12 Hilariously Bad Attempts To Reboot Classic TV Shows
12. The Prisoner
The 1960s saw many creative and ground-breaking shows, not least Patrick McGoohan's science fiction spy series The Prisoner. The series followed a secret agent, known only as Number 6 who is knocked out before waking up and finding himself held captive in a mysterious village. In 2005 a co-production between US channel AMC and the UK's ITV saw Number 6 return to the screen played by Jim Caviezel of The Passion of the Christ fame and Ian McKellen in the role of his supervisor, Number 2. Given the best opportunity to shine, The Prisoner debuted on UK television on prime time Saturday night following on from Britain's Got Talent. Evidently the AMC gloss and production was not enough as it laboured to 3.2 million viewers and dwindled from there as the series continued. So what was wrong with it? A large number of changes were made to the original story in an effort to avoid the label of 'reboot.' Instead was called a 're-imagining.' Though the iconic Rover, a floating white ball that could incapacitate or even kill escapees, survived the changes with just a new name, (the Beast) two major victims of this policy were the plot and the grassy greens of Wales, that were inexplicably replaced with deserts. Despite the series only running six episodes long critics found it rambling, dull and boring resulting in a lowly Metacritic score of 46.
