Network: NBC
Episodes: 13 (hour)
Seasons: One
TV show dates: June 7 — August 28, 2010
Series status: Cancelled
Performers include: Chadwick Boseman, Lee Purcell, Jason Wiles, Andy Greenfield, Daisy Betts, Tina Holmes, Alan Ruck, Kate Lang Johnson, Sean O’Bryan, Gerald Kyd, Reggie Lee, Alan Smyth, Joanna Lipari, Kandyse McClure, Victor Alfieri, and Carlos Lacamara.
TV show description:
This mystery drama revolves around a group of strangers who wake up in a strange hotel, then find they’re imprisoned in a ghost town and not able to leave. They see that security cameras are following everything they do. Their unknown captors create mistrust within the group by privately offering them freedom if they hurt the others.
Janet Cooper (Daisy Betts) is a San Francisco day-care owner and single mother of a 5-year-old girl, Megan. Janet’s mom has now been forced into the role of guardian of Megan, not knowing what happened to her daughter. Janet explains her mother is abusive and that they have a distant relationship. She is determined to get out of the situation so she can get back to her daughter. At one time, she was married and hired someone to find her husband.
Mark Renbe (Gerald Kyd) is a journalist from San Francisco who enjoys a good scandal. He’s investigating Janet’s disappearance, and receives information about it from a source in a bar but is then forced to give it away.
The natural leader in the group is Joe Tucker (Jason Wiles). He’s forceful and direct and mentions he doesn’t keep friends, family, or even a girlfriend. He’s very secretive with the others, not even telling them what he does for a living or why he may have been chosen to be taken. He knows military hand signals and was abducted in New York.
Charlie Morse (Alan Ruck) is an investment firm’s CEO. He was worried from the very beginning about how his wife would cope without him. He states that she’s mentally unstable, and emotionally dependent on him. His fighting skills become evident when he is intimidated or threatened.
Moira Doherty (Tina Holmes) is officially a crisis counselor for a teachers’ union. She confides to some that, until she was abducted, she’d been a mental patient at a hospital in Sandusky, Ohio. This left her with knowledge of different medications, introverted and trusting. She admits she feigned mental illness at a certain point to stay at the hospital so that she wouldn’t be sent to foster homes.
Moira has become close to Tori Fairchild (Kate Lang Johnson), the privileged and manipulative daughter of an American ambassador and former head of the CIA. When she first woke up in this strange hotel, she had thought she’d just partied too much the night before. She thinks her father is behind her abduction, but won’t say why. She has a talent for hand-to-hand combat.
Sergeant Graham McNair (Chadwick Boseman) is a Marine. He’s also a devout Muslim following his working in a government facility and seeing how alleged terrorists were being treated. Because of this, he can show compassion, but he also tends to make hasty decisions. He seems to be interested in Moira.
Bill Blackham (Sean O’Bryan) put the moves on Tori and beat Graham in a very physical fight. Bill’s first priority is always himself, and he doesn’t trust others easily. The last thing he remembers before being abducted is being pulled over by the police.
Watching over all the abductees is “The Night Manager” (Andy Greenfield). He’s the only worker in the hotel and passes himself off as not knowing any more about the situation than the abductees. They all disagree about whether or not this is true. The captors seem to want to keep him safe.
Image courtesy NBC.
I just recently found “Persons Unknown” on Netflix. I spent my whole saturday watching the series becuase I was hooked and had to know what was going to happen next. What kills me is that this is another in long line of great well writen shows that I never heard of becuase it recieved no advertising.. Cancelled without giving it a chance to find its following which I know is out there. When crap like American Idol, Dancing with the stars, and countless other Mindless Shows for those with ADD Get all the advertising. Am I the only one who… Read more »
Please bring this show back..You guys keep cancelling great shows..
Please don’t cancel the show,… Seriously The Way you guys do Ratings sucks & is incorrect & does not give a accurate description of the ratings the show gets or its popularity,… Jump online and go on any torrent site and you’ll see 1,000’s of people downloading or streaming the shows,… & it’s like that on every site,… 1,000’s of sites with 1,000’s of people downloading or streaming,… So you really need to update the way you use your technology to get more accurate ratings on shows,… You guys keep canceling extremely popular shows without a clue on their popularity,…… Read more »
Please bring Person’s Unknown back!!
pleeeeeeeease we love persons unknown !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m SO confused with the ending. Can someone explain to me what the Program is? how did they all get captured and back together again? how did the one guy know the other guys wife names? what is going on?
Maybe it’s me–maybe I just have lousy taste when it comes to television. How else to explain why every new show I like, gets cancelled! First it was Journeyman, then Kings, then Harper’s Island, then Happy Town, then Flash Forward, now Person’s Unknown. Am I the ony person who enjoy real escapist entertainment like a good mystery? I can’t find the words to describe the frustration I feel whenever this happens–more especially since there’s no recourse. Complaining to the network executives doesn’t work even though they say they want to hear from their viewers. Why–they don’t listen. Their philosophy is… Read more »
The ship at the end said Almas Perididas on the side which means periodic souls. If you look up the definition of periodic it means. reoccurring
Haven’t any of you ever read abook? “Dante’s Inferno” the nine circles(levels) of Hell! Each one is worse then the next, but if you survive all; you find your way out!
i didn’t know this was to be just a miniseries/one seasoner. I thought it was a great show, it was different, and definately very cool. never could figure out what day and time it was on, just watched it on Demand. I will be very upset if they don’t give us a season 2, so many questions left unanswered..like What is the Program?? Like i said, it was juts a good change of pace from all the cop shows, hospital dramas, etc…so for anyone who has a say, please don’t cancel the show 🙂
I believe this is NBC’s attempt at filling in for us Losties. Poor job at best unless they bring the series back. Promo’s kept saying that “all will be answered at the end.” Not.
I’m glad to hear everyone is as confused as me. I really enjoyed the miniseries and was looking forward to some sort of wrap up. I didn’t get any answers out of that only more questions and a deep feeling of being cheated. I guess having them together for level two sets up a second season, although I thought this was a one and done series. I did like the comment about all being dead and this being a sort of pergatory. Perhaps thats what the program is – a rising from the dead, rebirth. Wonder if we’ll ever find… Read more »
I have to admit I was hoping for more answers on this episode. However, I seem to be in the minority as far as enjoying it. I thought that the message at the end there was that once the program has you, your life is no longer your own. The whole group bucked the system and escaped yet they still ended up in The Program’s clutches and moving on to Level 2. I think that usually only one makes it to Level 2 but they were all advanced due to the way they were able to work together and escape… Read more »
Has anyone heard whether this is coming back in the fall???what was up with that ending? they just can’t leave all of us followers hanging…Level 2..what???
To all that have responded …. I agree that there was way to many unanswered questions. To everyone paying atttention i think that the movie avatar with virtual reality and the matrix also virtual reality and how this is being done. To the producers … let us foolowers know what the heck is going on.