The Invisible Man (2000 TV series)
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| The Invisible Man | |
|---|---|
 The Invisible Man |
|
| Genre | Action |
| Creator(s) | Matt Greenburg |
| Developer(s) | Carlton Prickett Breck Eisner |
| Starring | Vincent Ventresca Paul Ben-Victor |
| Country of origin |  United States |
| No. of episodes | 46 (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 60 mins |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Sci Fi Channel |
| Original run | 9 June 2000 – 1 February 2002 |
| Links | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Invisible Man[1] series debuted in 2000 and starred Vincent Ventresca, Paul Ben-Victor, Eddie Jones, Shannon Kenny and Mike McCafferty. Somewhat more successful than previous television series involving invisible secret agents, Ventresca played Darien Fawkes, a thief facing life imprisonment who was recruited by a low-rent spy organization and given the power of invisibility via the implantation of a special "Quicksilver gland" in his head. The gland lets Fawkes secrete a light-bending substance called "Quicksilver" from his pores and follicles. The substance quickly coats his skin, hair, nails and clothes and renders him invisible. He can consciously release the Quicksilver, which then flakes off and disintegrates. The Quicksilver gland was sabotaged at its creation by scientist Arnaud DeFehrn, to release a neurotoxin that accumulates in his bloodstream and causes intense pain, followed by psychosis and antisocial behavior. He requires regular doses of "counteragent" to keep him sane and healthy, which is controlled by said government agency. This series lasted for two seasons, before being cancelled due to cost issues and internal bickering between the Sci Fi Channel and its then-parent company, USA Networks.
In France, the series was shown on TF1. In Austria, the series was shown on ORF. In Croatia, the series was shown on Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT). In Australia, the series was shown on Network Ten.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The Invisible Man is both an action and a comedy (though the series pilot was far more comedy oriented than the rest of the series), with plenty of buddy-cop elements.
Episodes were generally of two types. Many dealt with cases given to Fawkes and Hobbs by The Agency. These usually dealt with assassinations or government experiments that had run amok. During the second season, The Agency was given a nemesis agency called Chrysalis which was usually behind that week's conspiracy.
Alternatively, episodes dealt with Fawkes' quest to remove the gland from his head and reduce his dependency on the counter-agent. His unorthodox methods included reviving the mind of his dead brother and periodically contacting Arnaud DeFehrn, one of the gland's creators, though these encounters usually ended with one of the two in pain. The agency considered the gland too great an asset to remove so Fawkes' personal quest usually brought him head to head with those in power.
Episodes usually began with a voice-over with Fawkes who would begin with a quote, usually from a famous person, and commentary about what he was currently thinking. The voice over would reemerge at the end of the episode to sum up Fawkes' opinion on the mission or allow him to voice lingering questions.
[edit] Characters
The following is a list of characters featured in the American science fiction series The Invisible Man. This list may not list characters that have only made guest appearances.
[edit] Main characters
| Picture | Name | Portrayed by | Occupation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Darien Fawkes (Season 1-) |
Vincent Ventresca (Season 1-) |
Criminal | Alive |
 |
Robert Hobbes (Season 1-) |
Paul Ben-Victor (Season 1-) |
Federal Agent | Alive |
 |
Alex Monroe (Season 2-) |
Brandy Ledford (Season 2-) |
Federal Agent | Alive |
 |
Charles Borden (Season 1-) |
Eddie Jones (Season 1-) |
The Official | Alive |
 |
Albert Eberts (Season 1-) |
Michael McCafferty (Season 1-) |
Secretary | Alive |
 |
Claire Keipley (Season 1-) |
Shannon Kenny (Season 1-) |
Physician | Alive |
[edit] Minor characters
| Picture | Name | Portrayed by | Occupation | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Arnaud DeFehrn (Season 1-) |
Joel Bissonnette (Season 1-) |
Terroist | Alive |
 |
Kevin Fawkes (Season 1-) |
David Burke (Season 1-) |
Scientist (Developer of the gland) | Deceased |
[edit] The Agency
The Agency is a US government espionage agency, but one that is extremely secretive - so much that it doesn't have a proper name. The Official explained that The Agency takes on cases that the other agencies "can't, won't, or don't". References in the show point to the Agency as being a 'Cold War relic', which makes it likely that The Agency was founded during that time. The most curious characteristic of The Agency is how it keeps being 'absorbed' by Federal Departments that are completely unrelated to intelligence. During the first season, The Agency was a division of the Department of Fish and Game (in the pilot, it was explained this was due to the fact that the DFG had a surplus of money at the time). During the second season, The Agency changed departments several times, having been absorbed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Department of Health and Human Services, and (very briefly) the United States Postal Service before settling in the Bureau of Weights and Measures. All of this led to a running gag in which Hobbes and Fawkes are never taken seriously as federal agents, since their identifications always include their department name.
