The Prisoner - Set 4: A Change of Mind/Hammer Into Anvil/Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling/Living in Harmony

Rating:
Summary: From His Fiercest Battles To His Decent Into Surrealism...
Review: This Prisoner set is action-packed and prepares the audience for the finale set. And, yes, it can be enjoyed on it's own without the other sets.

Though these episodes are terrific, they originally weren't intended for filming and so, in some way, that makes them technically "filler"- an episode spent in another person's body, an episode in the wild west, etc. They don't connect with the central plot insomuch as the Prisoner spends the first two episodes going after No. 2 and the community at large.

In A Change Of Mind, No. 6 pays the price for the constant disdain with which he treats his fellow villagers and the way they live. He has to deal with a public shunning, which you'd think would suit No. 6 just fine, right?

Hammer Into Anvil is a personal favorite of mine as No. 6 challenges a particularly angry No. 2 through phychological manipulation.

Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling has a different actor playing No. 6 (there's a reason). And this fellow does a rather good job of capturing McGoohan's performance in a different body.

Living In Harmony is a curio episode. It's really fun to see the world of The Prisoner transplanted to the wild west. It shows the malleable nature of stories in general and proves a point about the underlying meanings of the series. My father loves those old western t.v. shows, and The Prisoner, so this episode is always a particular treat for him.

All four episodes are great, as long as you don't object to their lack of relation to the main plot. That actually makes this set ideally able to stand on its own. You get two intense conflicts between No. 6 and his captors, as well as a western oddity and a great episode without much McGoohan or village in it for a change of pace. After this, No. 6 is ready for things to come to a head- Be Seeing You!