Matthew White & Jaffer Ali, �The Official Prisoner Companion�
If experience is any indicator for what is to come, a book written about a television show is bound to suck. And it will suck even harder if outsiders write it. This I know. And yet I still buy things like this. Why? Because I�m a chump with too many obsessions, that�s why.
And knowing all of this, I read nearly all of it in a three-hour stretch while waiting at the DMV. That alone would make anything suck. There is nothing short of involving public nudity that would make a three-hour wait at the DMV enjoyable.
Except, possibly, for reading this book. Knowing that if you�re bothering to read a book about the television show, you�ve probably seen the program, and thus they avoid retelling the entire episode (such as the awful Prisoner book by Dave Rogers.
Instead we�re given a short summary, hitting key points and a few memorable lines written in a lively style. The end of each chapter then lists a few trivia items and observations or philosophical points, yet they are careful not to shake their fists screaming, �This is what it�s supposed to mean.� They leave that to you, as well they should. This is one show that is not supposed to be cut and dried.
After the episode guide, the second half of the book talks about the debates, the fans and the critics, and includes interviews with Patrick McGoohan and others involved with the show. And it does all of these things while never fawning over the creators or pandering to the audience — the book assumes the reader will be able to make their own decisions about the symbolism and the show. I appreciate that.
But the highest praise would come from the fact that simply by reading this book, I wanted to stop what I was doing and do a marathon screening of my Prisoner episodes. I didn�t, since I was still waiting in line at the DMV, but the thought was there.