[edit] Project Quicksilver
[edit] Episode listing
Season One
| 1.01 | "Pilot" | June 9th, 2000 | |
| Fawkes’ successful career as a burglar comes to a halt when he deviates onto the straight and narrow to save his intended victim. Receiving a life sentence, Fawkes is rescued by his brother who uses him as a test subject in the quicksilver project. After the project is sabotaged, Fawkes sets out to avenge his brother and rescue himself from the gland inside his brain. | |||
| 1.02 | "The Catevari" | June 16th 2000 | |
| Fawkes is sent after an escaped mental patient whose skin is poisonous to the touch. | |||
| 1.03 | "Ralph" | June 23rd 2000 | |
| A child witnesses an assassination but refuses to speak to anyone except ‘Ralph’, her invisible best friend. Fawkes must convince her that’s exactly who he is before the sniper can kill the witness. | |||
| 1.04 | "Tiresias" | July 7th, 2000 | |
| Fawkes and Hobbs investigate a blind prophet who warns his customers to kill themselves before they kill their loved ones. | |||
| 1.05 | "Impetus" | July 14th, 2000 | |
| Searching through rooms in The Agency, Fawkes finds an old woman and sets her free. Only after does he learn she has been infected with a rapid aging disease that begins to affect him as well. | |||
| 1.06 | "The Devil You Know" | July 21st, 2000 | |
| The Official is arrested after a surveillance operation goes array. The new leader of The Agency proves to be even more manipulative than The Official so Fawkes and Hobbs take it upon themselves to clear their boss’ name. | |||
| 1.07 | "Liberty and Larceny" | July 21st, 2000 | |
| Fawkes’ old partner is crime appears in town with a job for the both of them. | |||
| 1.08 | "The Value of Secrets" | August 4th, 2000 | |
| ... | |||
| 1.09 | "Separation Anxiety" | August 11th, 2000 | |
| Hobbes begins stalking his ex-wife only to discover her new fiancé might be more than what he claims to be. | |||
| 1.10 | "It Hurts When I Do This" | August 18th, 2000 | |
| A fall leaves Hobbes in the hospital with short term memory loss. While roaming the halls, both Fawkes and Hobbes witness strange surgeries that leave them doubtful about the medical ethics of the doctors. | |||
| 1.11 | "The Other Invisible Man" | August 25th, 2000 | |
| Nightmares plague Fawkes as he begins to see another invisible figure around the city. After The Official is shot, the agents begin looking into the history of Project Quicksilver and learn Darien was not the first test subject after all. | |||
| 1.12 | "Reunion" | September 8th, 2000 | |
| Did Kevin really die in the lab? Fawkes is beginning to have doubts, especially after he receives a phone call from his supposedly dead brother. | |||
| 1.13 | "Cat & Mouse" | September 15th, 2000 | |
| The Chinese government sets out to capture the invisible agent for their own experiments. Unfortunately, the agent they target is the very visible Hobbes. | |||
| 1.14 | "Beholder" | September 22nd, 2000 | |
| Fawkes gets too close to an assassin and is blinded. While a blind model shows him a new way to experience the world, the agents continue to seek out the killer. | |||
| 1.15 | "Ghost of a Chance" | January 8th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes is sent to Mexico to impersonate a ghost and convince a prime minister to vote in their government’s favor. They aren’t the only agency interested in the vote, and the other side has a strangely power agent too. | |||
| 1.16 | "Flowers for Hobbes" | January 15th, 2001 | |
| Hobbes is injected with a drug that gives him super intelligence. When everyone else exposed to the drug commit suicide, Claire and Darien set to work to save Hobbes from himself. | |||
| 1.17 | "Perchance to Dream" | January 22nd, 2001 | |
