Food for thought! Is the Prisoner-No.6 too good to be true, and how believable is his character?" I know he wants to be free, to escape. But escape from what, the Village, or himself? And when he gets the freedom he craves, what exactly will he do with it? It is possible that the Prisoner-No.6 is unhappy with himself, that he needs to find inner peace.
As for his character, why didn't No.6 crack under the techniques employed against him? I know that agents are trained to withstand almost any interrogation technique. But no-one is as strong and rigid as No.6, if he doesn't bend, he'll break, as No.2 once said during 'The Chimes of Big Ben.' Even the best trained agents break under prolonged interrogation, they do not get the better of their adversaries as No.6 does. For No.6 not to crack under interrogation would make him less than human. Heroes always have their faults, No.6 comes across as being perfect. There is one time when No.6 does show real signs of "cracking up," during 'The Schizoid Man.' But then No.6 gets lucky, and in reversing the electrical therapy/conditioning he previously underwent, he was able to regain his "old self!"
The Prisoner has a high moral standard, but no man is that moral. His relationships, if you can call them relationships, with women in the Village, go so far and no further. He comes to the aid of a "damsel in distress," but wants nothing from them for himself. No,6, the perfect gentleman, or so it appears!
As John Drake, Patrick McGoohan used to be my boyhood hero. As the Prisoner-No.6 I have idolised him for decades. But now I'm beginning to see No.6 through different eyes. Perhaps I've been mistaken all these years, that No.6 is just too perfect, and simply too good to be true.
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