Friday night newcomer knows all, except who he is

By Howard Rosenberg
Los Angeles Times

Newcomer Dominic Purcell portrays the title character in Fox's "John Doe," which involves an amnesiac's search for identity. Fox 'John Doe' 8 p.m. Fridays, Fox

By far the best of Friday night's four newcomers is Fox's highly arresting "John Doe," which follows the moderately appealing space western "Firefly," from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" creator Joss Whedon.

"John Doe" generates excitement that recalls "24," whose arrival on Fox last season wowed critics with a suspenseful format in which individual episodes represented one hour of real time. Remaining to be seen is whether "John Doe" is more successful than the unconventional "24" at sustaining momentum for an entire season (if granted that opportunity).

The show's activity orbits mysteriously around a man (Dominic Purcell) who surfaces in Seattle naked, colorblind and with knowledge of every arcane fact imaginable. Doe is a human HAL. He knows the population of Morocco and the first line of "Macbeth." He knows Gilligan's first name, the number of bones in the human body and how many dimples there are in a golf ball. He barks out answers to TV's "Jeopardy!" while speeding through crossword puzzles. He's a phenom who knows everything about everything.

Except who he is.

Finding that out will be his focus each week, along with volunteering his unique gifts to help a friendly cop (John Marshall Jones) solve impossible crimes. It's a stock TV scenario, but one driven by an intriguing character played by an actor with magnetism in a pilot that has Doe searching for a missing girl with whom he feels a curious connection.

Part of the fun is imagining what you would do if as all-knowing as Doe. The show indulges that materialist fantasy pretty effectively, as Doe buys a swanky loft, a fancy sports car and a GQ wardrobe with a fortune he makes from playing the horses. Yup, that would work. He can use his brain to cure cancer later.

Meanwhile, Doe takes a job as a musician in a bar. "It's one thing to know the notes, it's another to feel them," he says while playing the piano gracefully.

He tells a guileless colleague he doesn't know his identity. "No way," she responds. Then she lights up. "You're adopted?"

Droll humor is another reason to like "John Doe."