Thomas Veil is a documentary photographer who, in the course of one evening, seemingly has his whole existence erased. It appears as if some mysterious and powerful entity has coerced Veil's family and friends into cooperating in a clandestine plan to annul every trace of him. Veil is all alone with no option but to begin a desperate, dangerous quest to find out how and why this has happened and most importantly, who is behind this torturous scheme.
Obviously there are also echoes of The Twilight Zone, The Fugitive, The Invaders and The Prisoner. Echoes are fine, and they can be alluring, but eventually one needs to find out where they're coming from, or whether they're just echoes of other echoes.
Watched today, the execution does seem almost quaint in the post-9/11 age of surveillance and paranoia we live in now, but the questions it raises about the nature of identity, real or illusory, are profound and worthwhile at any time.
Nowhere Man is stylish enough, thanks in part to direction in the first episode by horror expert Tobe Hooper. And Greenwood displays the right amounts of paranoia, fear and dread. But the first episode still plays liked an extended Twilight Zone segment.
It's not only suspenseful and mystifying but also challenging and tantalizing, initially offering viewers a single, obtuse clue to the ordeal that is frustrating Veil, who is ably played by Bruce Greenwood.
With a solid lead in [Bruce] Greenwood and spooky direction from Poltergeist's Tobe Hooper, Nowhere could go somewhere. It starts with a bang and keeps going from there
