TV on DVD for October 27th
With most of the big sets out of the way, our DVD attention now turns toward the older shows. This week does offer a couple of current things from Battlestar Galactica, Adult Swim, and The Secret Saturdays. The real gems, however, come from years gone by. My pick for the week would be the new Collector’s Edition of The Prisoner, but I already have the 40th Anniversary set. If you also find that particular collection checked off on your DVD to-do list, you may be interested in the various selections in the Monty Python section.
Reminder: Don’t forget to enter the latest CliqueClack DVD giveaway. Just leave a comment and you’ll be eligible to win the Adult Swim In A Box collection. The complete list of this week’s releases is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
The top 100 SciFi shows – Behind the scenes at CliqueClack TV
We here at CliqueClack TV are many things: caring, charitable, dashingly handsome (or beautiful), and passionate. Very passionate. We’re so passionate that we make a Harlequin romance novel seem like a teenage sex romp. This is especially true when it comes to Internet “Top xxx” lists. When one comes out with a listing of television series, the proverbial gloves come off.
This time around, it was a list of the Top 100 science fiction/fantasy shows of all time that pissed off produced a lively debate at the CliqueClack offices. Here are a few of the comments made by our fine staff of writers.
KEITH: What a weird list. Some make sense, others are way out of left field. How can they even include a show like Warehouse 13 in the list at all, when the show’s so new? And to put Dollhouse in the top 20 so soon?
Diary of a Prisoner virgin – Getting to know Number Six
(Episode 12 – “Hammer Into Anvil” & Episode 13 – “Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling”)
Things seem to have been kicked up a notch with these past two episodes, and I almost wonder if this is the point at which the series was slated not to continue past this one season. I’ll explain later.
In “Hammer Into Anvil,” Six clearly gets the upper hand on the Guardians, in particular Number Two and the creepy Supervisor. This is where the constant ousting of Number Twos hurts the mission of those in charge of The Village: if they keep putting new people in place to watch over and attempt to extract information from Number Six, each successive replacement won’t learn from the mistakes of the past. Number Six clearly is now using this to his advantage, and it’s probably his motivation for making this Two resign on his own — out with the old, in with the new and uninformed.
Diary of a Prisoner Virgin – Lost borrows its brainwashing
(Episode 10 – “It’s Your Funeral” & Episode 11 – “A Change of Mind”)
I’ve already made mention of two elements of The Prisoner that I believe Lost borrowed from: the Rovers (smoke monster) and the hidden doors (stations). In “A Change of Mind,” there’s yet another borrowed element: brainwashing people by throwing them in front of a screen for hours on end.
Above are images from both the Prisoner episode I mentioned and Lost’s “Not in Portland” episode, featuring Karl while at the Others’ camp in season three. Both times the people are sitting in an isolated room, clearly being brainwashed or getting “aversion therapy,” conditioning them to think however the administrator wants. Though this may be a complete coincidence, I noticed that even the font used in the video shown to Karl looks remarkably similar to lettering used all over The Prisoner. Here’s an image from what Karl saw …
Diary of a Prisoner Virgin – The scary white balloons are suddenly named
(Episode 8 – “The Schizoid Man” & Episode 9 – “Many Happy Returns”)
The series is definitely getting better. As I said before, what’s neat about The Prisoner is that each episode, so far, is self-contained. For the most part, nothing we’ve learned from previous episodes carries over into the present, other than the general premise. You could catch the pilot episode and then skip a whole slew of episodes within the series, then hop right in here, at the eighth and ninth episodes, and not feel out of place. Well, “out of place” is a relative term when it comes to The Prisoner.
Diary of a Prisoner Virgin – Number Six carves a boat out of a single tree in an afternoon
(Episode 4 – “Checkmate” & Episode 5 – “The Chimes of Big Ben”)
I have to admit that, going into “Checkmate,” I wasn’t digging this show. I loathed to hear the awful “music” again, and … well, that’s about it. The music really is that bad. Fortunately I seem to have gotten somewhat used to it and have somehow allowed myself to ignore it for the most part.
After hearing basically the same episode intro for the fourth time, I’m finding myself analyzing it more. The show opens the same way, with Number Six (we never know his real name, at least not yet) racing in his cool-ass car to what is presumably his boss’s office to resign. Thunder booms and awful music plays over whatever he’s ranting about to his boss, he walks out in a huff to his car and speeds off home. There, he’s packing his things for what looks to be a getaway somewhere tropical, someone gasses his flat and he passes out. Then he wakes up in The Village and we hear the same dialog again and again (from Wikiquote):
Diary of a Prisoner Virgin – Information: by hook or by crook … or by breakfast?
(Episode 2 – “Free for All”)
So early in the game, this is where things get really strange, and I’m not talking about the show content itself. The DVD set has this set as the second episode, whereas the “real” second episode — the one that aired on television — was “Chimes of Big Ben,” which doesn’t come for several more episodes on the DVDs. So, I decided to take the DVD set route and watch “Free for All” first. I’m not sure yet if it was the right choice.
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