John Doe

"John Doe" is a fascinating show with characters that are surprisingly real for such a surreal work.

Begin with John himself, a man with total personal amnesia yet he knows virtually everything else! If you suddenly understood complex mathematics and statistical probability, wouldn't you use that knowledge to get rich? John does. Newly rich, Doe also acquires an identity so that he can have a life while he tries to find his old one.

Encountering a missing child's image, he begins a quest to help police find her, initially believing that she must be connected to him, for he sees her in color despite being color blind.

Who is John Doe? He's a real guy, wanting a nice place but quick to help other's when he can.

Surrounding Doe are a cast of characters, including Lt. Jamie Avery, a tough policewoman who questions Doe's helpfulness; Hayes, a police officer who sees Doe as a valuable ally and possibly a friend; Digger, a bar owner with a philosophical nature hidden by a gruff exterior; and Karen, a vibrant eighteen-year-old art student who might prove John's best chance of regaining his lost memory

If you enjoyed the surrealistic "Twin Peaks", or were a fan of the less dour episodes of "The X-Files", give "John Doe" a chance. You might find yourself liking the man, even if you don't know who he really is.

John Doe is quite probably the best new TV show that you've never seen. Why? Because of its time slot. I remember when The X-Files was on at the same time, and it struggled for ratings. Now, (at least, at the time I'm writing this) this wonderful drama has been stuck in the same slot, on "date night" when nobody is home to watch it except us geeks.

The basic plot is great: John Doe wakes up and realizes he knows everything except what's important - his identity. He's also colorblind. I got sucked in from the beginning, because I thought the plot sounded like a nifty idea, and I became addicted. Even my mother watches it, and we don't usually have the same taste in tv shows. John Doe, though, has become appointment TV, we make a point to sit down together and have dinner once a week while figuring out this week's mystery.

This is one of the few dramas I like, because it has a mystery to it, and because of the trivia John comes up with each episode. It's not your usual shoot-em-up cop show or blah-blah-my-life-is-so-hard yakfest. I highly recommend watching it, you'll be hooked!

I was completely surprised by this series. I've heard very little about it and wasn't exactly anticpating it but I'm so glad I got a chance to watch it. I believe I've found the first show I'll go out of my way to watch since My So-Called Life. It held my attention for the entire fifty minutes. The pacing was excellent, the writing was excellent, and while the lead character's acting might take some getting used to on my part- I highly enjoyed it. Unlike so many of the other "Next Files", John Doe is actually intelligent and refreshingly original. I've avoided TV so much lately it was quite a shock for me to see a program that was actually entertaining. I'm very excited about the future of this show.

very good new show. kept me on the edge of my seat the whole hour, wanting to find out what happens next. It contains a lot of interesting facts which seem real, and you actually learn new things every time you watch this show. I highly recommend this show to anyone who likes the mystery/suspense/action genre.

I get the feeling that my wife and I were the only two people watching this show. The characters were very likeable, and Mr. Doe himself Dominic Purcell was great. I hope that at least something good for his career comes out of this show.

A man appears seemingly from nowhere with total amnesia but possessing the total knowledge contained in the Library of Congress, and then some, turns up in Seattle. While he tries to figure out who he is and where he came from, he becomes a private investigator helping the police with its most difficult cases. The running subplot are hints of his past and a cult organization that either created him or is trying to control him.

This makes for a very interesting show with the normal episodic suspense of a detective show, but with the bonus with ongoing suspense about the detective himself. The cast and their roles were great. This show was simply begging you to like it. What failed was the writing. The premise of the series and the plots of each episode were great, but execution was terrible. In every episode there was some completely absurd part that made you cringe. The writers never seemed to figure out what it meant to know everything. Doe not only is smart, but also has instant muscle memory and can learn new physical tasks instantly. In one episode, he even predicts the weather. And sadly, some of Doe's knowledge is totally absurd. For example, in the first episode, Doe recites the entire binary code (in ones and zeros) for the original version of MS DOS in front of a crowd of astonished spectators in a matter of hours (the crowd sticks around to hear it all).

The idea that this guy knows everything is pretty incredible but leaves an huge area to work with, but this concept was totally abused. As much as I would have liked the series to work, I was left only with the impression of the pretentiousness of the writers. It's pretty hard to create an almost omniscient character when you yourself are pretty dumb. I think that under more capable hands, this show could have been great.