory hit me like a truck. Crazy. Anyway, great video 😁😁
My history teacher back in high school and I got on quite well due to our love of classic media and, after seeing more than one review compare Evangelion and Lain to The Prisoner, I asked about it. This then lead him to lend me the complete series on VHS which he later gifted me as a graduation present. He passed away several years ago and those tapes got lost in various shuffles of my life, but I'll never forget that gift and those conversations. Be seeing you Mr. L.
I got 15 minutes in and I'm enjoying the video but I don't think I can finish it because now you've got me wanting to go actually watch The Prisoner instead.
I love coming back to watch this retrospective, I believe it was THE retrospective that influenced the famous video from Jenny Nicholson's about the failure of the Star Wars hotel. Essentially sparking the whole genre of long forum essays on youtube. Amazing stuff.
One of the weirdest things about this show is the village it’s filmed in, portmeirion in north Wales. I was staying near there and spotted it from the other side of the river and from that moment to finding and visiting it till leaving portmeirion I felt like I was in a dream and this was my first introduction to the prisoner. It’s like a Mediterranean dreamscape cult-theme park. Everything was so out of place from the obvious architecture and no one living there to the more subtle way everyone working in the shops/cafes smiled like they had a gun to their head.
"And he says the money will be in your company's account by Monday morning. Which it was." 20:02 imagine having that kind of influence for projects you want to push forward. Insane I've never heard of this guy or any of his work. It's as if it was a long time ago and in Britain.
What a terrific walk through. I checked The Prisoner out from my local library like 20 years ago and it's stuck with me ever since. I suggest anyone having trouble finding it check with their library. I think about it whenever I hear Secret Agent Man on the radio and whenever I get assigned an ID number. I am not a number - I'm, like, at least 12 different numbers depending on what I need to do, and if I forget any of them I'm kind of screwed.
@@TSDT I knew it was the theme song but didn't know it was only for the American release so that's kind of interesting. Still a banger of a song, though, and still makes me think of the Prisoner just because it was the more memorable show.
Oh my god me and my boyfriend have been binging your videos for like two weeks AN HOUR LONG VIDEO IS LIKE GIFT!!!! WE WERE GONNA WATCH A MOVIE TONIGHT!!!! ok but like seriously thank u for continuing to make content, I love your stuff and the character (space house guy) you play. You have consistently been creative in fun ways and it's been a blast revisiting your content and keeping up with new uploads. you're one of my favorite RU-vidrs, thank you
I got 49:30 through and saw your editor talking about how it was all free to watch on RU-vid. I’m now returning after watching 17 hours of the prisoner over the last month. Such a trippy show but it was a fun ride
I first encountered The Prisoner in the 90s on the early internet. And I read full plot descriptions of every episode, because that was the only way you had to experience old TV before dvds. I thought it sounded so incredibly cool. Eventually, once dvds were a thing, I attempted to watch it but I always got lost midway through the series and couldn't force my way through. Still to this day, despite KNOWING about the ending, I've never seen it. So thanks for making me feel a little more informed about this show I should love, but in practice am not wild about when actually watching.
Holy shit, Leo, I did not expect for the conclusion of this 2 hour video about a 60s TV series I'd never heard of to hit on the exact creative struggles I've been going through lately. I'm a visual artist who's very scared of the fact that I want to pursue a creative path, because I've grown afraid that to be an artist, I will be "forced" to work long hours and always be in a crunch mode. But your message is a real boost to my confidence that I can create my own healthy, balanced creative life. That I can be my own good boss! This kind of message is really so rare, and you're truly a one of a kind RU-vidr, and one of my favorites! I've missed your videos.
Huh, after watching this entire thing and realising the setting looked oddly familiar I saw the "Port Meirion" in the description and realised that I'd visited there with my mum when I was a child and the realisation has unlocked a huge amount of memories I forgot I had. What a wonderful gift. Thanks, Leo.
This is such a well worded, thoughtful, and articulate critique of a wildly dense show. and you also made me laugh out loud throughout. This is something you're really really good at.
I loved this show when I was younger (still do), and one of my wife's best friends is a huge fan as well. When I showed her the first ep, she was like "oooohhh" Thats why Friend says "Be Seeing You" so much
Omg, my dad showed me and my brother The Prisoner when we were kids too! Honestly still one of my fav shows, so I'm glad this vid popped up in my recommended. I feel like I'm the one always bringing it up to other people (and telling them to watch it if I think they might have any possibility of handling the surrealist aspects), but this was perfect to satisfy the craving for the in-depth discussion of it I've always wanted.
