Review: Nomad of Nowhere “The Dreaded Nomad”

He’s a real Nowhere Man, living in his Nowhere Land…

OVERVIEW (SPOILERS)

In a barren desert wasteland, a band of horse-drawn carriage rush across the sands. Their leader Toth (Danu Uribe) yells to her subordinate, Skout (Elizabeth Maxwell), who’s taking inventory of their various stabbing knives, though she’s reprimanded for bringing along so many Wilderness Survival Guides. Soon the group, revealed to be the “Dandy Lions” working for a “Don Paragon” (or however it turns out to be spelled), arrives at forest of thick brambles marked with a sign reading “Do Not Enter.” They were hand-picked by the Don to track down the “Nomad of Nowhere”, a figure so feared that his bounty reward isn’t even on the poster! He’s the most wanted man in the world for over a century because…he’s magic. That’s literally the only reason they give.

Though seems Toth has had a history of failing to track the Nomad, according to some of her team, but this time she’s certain he’s in this forest. One soldier in particular, Red Manuel (Alejandro Saab), is gunning for her position once this turns out to be another dead end search. Luckily, Skout manages to cool everyone down by reminding them why Toth is in charge, and reminds Red that even if she carries a lot in her backpack, she’s not about to carry any of his BS. Thus, the group makes their way inside.

After another argument with Red, Skout ends up wandering off from the group to prove her bravery but falls into a clearing full of rocks. To her shock, she finds all of the rocks are actually living creatures, and runs into a silent traveler who uses them to communicate and bring other things to life at will. He and Skout become fast friends, but he keeps her from wandering off by telling her he knows where the Nomad lives. They take the scenic route, with the traveler showing Skout moonlight views, murky swamps, massive creatures, and all while sacrificing her treasured books.

Eventually, the two stumble upon an abandoned cabin, which Skout uses to conclude that the Nomad probably hasn’t left this patch of land for a while (which makes one question why he’s called a “nomad”) and that he must’ve been pretty lonely and eager to talk to someone…so, THAT must be why he’s so evil! The travel attempts to distract her with a play to demonstrate his life-giving powers, but is stopped by the arrival of Toth and the Lions, who out him as…The Nomad (dun dun dunnnnn)!

Giving life to the knife collection buys some time, but the scuffle leads to a fire that engulfs the cabin. The Nomad uses this chance to escape, but Toth tries to burn down the brambles before he can get out. Unfortunately, a falling vine traps them all in, so the Nomad goes back to save them. Skout is beyond grateful, but everyone has tuckered out aside from Red Manuel, who declares that the Nomad has nowhere to hide and that Don Paragon will not rest until he is captured. Faced with this, the Nomad steps outside his patch once again.

OUR TAKE

In recent years, a lot of shows have prided themselves on generating intrigue in their audience by instilling a great mystery in the first episode of their series, laying hints here and there to generate speculation and theorizing, and thus further interest and buzz going forward. I’m fine with this practice on paper when it’s done well, but I think there’s a limit to what you can put off telling for the sake of mystery, and that limit is at the motivations of the characters. Lost, Heroes, Gravity Falls, and many others at least gave us a clear idea of why people did what they did so we would feel comfortable going on the journey with them.

Not that I’m not looking forward to seeing how these things are explained later, but in terms of this first episode, I feel like we should have more of a sense of WHY the Nomad is being hunted other than just “he’s magic.” Toth and the Dandy Lions are searching for him because…they were told to? By some guy with a name that sounds like wine? Is he a politician or a commander? Where did this group come from? Why is magic considered a bad thing? What are we supposed to be feeling about the fact that the Nomad can literally clap an intelligent being into existence?

Even putting that aside, murky character motives are something I can sometimes ignore initially if I have some good visuals to distract me. I can’t honestly say that I had that pleasure here, as the character designs were worryingly derivative and plain. I understand the dry, desert tones for the backgrounds, but the Dandy Lion outfits are just plain ugly. I won’t get into too much about Toth’s design, mostly because the initial reactions to her character picture and name drew understandable connections to the red outfit of a certain blind Earth-bender from a different show. Not that I’d deduct points just for having an oddly similar design and name, but I can’t imagine these comparisons didn’t cross SOMEONE’S mind during the development stage.

The show’s premise also rang a VASH-t amount of bells to other series I know, so much you could say they stampeded through my mind, but as the saying goes, “there’s nothing new under the sun,” so I won’t ramble about that. I’m eager to see how this show branches out from its influence to become its own thing, and the Nomad himself is a reason to make me optimistic. Having a perpetually silent character (not just rarely talking but ALWAYS silent) is an interesting challenge for a writing team to prioritize visuals over regular dialogue, and so will be fun to watch over the course of the season as more characters hopefully interact and react to him in different ways, just as Skout and Toth do. The regular human characters are another story, but I don’t think I’ll be short on chances to talk about them.

Overall, I wish I had nicer things to say about the start of this new show, but I imagine it won’t take long for me to start warming up to it. Rooster Teeth’s business model has always been “if you keep watching it, we’ll keep making it”, and I’m already seeing a pretty warm reception for Nomad. What that tells me is that this show will probably be around for a long time, giving Whitman, Miles, and everyone else plenty of chances to improve and iron out whatever might just be bugging me personally. I’ll be at this until at least the rest of the season, but I’ve gotta give this episode a rating now, and I have to be honest. I know it’s about the journey, not the destination, but the start has been more than a little rocky. Hope next week brings us happier trails.