Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner

I'd seen several episodes of the classic 60s TV series The Prisoner in the past, and had formed a vague impression of it as interesting, but sort of pointlessly weird. A recent, much more attentive viewing of the whole series quickly convinced me that it's nothing of the sort. It's intelligent and subtle, strange and surreal, and at times maddeningly obscure, but "pointless" is the one thing it clearly isn't. After I finished, I was immediately curious as to what other people might have to say about the show and its meaning(s), and this book proved to be exactly what I was looking for. It goes through the show episode by episode (including episodes that were never filmed and even spinoff books), analyzing its recurring themes and show more motifs. It does so without using any lit-crit jargon, and -- very wisely in my opinion -- without ever attempting to push any specific theories or to claim any particular interpretation as the obvious "truth." The authors have quite a few very insightful things to say, and even when I happen to think that they're stretching a point or dwelling too much on a detail, their analysis is always thought-provoking. Definitely recommended for those with an interest in the show. show less

I needed this book. It's 1) from Telos 2) by the pair behind an excellent series of articles on Doctor Who, classic and new and 3) about The Prisoner, the show that needs a guidebook if any ever did. What can I say, beyond the fact that it's an excellent guidebook, focusing more on analyzing the series than factualizing it. You might be tempted to accuse the authors of overanalysis, but if there's any television series where it's warranted, it's this one. They even cover the spinoff novels and comics with as much depth as the original series, which is fairly novel in any television guidebook. I'd like to watch the show again now, but the Region 1 DVD boxset was made by idiots, which makes me reluctant to either buy or Netflix it.

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I knew the names of Alan Stevens and Fiona Moore from their excellent essays on Doctor Who, so I hoped very much that this book, subtitled 'the Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner', would be up to the same standards. I'm glad to say it's the best of the four books I've read about the show, with decent analytical essays about each story (which run out of steam slightly around episode 10, but get their second wind by episode 13). They also have good pieces on the origin and sources, including a measured take on the different stories of how it was made garnered from participants, and a decent explanation of Danger Man. The Carrazé/Oswald book looks nicer but this is much more show more interesting.

And I have to give Telos, the publishers, fair credit; I have no complaints about the production and editing of this volume, unlike some of their other efforts. show less