The Prisoner (TV Series) Once Upon a Time (1968) User Reviews

A stage play high on drama

[Mr-Fusion · 9/10 · 13 October 2017]

'Once Upon A Time' is another episode that encapsulates "The Prisoner". Number 2 exacts "Degree Absolute" on Number 6, and with that, the gloves are off. Both men are locked in a room in a concentrated battle of wills until one of them breaks . Leo McKern is back, and it plays as a clash of two outsized actors. Really, McKern was the only Number 2 worthy of such a story.

One of the show's famous pieces of trivia is that McKern suffered a nervous breakdown from the performance; and that bit of life imitating art really bolsters the authenticity. Still, the whole episode's heated and you can see the toll right there on his face the entire time. It's why this isn't easy to watch. But it's one of the most intense episodes of the show; not to mention dark, despite the playroom setting and rhyme-infused dialogue. As the penultimate episode, it sets up a great two-parter finale. Number Six leaves the room with the promise of finally unmasking Number One.

There's no beating that.

9/10

The Village Hits a Breaking Point

[Samuel-Shovel · 8/10 · 7 August 2019]

In "Once Upon a Time" an old Number Two reappears to try to get Number Six to talk with a controversial tactic. By locking the pair in a room together and subjecting a brainwashed Six to regressive therapy, the hope is that Number Six will have a breakdown and confess. The two are in a battle of wits for an entire week in a enclosed space and both go a bit bananas. In the end, it is Number Six that snaps out of it victorious and Number Two whose heart and mind can't take it, keeling over dead of a heart attack. The Supervisor let's Number Six out who demands a meeting with Number One as the episode ends.

To the uninitiated, this episode is nonsensical. Even to a Prisoner watcher this episode is almost impossible to follow. The surrealness of this bizarre room and the wild dialogue getting thrown back and forth between the two men. It's straight up disorienting. But this avant garde spectacle isn't without purpose.

The Village is at its wits end on how to deal with Number Six and you can feel the fabric of the whole operation starting to tear. This is why they've decided to let this crazed Number Two even try this. He appears to be a bit off even before they go into the room: he yells at the servant, he sings some off-tune children's songs. And at some point he's lost his upper hand against Number Two. Is he truly unbreakable? If a week of brainwashing and bizarre play-acting doesn't make him go over the she, what will?

The Best Of The Best

[verbusen · 10/10 · 22 August 2009]

OK here you go, you've watched 15 episodes for the first time and hope and pray'd that John Drake would escape from the village (I know he never had a name in the series and that McGoohan denies that it's John Drake but we all know it's John Drake from Dangerman, McGoohan didn't want to have to pay any fees to the Dangerman people), your just two episodes to the climatic conclusion, well this is your true reward; the best episode of the series (possibly tied with Arrival and also Chimes Of Big Ben). Once Upon A Time caused Leo McKern, according to Patrick McGoohan and others from the series interviews, to have a nervous breakdown, his role is so intense and he gets so into the story, that alone should be reason enough to praise this episode. McKern is my favorite Number 2 but I've really liked others as well, and in this episode its number 6 mono e mono with number 2. BTW episodes where those two are in direct conflict throughout the episode make for some excellent drama (ie Dance Of The Dead, Hammer Into Anvil). Another indication that this episode is so great is that after watching it, the grand finale will be a let down, it's that good. Easily a 10 of 10 episode, but don't start watching the series with this one, start from the beginning. Also if you really get into this series there is a TON of stuff on youtube.com from British TV shows that will entertain you for hours. Be Seeing You.

A Standalone Episode Worthy of Accolade

[macheath-ny · 10/10 · 1 September 2009]

I remember when the series first played in the US. We had just gone through the "Battle of Chicago" and were about to begin the slow slide into mediocrity with the election of Richard Nixon. We were a year after the "summer of love" and a year before "Woodstock Nation". Drugs were still a new phenomenon in the American middle class, and enough of us believed that there was still hope to galvanize a huge portion of the population. And then, in the middle of it all, came the face of a smiling No. 2....

The Prisoner is truly an archetypal series. It so accurately reflects its time in both its excellences and its deficiencies. There's no question that the majority of the episodes play better to a cannabinolized audience; and I won't argue with someone seeing the series in the 21st century for the first time who complains that there are so many plot holes and bad acting in so many of the episodes that they can't understand why anyone would consider this worthwhile.

But then, there's "Once upon a Time".

