Awake Plot
LAPD Homicide Detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) has lost either his wife or his son in a car crash. The problem is he doesn’t know which one actually died.
After the accident, Michael finds himself living in two different realities:
In one reality, his son has died, and he and his wife are doing his best to cope with their grief, although they have completely different approaches to the issue. He is in therapy, ordered by the department.
In the other, his wife has died, and he is doing his best to make the process easier for his son. He is in therapy, just with a different shrink. He also has a different partner at his job.
Michael doesn’t have a clue which reality is real. He just knows that when he goes to sleep in one reality, he wakes up in the other. Just like he doesn’t know which is reality, he doesn’t know whether he is sleeping or dreaming. Both shrinks are adamant that they are real, but Michael is skeptical. Besides, he doesn’t really want to let go, or find out. He knows that the only way to have a life with both his son and wife is to keep switching between these two worlds.
As a cop, however, his alternate realities have made him better at his job. Even though his “intuitions” annoy and baffle his two partners (Steve Harris in one, Wilmer Valderrama in the other), he is seeing the crossovers between the cases, and the clues he remembers from one world helps him solve the other case in the other.
While the audience is often as baffled as Michael, we are given some clues here and there to make up our minds, only to be taken the clues away and given others.
A must-watch: Two Alternate Realities – without fantasy or sci-fi
Awake is currently my favorite show. Yes, I’m a big fan of Person of Interest, but frankly I am sick and tired of watching one episode only to wait for three weeks for the others. The same goes for any other show I was unlucky enough to like.
Awake started airing in March, so to air its 13 episodes and finish in May, it doesn’t need to give any breaks. While the ratings aren’t as high as I’d like them to be, I’m excited to have a show that not only has great acting, premise and story lines, but one that doesn’t give a break for a stupid reason every two weeks. Plus, your regular crime show gives you one case to solve. Here you have two different ones, with some connections.
It is also fun and sad to watch Michael getting clues from his wife to make his son happier in one reality…
Give Awake a shot. You won’t regret it. After all how many TV shows have leading characters that as much as they love their minds and jobs, would willingly risk their sanity if it meant that it is the only wat to keep having both family members alive?
Currently rated at 8.4 on IMDB. Frankly, anything under 9 doesn’t do it justice.
Will it get renewed?
Things look pretty bleak as TV show ratings are still measured the old fashioned way, and TV networks haven’t found better ways to make money by anyhing other than TV commercials. What if I’m not a Nielsen household? What if I don’t live in the States? Why wouldn’t I get a say?
I’ll be sad to let this one go. But in a world where Grey’s Anatomy can get 8 seasons (and possibly more) and Supernatural gets 7 (possibly more), I won’t be shocked if Awake doesn’t impress that many people with its originality, intensity and puzzles. Still, I will be grateful that I got to see a great show with Jason Isaacs in the lead.
Still, you can do something to try save the show, such as signing the petition for saving awake here.I did. I also liked the show on Facebook and IMDB just in case. : )
Feel free to spread this post on the net, as more traffic means (apart from me being very happy as a blogger), might show the network that the show has a lot more watchers than they think.
Fun cast note
Yep, one of Britten’s partners (played by Wilmer Valderrama) is really Fez from That 70s Show.