Mr. Vader you missed some incredibly niche and probably unintentional reference to a cowboy movie! 1:05:00 High Noon is a western featuring "Do not forsake me o my darlin'" in its theme song (and the song's title). High Noon focuses on a retired sheriff who has disowned violence and retired after marrying a Quaker, but when a band of criminals he imprisoned returns to kill him and ransack the town he has to go back on his promise. The entirety of the town is a web of twisted allegiances, where everyone seems out to get the sheriff, and no one ends up helping him. Not even his wife, who abandons him until the last 5 minutes of the film. All this even though the sheriff rid the town of crime in the first place. It heavily deals with themes of non-violence and complicit actors in violence, as well as the ineffectiveness of violence , only making both the protagonist and antagonist him grow more resentful. Even a retired older sheriff, the main character predecessor, exists solely to disown violence and the criminal justice system. I think the two pieces have a lot in common, and whether intentional or not it is an incredibly fascination decision to name episode 13 after the movie. Even more fascinating, episode 14 is cowboy themed!
This video might finally get my kids to watch The Prisoner. This was such an amazing show, but if there's one thing I know about being a dad to teens is that nothing you've ever liked will be cool to them. I'll just turn this on and say "what's this dumb show this kid on the tv is babbling about?" and a week from now they'll be experts
Thanks for the video! The first eight minutes convinced me to watch the show and I want to avoid spoilers, so I'm gonna pause this for two years, but thanks for making the rest too!!!!
Thank you for talking about the prevalence of alice in wonderland references in any piece of media thats trying to be weird and quirky. By referencing the OG weird and quirky thing
putting in my prediction now about 16 minutes into the video: not only will this be an incredibly well researched and in depth analysis of the show, it will also culminate in a single bit where the reason you went through all the effort of researching and making this video is because you wanted context behind something silly like a gif you saw on twitter or something edit: 40 ish minutes in now the personal connection would lead one to believe that there wont be a silly twist at the end but im still holding hope that my prediction is correct final edit: he mentioned the emoji movie so i'm giving myself a half point
I saw the title of this video and my immediate thought was, "Man, this guy is so weird. He literally doesn't care about making videos with a broad appeal that will bring in tons of views. He just makes videos on what he finds interesting, no matter how obscure it is. And I fucking love that. I wish more creators followed their own passions and interests instead of trying to cater to what's "popular" with an algorithm. Love it. And I'm going to watch this whole thing.
What a wonderful documentary. Holy Cow. The Prisoner was also a regular feature for me growing up and I talked about it incessantly . I think the best review I can give outside of I watched the whole thing is it made me rethink a lot of those episodes after a decade of having not watched it. Like it never occurred to me we're never told he was a spy. I always assumed it
He was “difficult”, but Paddy McGoohan was a genius - an absolute legend. And “The Prisoner” remains to this day UNIQUE and has something to say. Great vid btw - be seeing you👌
Hey Leo, you may not read this, but I just wanted you to know that this video was absolutely fantastic, and in ny opinion the best thing you've made. The algorithm might hate it, but thank you so much for putting it out into the world.
Seeing this channel’s format evolve has been such a joy, consistently the channel that answers questions I didn’t really need to know the answer to but gives me them anyway and I enjoy this.
Many years ago, another RU-vidr, The Dom. Started a The Prisoner retrospective but never finished it. Thank you for finally giving me what I always wanted
Thank you for this video, Leo! First, just miss watching your stuff. Second, I found out about "The Prisoner" from an old co worker in 2008. I forget how I managed to watch it but I did, most likely the library. I've waited for years for someone to make a video like this. Thankfully it was you. Keep up the awesome projects!
Back again after watching the series through, and this video sings all the sweeter now. I think by the end of my first watch, I was still reeling from the effective speed-watch / speed-analysis of the series, and my eagerness to watch it for myself, that I didn't really take in the epilogue and Leo's conclusion that explains why he made the video in the first place, beyond 'I love this show and want more people to know about it.' The second time around, after having watched the show, and having taken in a fair amount of Leo's work (and the work of many other video essayists over the years), those final lines landed with as much impact as Patty's punching the desk after dropping off his resignation. 'What will you put up with to be remembered' is something that's gonna stick with me for a while. Great work, Leo.
I got in to The Prisoner after I read that the Wolverine origin comic Weapon X took a lot from the series. Logan even drives a Lotus 7 in the first issue right before he's captured
Never seen your channel before, I watched the first 20 minutes or so of your video and then paused it so I could go binge watch The Prisoner before continuing. Wild, amazing series and a well thought out retrospective.
My mom told my friends and I about this show when we were in Jr. High. We (including my mom) took a totally different view of the show. Everything you described as creepy, we thought was hilariously bizarre. We loved it. I can see the creepy reading *for sure* but I enjoy seeing it as funny too
