This can be a person but also an object. Because of his unique abilities, he becomes a police consultant to help with solving heinous crimes while at the same time he tries to find out who he truly is. In the pilot episode a woman, standing on a ferry, recognizes him, waves at him and he sees this woman in color, so she must be important to him. She calls after him with the name Tommy. He later finds out the woman’s name is Theresa. At some point John Doe is being kidnapped, it turns out the NSA, who want to Doe to join the agency, which he firmly declines. In later episode this comes back up until the series finale (him joining the NSA).

Lt. Jamie Avery, played by Jayne Brook, she is the head of the unit of which John Doe becomes a consultant. Hower this does not happen as easy as that sounds, at first Avery is very distrustful of Doe and his genius mind. However, she quickly accepts his help which solves cases. His partner, Frank Hayes, played by John Marshall Jones, also quickly relies on John Doe. Frank is a father, but his marriage is in trouble, mainly because he always is at work, and does not spend enough time at home, to be a husband and a father.

Karen Kawalski, played by Sprague Grayden, first works at the bar which John Doe regular visits and plays the piano for the amusement of the customers. When she gets fired, Karen becomes John Doe’s personal assistance. She is the first one who actually knows everything, mainly because she forced herself into the room she was asked not to enter. In that room Doe has collected everything he knows about himself, the Phoenix group and so on. To try to get to Doe, Karen is being sacrificed by the Phoenix Group.

William Forsythe is Digger, he is running the bar where Doe regularly goes to, and Digger is also the one who fired Karen. Digger is more than a barkeep, he knows his way around computers, knows how to hack, he is very technical and is very knowledgeable about a great many things. He becomes an ally to Doe in his pursuit of finding out the truth about himself. At the end of the season, in the finale episode, the audience is up for quite a surprise regarding Digger, or so it seems. Stella, played by Rekha Sharma, she is the tech girl, the IT girl from the police department Doe is a consultant for. She also knows her way with computers, like Digger, she also can hack into other systems. It soon becomes clear Stella has a thing for Doe, but he is too blind to notice it.

The Phoenix Group:

A group of people who are connected to John Doe, it seems that at one time he was a prisoner there, or perhaps even perhaps a member of this group. It is an obscure, dangerous organization tracking John's every move, often appearing in connection with "fallen geniuses," mysterious experiments, and the theft of, or search for, a specific artifact called the Staff. These people also have kidnapped Therese, the woman that called out to Doe in the pilot. It turns out that, if it had gotten a season two, according to series creators, the planned storyline revealed that the person in the finale, Digger, was a disguised Phoenix member, and the true Phoenix Group was actually protecting John, whom they believed to be a returned Messiah. John’s "überbrain" was explained as a result of a near-death experience.

Overview / Episodes:

Overall, the whole season, John Doe can be seen as episodic, each week a new story. But on top of that, there of course is a story-arc regarding John Doe himself. Most of the time, the story arc is there in the background, and we see a procedural kind of episode. I think a third of the season the John Doe story-arc is the A-story. Quite possibly that if there had been a second season, the story-arc would have taken the center stage more often, which I would have preferred. John Doe being a consultant to the police is far from unique, think of shows like “Forever”, “Castle”, “The Mentalist” and so on. Kyle XY’s premise had a strong resemblance to John Doe’s, after that both stories go a different direction.

As I said earlier, John Doe is just a fantastic TV show, strong characters, a really interesting premise about where Doe comes from, a secret and dangerous organization who is merciless, Doe’s amnesia, him being a genius. I really love it, and it still angers me that it was cancelled. I didn’t grade an episode below the 7.5/10, a very strong season, yes, I know, it is in the eye of the beholder, but if you get the chance, just watch it for yourself. It is on Apple TV in some regions, but it is also available for free on YouTube!

I can name at least 10 episodes which were my favorite episodes, but I will just name the very best 3 episodes, otherwise the blog will become even longer! The first one is episode 10 & 11, a two-parter, “The Mourner” and “John D.O.A”, guest starring Lenny Pescoe, from episode “Tooms” in the X-Files. For a while it looks like he is like Doe. He pretends to be a victim, which gives him access to the investigation, and nobody sees him as a suspect. Great episode, also some character Lt. Avery development. Episode 14 “Ashes to Ashes”, where the Phoenix Group is the A-story. The Phoenix Group kidnap Karen, Doe’s friend and personal assistant. We also find out that Theresa is being held by the Phoenix Group also and Doe is taken by the NSA. The 3^rd and last episode is the season, or what became the series finale, where the Phoenix Group is on the run from Doe, the NSA and the police, Doe is shocked when he sees the face of the leader of the Phoenix Group, he finally catches up with the woman who called for him in the pilot episode, guest starring J.K Simmons. If you desire so, you can check out the word document where I graded the episodes and added some thoughts, comments and such.

Final Word:

Well, I think I’ve made clear what this show means to me, still to this day I have to say. Waiting way too long for this rewatch but it has been worth it all over again. The cliffhanger sucks of course, but still, it has so much to offer, intelligent and exciting storytelling with a great cast. This should have gotten multiple seasons, but sounding like a broken record by now, most people apparently want to be entertained without too much thinking. It seems that this is the reason why shows like this are cancelled. Another thing that bugs me is that it never got a physical release, I like my shows on DVD or rather on Blu-ray. I have given up any hope of seeing John Doe get a DVD or a Blu-ray release. Are you familiar with John Doe? If yes, did you enjoy it, except of course for the cliffhanger part? Please let me know in the comments.

ps. is was very difficult to find proper images for the episodes, so it's a little different that you are used to.