"John Doe" Pilot (2002)

User Rating:

8.7/10   

Director:

Mimi Leder

Writers:

Brandon Camp (creator) &
Mike Thompson (creator) ...

TV Series:

"John Doe" (2002)

Original Air Date:

20 September 2002 (Season 1, Episode 1)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Plot:

A man awakens on an island only to discover that he has no memory of who he is. Without knowing his identity...

Plot Keywords:

Police | Amnesia | Police Detective | Washington State | Genius

Cast

Dominic Purcell	...	John Doe
Jayne Brook	...	Jamie Avery
John Marshall Jones	...	Frank Hayes
Sprague Grayden	...	Karen Kawalski
William Forsythe	...	Digger
Romy Rosemont	...	Mrs. Nichols
John Rosenfeld	...	Evan Nichols
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Doug Abrahams	...	Cashier
Daniel Boileau	...	Greasy
Peter Bryant	...	Paramedic
Erica Carroll	...	Girlfriend
Matthew Currie Holmes	...	Sweetheart
Glynis Davies	...	Inquisitive
Jodelle Ferland	...	Jenny Nichols
Ona Grauer	...	Theresa
Patricia Idlette	...	Bureaucracy
Fred Keating	...	Car Salesman
Jenny Kim	...	Inquisitor
Karin Konoval	...	Beehive
Dion Luther	...	Stockbroker
Claudette Mink	...	Turquoise
Marilyn Norry	...	Lipstick Realtor
Julie Patzwald	...	Girl who Asks 'When Will I Die'
Daniel Pepper	...	Uniform Cop
Meshach Peters	...	Tyler Hayes
Chad Rook	...	Spiked Hair (as Chad E. Rook)
Robert Seckler	...	Sleepy Cop
Haig Sutherland	...	Shaggy
George Touliatos	...	Sausage

Runtime:

Germany:43 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English | Khmer

Color:

Black and White (some sequences) | Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Regency Television

Quotes:

John Doe: So what am I? Escaped mental patient? Alien that sees in black and white? Government lobotomy experiment? What else was I to think? For a guy who had all the answers, I didn't have the ones that mattered the most.

Movie Connections:

Features "Jeopardy!" (1984)

Soundtrack:

Trouble

A Must-Watch That Nobody Does...

In a time when Reality-TV and copy-cat Sitcoms dominate the air, one show has come to give the viewers something unique, mentally stimulating and exciting. The show follows the exploits of John Doe (Purcell), a man who knows every bit of trivia except for who he is. His super-human knowledge is used two-fold every episode, to assist the police is solving a crime-of-the-day and to figure out something about himself. While at first the concept seems a little far-fetched at first, Purcell and the excellent cast around him, especially William Forsythe as Doe's best friend Digger, keep you ready for the next episode. The writers make sure that every episode gives you just enough information to realize that all your predictions from the week before were wrong and enough teasers of what's to come to let you make some more guesses.

Unfortunately, this show got its start in the Friday 9pm timeslot, one not the best for the youthful crowd the show appeals to. However, Fox showed a willingness to stick with it, and the writers responded with an added enthusiasm that will no-doubt bring the show to the status it deserves, ranking it with the cult-status once reserved only for the X-Files and MyST3K.

I recommend this to anyone looking for something different in a television show: One hour will leave you hooked.