Nowhere Man

"''My name is Thomas Veil, or at least it was. I'm a photographer, I had it all: a wife, Alyson... friends, a career. In one moment it was all taken away, all because of a single photograph. I have it, they want it, and they will do anything to get the negative. I'm keeping this diary as proof that these events are real... I know they are... they have to be...""

The noirish action of Nowhere Man may or may not be taking place entirely in the mind of its hero, Thomas Veil (Bruce Greenwood), a photojournalist specializing in stark, brutal war shots. In the first episode, Veil attends a showing of his work, which includes "Hidden Agenda," a disturbing photo of American military personnel apparently presiding over an execution in an unnamed Third World country. Almost immediately upon its display, Veil's life is ... destroyed. Erased. Zeroed. Un Personed. He becomes a fugitive non-person, on the run from the mysterious forces that want the "Hidden Agenda" photo destroyed and forgotten.

The series had Veil Walking the Earth, dealing with often disturbing happenings throughout middle America which were probably caused by the same organization that was targeting him, although hard truths were difficult to come by on this show, and the viewer was often left with a sense of uncertainty which mirrored Veil's own.

A classic example of a show that was Too Good to Last, the series may have aired too near in time to The X Files, which had absorbed a great deal of the audience's thirst for this kind of story.

Not to be confused with the song by The Beatles.

Note: in some cases below even the trope names can be spoilers.

This show provides examples of:

 * Adventure Towns
 * Cyberpunk
 * Christmas Episode: It's nearly Christmas when Tom sees a newspaper reporting that the FBI are looking for him to testify. His family welcomes him back for the holiday and everything seems to have been a mistake.
 * Dramatic Hour Long
 * The Ending Changes Everything
 * Executive Meddling: The multi-episode arc involving  was apparently the result of this.
 * Evil Plan: Everything in the series Thomas Veil goes through is part of the Conspiracy's scheme to
 * Failure Is the Only Option
 * Fake Memories
 * Government Conspiracy
 * Homage: The town full of erased people is a pretty obvious one to The Prisoner.
 * Ironic Echo:
 * Loss of Identity
 * Meaningful Name: Thomas Veil
 * Mysterious Informant: Partway through the series one of the members of the conspiracy starts giving Tom info on the Organization who "erased him" in hopes Tom will take them down from within.
 * Mundane Dogmatic
 * Ontological Mystery (of a sort)
 * Post Modernism: One of the Conspiracy's plots involved randomly broadcasting a television show that depicted scenes from Veil's life after his erasure.
 * Screwed By the Network : See this smart, well written show here? Canceled for Moesha re-runs and...wait for it...Homeboys in outer space. Is it any wonder UPN doesn't exist anymore?
 * Stern Chase
 * Unperson
 * Was It All a Lie? Tom asks this question of
 * X Meets Y: Some fans describe this show as The Fugitive meets The Prisoner.
 * Yank the Dogs Chain
 * Walking the Earth