The Prisoner

I heard about this old series when its star and creator Patrick McGoohan died earlier this year. AMC has filmed a remake which will air this year, and on their website you can currently watch the original in its entirety. It's a unique mix of espionage, science fiction, and psychological absurdity. McGoohan is an agent of some sort who suddenly retires from his post, and is then drugged and brought to a strange village on a remote island, where everyone has a number instead of a name, and he doesn't know who to trust. He's number six, and a string of number twos along with their secret allies try a variety of methods to find out what secret led to his retirement, from psychotherapy to virtual reality and everything in between.

For the most part it's a battle of wits between six and his captors, as he constantly attempts escape and once in a while even makes it back to England, before eventually being returned to the island. There are occasional fisticuffs and scenes where a giant white balloon chases him, though mostly the conflict in the show is more cerebral. I mostly enjoyed the series, which had some mostly boring episodes but also some really good ones, especially one where he avenges an innocent woman's death by making number two paranoid enough to declare himself unfit for service. The show gets stranger as it goes on, culminating in the final episode, where court is held before an audience of men in white robes and masks, and bizarre musical interludes and imagery accompany a completely ambiguous ending. It can be frustrating when you've spent all that time wondering what was really going on, but in the end it's a pretty interesting and influential show.