I did love this show. I looked forward to it every week. I chuckle at the mention of no DVRs back then. I don't know how we as a society ever survived without the DVR. It really makes TV watching so much easier. Game changer.
I wish this show didn't get cancelled after 2 seasons. It could have gone on a few more yrs. I wonder if they would have changed the ending if it lasted longer.

More than any other show on TV, this was one where nothing was what it seemed, and everything you thought you knew was wrong.

Like THE PRISONER, one could say NOWHERE MAN is allegory about a man struggling to REMAIN HIMSELF in a Kafka/1984-like nightmare, to be FREE in a society (or attempted/would-be society) that "demands" unquestioning obedience from its citizens.

"If you protect a false identity long enough, it becomes real."

I am only annoyed that it got cancelled and was cut short. Thanks god they released the dvd set!
To whomever posted about Vr.5that was a good one too!

i think you need an imagination to enjoy science FICTION this show would have lasted much longer on any other network and, like other comments ive read this show was bounced all over different time slots. i religously taped each episodes and got many of my co-workers hooked..of course it wasnt perfect some (not that much) of the dialoge was cheesy but so was star trek and star wars so whats your point? and by the way tv guide called it the coolest show on tvupn cancelled it and replaced it with a gem called "homeboys from outerspace" lol i kid you not

7 episodes is'nt even half a season.Your hardly giving the show a chance.Its explained much later how they were able to make his wife and dying mother deny they ever knew him in the final episode.And it was done in a way that i did not expect.They left it on a great cliffhanger that made me wanting more.Unfortunately the powers that be were to stupid to know what a potential cult classic they had on their hands.I'd have loved to have seen what this show would havd done given a few more seasons.
"You dont know what death is" Sam Loomis Halloween 2

I'll just answer your final question: Because you want attention.

Given all that theroy, why they don't just cap him I'll never know
oh guys they wanted HIS cooperation! thats all whats behind this

Its not about the negatives, its about Tom, I'm guessing that he has already had his memory altered in the past, and now they need to keep him on the run protecting the negatives to prevent the real problem from surfacing. Given all that theroy, why they don't just cap him I'll never know, I guess because the series would have lasted 22 minutes. I like it because it is the flip side of the coin of an equally odd show called The Prisoner.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

This message has been deleted.

So, I think the idea for this show is just plain bad. I mean why, for the love of god WHY, doesn't this organization just kidnap Tom and force him to give them the negatives, or kidnap his wife for the same reason? Why do they waste time and money (and must be an incredible amount of money) on following Tom around and just messing with his life? And how did they get these people to deny ever meeting Tom?
Short answer: keep watching.
Longer answer: Nowhere Man, like The Prisoner, is an allegory.

The show isn't about the negatives (as you'll discover as you move forward) that Veil hasit's about what Veil doesn't have and about what his real identity is which is revealed in the last three episodes of the series. It had a much broader canvas than the story presented in the pilotalmost everything you learn about Thomas Veil in the pilot is misdirection.

So, I think the idea for this show is just plain bad.
It's a brilliant show plus come on it's a treat to see Bruce Greenwood.
[QUOTE
I mean why, for the love of god WHY, doesn't this organization just kidnap Tom and force him to give them the negatives, or kidnap his wife for the same reason?
That could work too but do you think Tom would ever give up the negatives even in a situation like that?
Why do they waste time and money (and must be an incredible amount of money) on following Tom around and just messing with his life?
Because it probably would attract too much attention to kill the guy and take the information from him.
And how did they get these people to deny ever meeting Tom?
LMAO. Um let's see harassment, possible beatings, jail, torture, and death seems like denying someone their existence facing any of these options and more would seem easy.
"We have guided missiles and misguided men."

"I have seen 7 episodes of this crap now and it is just so annoying."
You have seen 7 episodes and yet you're wondering WHY they do certain things? That's pretty stupid, isn't it? Has it occurred to you that the reasons may lay beyond episode 7?

"So, I think the idea for this show is just plain bad. I mean why, for the love of god WHY, doesn't this organization just kidnap Tom and force him to give them the negatives, or kidnap his wife for the same reason?"
Yeah, those ideas are a lot better for a show. Except for the obvious fact that if they make him give the negatives, the show would be OVER. Get it?
And again, the reasons why they don't kidnap him may be explained if you bothered to watch beyond episode 7. Or do you always want all your answers in the pilot?
Your confusion is understandable, however, since you actually think the purpose of life is to be cool.

Actually, "VR5" (great show) was on FOX.

Joel_S
Amazing, isn't it, that the very texture of society itself changes so violently, so quickly, and so much with the avalanche of technological innovation. Eventually, the human psyche will NOT adapt. And, maybe, that, too, is what NM was all about. We disembody our experiences and disembody our minds.

I remember the mid 90s like yesterday. The internet, emailing, virtual reality fad, voicemail, mainstream personal cell phones.these where the cutting edge technological breakthroughs of 1995not everyone was yet caught up with it, but it was part of the lexicon of the culture.
it was like what ipods, Tivo, blue-ray disc players, facebook, and led flatscreen TVs are today.

syfy wants a new target demographic. Women.
They should air the Incredible Hulk (the TV show not any of the movies) because the producer said in a DVD commentary that the biggest demographic was adult women.

My iMDB profile
http://www.imdb.com/board/24297325/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1

http://translate.google.com/#pl|en|syf

Yep. The people at NBC are idiots. They completely gutted the premiere of an excellent series this spring, KINGS, which they have been burning off on Saturday nights without any promos. NBC deserves to fail. I've all but stopped watching the channel. I did watch the Warehouse. Actually, it was hard to miss it. I saw it pop up on several NBC channels. I think it played on USA and it even was on that Oprah network, Oxygen, when I channeled surfed past it the other night. As the Oxygen screening reveals, syfy wants a new target demographic. Women. Younger women. That's why scifi hates science fiction and became syfy, I guess.

NM and VR5, oddly, would probably be a no go on sighfi, which prefers "reality" ghost hunters and teeny fare. The best hope would probably be on USA. NOWHERE MAN was good enough that it might have had a BETTER chance had it aired on CBS, NBC, or ABC. With a little exposure, NM would have been the hit LOST was six years earlier.
Oh, you mean on Stupyfy? Yes, it was stupefyingly stupid to spend all the money to change the name from Sci Fi so that nobody could criticize the executives for running wrestling where it doesn't below, and then to spend millions advertising on Stupyfy to persuade Sci Fi viewers that it still has all the same sort of shows. Never (outside of government of course( has anyone wasted more income for no other purpose than to quash criticism.
The new season of Eureka started on Friday night (a move from Tuesday) and I enjoyed it. The new Warehouse 13 started Tuesday night and I found it mildly diverting.
It does seem like the geniuses who ran NBC into the ground and turned into a joke of a network now want to bring the same genius to Sci Fi. I suppose they won't feel happy until they've destroyed USA too.

NM and VR5, oddly, would probably be a no go on sighfi, which prefers "reality" ghost hunters and teeny fare. The best hope would probably be on USA. NOWHERE MAN was good enough that it might have had a BETTER chance had it aired on CBS, NBC, or ABC. With a little exposure, NM would have been the hit LOST was six years earlier.

Hey Paul. I checked here to see about the show and then saw the board so I looked at the first thread, and there you were!
I hate when local affiliates preempt national shows for local garbage. In Iowa the locals often preempted good TV for local high school sports. High school sports?!
I remember VR5! That was a fascination show and David McCallum played the father! Like Nowhere Man it didn't last long. I wonder if either show might have survived today on cable, like on USA, or maybe Stupyfy (the network formerly known as Sci Fi)?