| Claire attempts to gun down an jogger and, when stopped, she insists the man is trying to kill her. Alarmed, Fawkes and Hobbes investigate a sleep clinic where patients are being fed suggestive dreams. | |||
| 1.18 | "Frozen in Time" | January 29th, 2001 | |
| Chrysalis is capturing and freezing scientists to preserve them for future generations. Kate (from episode 1.08) is one of the intended victims and enlists Fawkes’ aid to keep her safe. | |||
| 1.19 | "Diseased" | February 5th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes’ cold becomes a serious concern when he begins secreting black quicksilver. Things spiral steadily downward after he is checked into a government hospital where the doctor seems far more interested in harvesting the gland than curing Darien. | |||
| 1.20 | "The Lesser Evil" | February 12th, 2001 | |
| ... | |||
| 1.21 | "Money for Nothing: Part One" | March 23rd, 2001 | |
| The Official uses Fawkes’ invisibility to ‘up the odds’ at a casino. Fawkes later decides stealing money from the backroom is easier. When Fawkes refuses to turn over the money, The Official cuts off his supply of counter agent and Fawkes is sent into a new level of quicksilver madness. | |||
| 1.22 | "Money for Nothing: Part Two" | March 30th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes’ euphoria of ‘stage five’ madness continues to lead him down strange paths as he seeks out a priest friend of Kevin’s. Hobbes turns to the only man who might be able to cure Fawkes: Arnoud. | |||
| 1.23 | "It's a Small World" | April 6th, 2001 | |
| Allianora and Darien enjoy a night of love-making that results in a camera being inserted into Darien. With Chrysalis able to watch his every move, invisibility isn’t an asset, unless Darien can play decoy for the other agents. | |||
Season Two
| 2.01 | "Legends" | April 13th, 2001 | |
| Bigfoot is invisible? Fawkes begins to wonder if the gland was harvested from a natural source when he and Hobbes are sent to investigate a series of deaths in the wilderness. | |||
| 2.02 | "The Camp" | April 20th, 2001 | |
| A new agent joins The Agency but her agenda revolves entirely around the search and rescue of her baby son. | |||
| 2.03 | "The Importance of Being Eberts" | April 27th, 2001 | |
| When someone begins attempting to hack Agency computers, Eberts becomes a team asset in trying to track the hacker. Yet Eberts’ behavior becomes increasingly erratic until everyone begins wondering how well they really knew him to begin with. | |||
| 2.04 | "Johnny Apocalypse" | June 15th, 2001 | |
| Monroe sends Fawkes and Hobbes to retrieve Adam, a boy infected with a time release virus. Realizing she intends to kill the boy, Fawkes flees with Adam and searches for anyone that can help, even if that means making deals with Chrysalis. | |||
| 2.05 | "Going Postal" | June 22nd, 2001 | |
| Fawkes, Hobbes and Monroe each take turns narrating their take on a mission to the post office dead letter office where Hobbes abruptly went mad and attempted to shoot the workers. | |||
| 2.06 | "Brother's Keeper" | June 28th, 2001 | |
| Using the same method of awakening memories stored in RNA as in episode 1.11, Darien awakens his brother's mind to see if Kevin knows how to extract the gland. Arnoud discovers Kevin's return and kidnaps him in hopes of solving his own quicksilver problems. | |||
| 2.07 | "Insensate" | July 6th, 2001 | |
| A man bereft of all senses except touch appears in Fawkes’ apartment. Calling himself Tommy Walker, the stranger claims to be an escapee from another government experiment. Believing Walker can help in removing the gland, Fawkes sets out to rescue him from an agency which is willing to kill anyone to keep Walker contained. | |||
