John Doe (TV Series) Pilot (2002) User Reviews

What an excellent concept and superb cast

[jackdaw88 · 10/10 · 9 March 2004]

This series centres around John Doe, a mystery man who has no recollection of his past. Found in the ocean, naked, and endowed with a bizarre brand, he appears to have an encyclopaedic knowledge of facts, none of which throw any light on his identity. The series develops as he gradually discovers things about himself, meeting new and interesting people along the way (excellent character development) and learning the rudiments of social behaviours. This is an excellent show, so compelling that it is impossible to miss each new episode. The viewer is intrigued and is forced to speculate on the implications of each new discovery as it occurs - this is reminiscent of the developing background and discoveries in the X Files regarding Mulder's sister and father. A must see - highly recommended.

Great concept, great series

[illiaden · 10/10 · 24 May 2003]

After watching the pilot of this series I was hooked. This is the perfect combination of science and paranormal mysteries. Much like a combination of C.S.I and the X-files. I've recommended "John Doe" to all my friends. It's simply a must see for anyone with an interest in the genre.

A Must-Watch That Nobody Does...

[Hoju721 · 9/10 · 26 April 2003]

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.

cheesy with mistakes

[nefar · 6/10 · 17 October 2003]

The show is semi interesting. I caught every single episode from the very beginning for quite some time. However, it's filled with cheesy cliches and they make the mistake of having people frequently telling him things he should know (being he's knows all facts). (examples, digger tells him about hacking computers etc).

Flat entertainment, poor character development, unoriginal cop story and smoking fillers

[igoatabase · 4/10 · 8 June 2009]

Considering John Doe apparently inspired Kyle XY's creator I was expecting its pilot to be quite interesting. However I probably had too high expectations because I was quite disappointed by it. First they turned the protagonist into a freak who had the crazy idea of showing off his amazing knowledge in front of an audience, in a public area. So after that scene I began to worry that it was just entertainment. But the problem is that it got worse as none of the other characters were properly introduced. They focused too much on John Doe which made the story far less intriguing. I was also slightly disappointed by Dominic Purcell's performance because I found he didn't make a believable John Doe. An other problem was the police story. It really felt like déjà vu and it wasn't a pleasant sensation. It leads us to the worst issue in the bunch, the episodic format. I could already see the fillers coming one after an other.

So overall I was very disappointed by it and don't recommend it to anyone. Considering how bad it was I better understand now why the show got canceled. In some way I have the impression that it missed its target, developing characters to help the protagonist find his own identity. It's sad because there was potential, like the people he met at the club. The production quality was also quite good and the casting correct. But I'll never know if it got better, probably not, because I don't plan to watch the next episode.