terrible... so disappointed.

Pretty Good

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This Australian television series is a drama set in an Australian women's prison called Wentworth Detention Centre. The series depicts the lives of the female inmates and prison staff, with emphasis placed on the inmates. The series is essentially a soap opera, with stories continuing from episode to episode.The drama in this series is always riveting. The characters are well developed with their own individual stories. The mood of the show can quickly alternate between fear and humor. The series is never boring.When the series was first broadcast in the United States during the early 1980's, it was often shown late at night on local television stations. Some of the language used on the series was often too vulgar to be aired during earlier hours on American broadcast television. The series also frequently depicted intense situations as well as physical violence.The series was broadcast under different titles outside of Australia. In both the United States and the United Kingdom, the title used for the series was "Prisoner Cell Block H." In Canada, the title that was used was "Caged Women."This television series has an addictive quality. It is easy for viewers to become caught up in the continuing stories; and, the cliffhangers keep the viewers coming back for more. Because of language, violence, and adult situations; the series is not recommended for young children. Overall, this is a fascinating television series which has developed a cult following for a very good reason. The show is highly recommended.

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.

This ran over here in America at 11:30 at night on a local station. There was a lot of controversy about it at first. The plots dealing with lesbians, beatings, murder, rape etc. etc. were pretty strong for TV back then. But it never really caught on...here in Boston at least. It ran for a few months almost uncut (some words were bleeped out) and then was cancelled due to low ratings.I was in college when it played here and it was great! After a long night of studying it was kind of fun to relax and watch this somewhat campy prison soap. The acting was pretty bad and the story lines were more than a little unbelievable but it was a lot of fun to watch. Also it moved much quicker than your typical afternoon soap. So it was a fun and daring soap for its time. I'm not sure if it would hold up today. Shows like "Oz" have gone a lot farther than this could.

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!!