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.