| 2.08 | "Den of Thieves" | July 13th, 2001 | |
| Darien goes undercover as a criminal to help stop a terrorist before he has the chance to implement his plan. | |||
| 2.09 | "Bad Chi" | July 20th, 2001 | |
| Darien goes to an acupuncturist when his back begins to annoy him. A pressure point causes the gland to activate and the acupuncturist concludes an invisible agent might be able to solve a problem for her whether he wants to or not. | |||
| 2.10 | "Flash to Bang" | July 27th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes wakes up in the hospital with no memory of who he is. While the doctors try to figure out what the lump on his brain scan means, Chrysalis, The Agency and Arnoud all race to be the first to claim ownership of the John Doe patient. | |||
| 2.11 | "Germ Theory" | August 3rd, 2001 | |
| An experimental dose of counteragent begins spreading permanent invisibility to those Fawkes comes in contact with. As the agents begin experiencing quicksilver madness, Claire searches for a solution before the counteragent runs out. | |||
| 2.12 | "The Choice" | August 10th, 2001 | |
| A raid on a Chrysalis baby farm finally return Alex’s baby to her. But when the foster mother arrives on her doorstep, Monroe has to question who would make a better parent. | |||
| 2.13 | "Immaterial Girl" | August 17, 2001 | |
| Fawkes begins seeing a woman ghost and the investigation that follows leads him to the woman’s daughter, and a very strange murder situation. | |||
| 2.14 | "Father Figure" | August 24th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes and Hobbes’ search for a rouge agent sniper leads them to the last person Darien expected to see again; his father. | |||
| 2.15 | "A Sense of Community" | September 7th, 2001 | |
| Fawkes and Hobbes are sent to a retirement home for secret agents whose identity has been exposed. Neither are interested in staying, but leaving turns out to be against the rules. | |||
| 2.16 | "The Three Phases of Claire" | September 14th, 2001 | |
| Claire is accidentally injected with an experimental truth serum. The drug is said to have three phases; constant babbling, paranoia, and loss of inhibitions. Kidnapped by the terrorist whom the drug was supposed to be tested upon, Claire struggles to hold back all the secrets of Project Quicksilver while Fawkes and Hobbes attempt to track her down. | |||
| 2.17 | "Exposed" | September 28th, 2001 | |
| Tommy Walker’s memories are beginning to resurface but as Walker realizes who he used to be, he wonders if he wants to live with the person he is now. | |||
| 2.18 | "The Invisible Woman" | January 4th, 2002 | |
| ... | |||
| 2.19 | "Mere Mortals" | January 11th, 2002 | |
| With the counteragent no longer responding properly, Claire turns off the gland in order to experiment. Darien enjoys the freedom of being able to bungee jump and have causal sex without turning invisible but The Agency has a burglary planned and Fawkes is still the best agent for the job, with or without the invisibility. | |||
| 2.20 | "Possessed" | January 18th, 2002 | |
| ... | |||
| 2.21 | "Enemy of My Enemy" | January 25th, 2002 | |
| ... | |||
| 2.22 | "The New Stuff" | February 1st, 2002 | |
| Claire succeeds in altering the gland, freeing Darien from counteragent dependency and Agency control. Though Darien quits and Claire is fired, when Chrysalis begins a new tactic, they reluctantly return to assist The Agency in the fight. | |||
[edit] DVD releases
As of 2006, season 1 of The Invisible Man has been released in a Region 2 (Europe/Japan) 2-DVD set. There are no published plans to release season 2 in this format, or either season in Region 1 (U.S./Canada) format.
[edit] External links
The Invisible Man at the Internet Movie Database