This is more than an episode. It's more than a TV show. It is high drama and classic stagecraft. When seen without commercials, it has the impact of a Beckett or Pinter one-act. It is unquestionably McGoohan's magnum opus. I expect that someday, perhaps in the not too distant future, someone will get the idea of putting it onstage, along with "The Dumb Waiter" or "Play", so that the author will get the recognition he deserves as a playwright. But in the meantime, if you have any affection for "theatre of the absurd" or "comedy of menace", you should make this episode a must see. And if you've started the series but have lost your enthusiasm after an episode or two, skip right to this. Once you understand the premise, you don't need all of the prior 15 episodes to fully immerse yourself in what cannot be denied is an exemplar of 20th century dramaturgy.

It Came Out of the Heydays of Beckett, Ionesco, and Pinter

[Hitchcoc · 10/10 · 23 February 2015]

Yes, even though my knowledge is inadequate to totally understand the theatre of the absurd, this sojourn into the realm of despair and existentialism is a masterpiece that I would bet most people are unaware. As our Prisoner, Number Six, is again manipulated with mind altering actions, he finds himself living as a child in a man's body. Once again, the purpose is to get him to reveal why he resigned as a spy. What is done is to take Shakespeare's "The Seven Ages of Man" and run our hero through these passages from birth, to infirmity, to death. Along the way, it is hoped that he will develop a bond with his "father" (Number Two) and reveal things that he previously will not. Number Two stakes his life on this. As Number Six passes through each of the ages, he develops knowledge and more resistance, the stubbornness and wonder of the child, if you will. The misfortune, if you can call it that, for Number Two is that he has done some programming to deny Six to the access of his past. The whole visual portrayal and the incredible acting of Patrick McGoohan and Leo McKern provide a tour de force that is hard to forget.

Determination

[AaronCapenBanner · 10/10 · 9 June 2015]

The new(and returning) number two(played by Leo McKern) is determined to once-and-for-all break the supremely resilient will of number six(Patrick McGoohan) and learn the reasons for his resignation from service, and agrees to "degree absolute", a technique which will only see one of them emerge alive. Six is again drugged and reverted to a child-like state in a sealed room with two, who acts as a father/ teacher figure to try and learn what makes him tick by exploring his past, but finds that the same iron-willed determination persists, eventually re-emerging to successfully challenge them both in and out of a most literal prison. Brilliant episode is supremely well acted by its two stars, aided by the silent butler(Angelo Muscat). Unforgettable imagery, plot, and ideas in a most fascinating journey into the bizarre, the truth about the village, and in particular the identity of number one...

Brilliant

[rtscannell · 10/10 · 7 January 2021]

Reminded me of the dream sequence in Trees Lounge (Steve Buscemi et al - lots of A&B stars in that flick). Probably best episode of all Great series -

Just when I was hoping this episode would get the show back on track

[grantss · 5/10 · 30 April 2022]

Number Two has grown impatient with Number Six's doggedness and non-compliance and decides to get him to talk, once and for all. He engages in a series of mind games in order to try to trick Number Six into spilling the beans.

For the first 12 episodes The Prisoner was great, an intense, intriguing, intelligent battle of wits and wills between Number Six and a variety of Number Twos and their minions. Then came the 13th episode - Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling - and the quality of the show took a sharp downturn with a plot that was threadbare and didn't make much sense.

The 14th and 15th episodes - Living In Harmony and The Girl Who Was Death - were even worse, suddenly moving the setting to another time and place. Anytime a show suddenly is set in a new location and/or time period (especially) you know the writers have run out of ideas and this exactly what happened there. These two episodes weren't really The Prisoner but rather out-of-place, haphazard stories jammed into the show.

With this episode I was hoping that normal transmission would be resumed and we would again see a Number 6 vs Number 2 battle of wits and wills. Plus, being the penultimate episode I was expecting an indication of how Number 6's predicament would be resolved.

Well, we have the duel and some progress toward a solution but it's not done in a good way. The writing here is all over the place, with random detours, plot developments that make no sense and all sorts of trippy images and scenes that are just there to paper over the lack of genuine plot.

Very disappointing.

If Yelling Makes a Great Episode...

[coachsalm · 4/10 · 9 August 2022]

Than this is for you. Annoying and grating and loud. Two adults screaming at each other like pre-schoolers. You'll feel like fast forwarding past the nonsense.

Losing the plot!

[Aroura64 · 5/10 · 7 December 2019]

Up until this episode, The Prisoner is a groundbreaking, innovative and iconic series. But this episode was obviously done on the cheap, four main characters, studio bound and the set littered with props. I don't believe there is any depth to the plot, just two characters ranting at each other. But the episode ends on a very good cliff hanger, which sets the audience up for the finale. I have a feeling that if "Once upon a time" was the first episode in the series, The Prisoner might never have been made. What a loss to 1960's culture that would have been.

Dumbest episode of the lot.

[Reviewed · 2/10 · 26 June 2019]

Most boring too.Maybe OK for stage, but for television it is a miss.