Prisoner

I must admit, Prisoner scared me as a kid when it was on Channel 10 at 8:30pm. I watch it now, and it's quite funny to watch.

I am very thankful that ALL 692 episodes have been put on DVD. So far I am up to episode 320 and I'm loving it. Sets that shake when a character gets roughed up against the brick walls of Wentworth. It is just classic. Locks on security doors that probably don't work, but characters spend time making noise with the keys.

Lovable characters, such as Bea Smith, Old Lizzie, Sandy Edwards, Meg Jackson/Morrison, Vera Bennett, Steve Falkner, Smart, Jim Fletcher, and many many others.

Based on what I have seen so far, Vera Bennett and The Freak Furgesson would not have played well together. They really are two very different types of characters who would have clashed at all levels. Vera may have been hard towards the prisoners, but she was brutally honest. As for the Freak, as the most bent officer so far, she causes a lot of the problems faced by Wentworth. Vera would not have stood for it.

It is good to see the camera work and lighting has improved over the years, in some scenes the lighting is actually quite bad. Sometimes it is actually hard to see what is going on in the dark scenes.

From time to time some of the same actors re-appear as different characters, but thats a soap opera for you.

If you have not had a chance to watch Prisoner yet, give it a shot. As badly made as it is, it is also addictive to watch. I plan on watching all episodes of Prisoner. I recommend you give it a shot too.

I first came across Prisoner on TV and i watched the first 2 episodes and i was hooked from there. I went online and started ordering the DVDs of the whole series and since acquiring the complete series on DVD i have watched the complete series. Well let me tell you "wow" what a great show, never a dull moment and action packed with great story lines.

I can't recommend this show enough, if you haven't seen it and you are interested, watch it you won't be disappointed I promise you. Its one of the best Australian television shows ever.

Watch it 5 stars

By the time prisoner graced our screens in 1988 it had already been canceled in its native Australia after a seven-year run (ending in 1986). In the UK it was not aired on prime time but found itself relegated to the post 11.00pm watershed probably because of it's risky and controversial story lines. Depending on what region you lived in, could be found any time after midnight.(In fact quite often Thames would screen it from 11.00 -12-00 and if you could pick up Anglia TV they would show it from 12.00 - 01.00 but a couple of seasons ahead.) Fortunately for prisoner by 1986 the four terrestrial channels had finally entered the 20thC and began broadcasting all through the night, therefore, shows such as prisoner became the ideal type of television to fill these new slots.

Needless to say this Aussie import like all the others soon developed it's own cult following. Unlike most of the other goody-goody Auzzie soaps that were located in middle class locations with spoiled teenagers and dopey grown ups working in coffee shops, prisoner by contrast was mostly broadcast in a windowless claustrophobic environment of a correctional facility.

Wentworth prison as with most prison TV shows had all the stereotypes. Those included were the heartless senior members of the staff who were totally committed to punishment and discipline who were of course held in check by the jelly-spined social workers and the well intentioned Governess who not surprising clung to the hope that these women could be rehabilitated. The inmates too had there's, the 'Top Dog', 'the dike', the gang leaders with their 'wenchmen', the hard cases, the old timer the whiner, the non conformist and last but not least the 'nark' or 'snitch'.

The main theme of the prisoner story lines broadly focused on the inmates standing up to the seemingly petty and inflexible rules of the prison system, (i.e. don't let the bastards grind you down scenarios). Yet prisoner also grappled with some of the every day problems that many of the women were forced to come to terms with, lesbianism, bullying, sadistic guards, prison gangs, and drugs.

For some viewers this no doubt provided a refreshing alternative to the bland political news shows that were broadcast after the pubs closed. Having said that, a few pints of lager was probably the order of the day as the Wentworth inmates at best were not easy on the eye and at worst just plain scary! As any warm-blooded male with tell you after alcohol consumption a lot of homely women begin to look respectable. In all fairness without a decent hairdresser or make up, denim overalls and dungarees are never going bring the best out of any woman, so perhaps that's what made many of the actors believable, no Charlie's angels here.

This is certainly the best prison show ever, and probably the best soap opera/melodrama ever, too. It's humor and lack of pretension make it 100 times better than "Oz" will ever be. Of course, setting it in a women's prison gave the creators a lot more freedom in dealing with characters. We have fewer preconceptions so they couldn't rely on stereotypes like they do on "Oz". It would be neat, in a way, if they could have Vera (aka Vinegar Tits) guest star as a guard on Oz. She'd straighten that place up in short order! Somebody please bring this back to American TV!!

If you live in Sweden and were to say "I watch 'Prisoner'" to one of your friends, you would get a big laugh. You would probably be mocked for eternity. I too was one of the mockers, one of the bullies. My brother once told me he watched Prisoner, I laughed hard and long but then realised that he didn't have much choice since he didn't have cable and hence nothing to watch late at night. The summer of 2003 things changed. I shared an apartment with him during this summer and he forced me to watch it. O boy, it didn't take long to understand what I had missed during these long years.

The show is really dramatic and even though some of the actors/actresses aren't the best (and damn right ugly!) or the visual dramatic effects are pretty poor. The storyline and the plot are really well thought of and every episode is really packed with action and drama. If you were to compare it to another long running show like Days of Our Lives, DoOL wouldn't stand a chance. If you miss a week of episodes of Prisoner you miss A LOT, and when you come back to watch you wouldn't know what's going on. However if you miss a month of DoOL and come back to watch, you're still in the game and know exactly what's going on since one single small event can last for a week of episodes. They story advances really fast in Prisoner and that's what makes it so different from all the modern soap operas which are advancing DoOL style; slow as hell.

The only thing I fear now is whether I'll be able to find the time to watch all the upcoming episodes of Prisoner - I really don't want to miss one single episode!

My name is stekflott and I am a Prisoner addict.