The Prisoner (1967-1968)

You cannot make a drama with only one character

The Prisoner is a TV show consisting of ten episodes, where there is only one character. The most consistent other character, the interrogator, Number Two, is played by different people from episode to episode, and is a meaningless, powerless nonentity, such as Leo McKern being spun around and around. There are a few other one-dimensional characters, but they are not much more than living props, they appear and then disappear, and they don't appear to have any independent personality of their own.

There is supposedly a quest for "information" or the question of "who is number one" but these just seem to be excuses for McGoohan to indulge himself.

I don't think it's enigmatic or mysterious so much as pointless - without any other characters, and without any clear motivations, what possible meaning could it have? It's just one man running around in a landscape, with nobody else substantial enough to interact with him.

You need at least two characters to make any kind of drama.

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