A Variety of Television Subgenres
Television sub-genres have experienced great diversity and quality, with everything seemingly explored to the extreme. Prison series, for example, run the gamut from modern classics like the remarkable Oz to more elaborate productions like Prison Break, through more intimate narratives like Orange is the new black or adaptations of true cases like Black Bird. These series have shown the ability of the creators to reinvent the representation of life in confinement, especially at a time when the social debate about its effectiveness and what happens inside prisons is at the forefront. In this sense, the Danish series Prisoner has revealed itself as an exceptional window into a world that symbolizes social dysfunctions.
A Renewed Vision of the Classic Narrative
Not only does Prisoner offer a fresh take on the classic narrative, it also stands as one of the best prison series ever created. Through a dramatic crescendo, the series captivates the viewer in a tense and captivating atmosphere, while working in detail on the staging, the characterization of the characters and the physical and moral environments they inhabit. The opening sequence of the first episode eloquently illustrates the disruptive gaze of a new guard at the penitentiary, introducing an overt discomfort among the inmate population and setting the stage for later events.
Exploring Complex Relationships and Social Issues
The remaining six episodes of Prisoner explore the complex relationships and dynamics between guards and inmates, as well as the relationship between the outside world and inside the prison. The series blurs stereotypes and Manicheism to portray a nuanced reality and talk about social issues such as structural racism, family problems and gray areas. The characters, exceptionally played, convey a disarming credibility, reflecting their condition as adrift beings caught in a web of bad decisions, irreversible tragedies and lack of opportunity. Thus, the series becomes an immersion in uncomfortable truths, presented with such mastery that the viewer comes to forget that he is facing a fiction.
