Amph New NBC Show--Awake--starring Jason Isaacs

Not to be confused with the Jessica Alba/Hayden Christensen dreckfest from 2007, NBC has finally given a premiere date for its television show AWAKE. For those interested HULU has the pilot episode online before the show bows in March.

Here's a synopsis of the show's essence from the NBC website:

Lots of people find themselves leading some kind of double life... but none quite like this.

After Detective Michael Britten wakes up from a car accident with his wife and teenage son, he learns the devastating news that his wife died in the crash. Trying to put the pieces of his life back together, he wakes up a few days later to realize that his wife is very much alive and his son died in the accident! Did he lose his wife or his son? Or neither of them??

What if your life split in two in the face of a situation like this, and you could actually have everything you wanted, just not all at the same time? Michael goes back to work solving crimes while trying to put things back on a "normal" track, but alternating between realities provides some challenges - one moment he and his wife are grappling with having another child to replace their loss, and the next moment he's finding himself attracted to his son's tennis coach to fill the void from the loss of his wife. At the same time, he is solving crimes in each world which sometimes overlap in fascinating and inexplicable ways. Is he dreaming or going mad? Michael begins seeing two different therapists to help him sort things out, but then again why would he want either "reality" to go away when the totality of both means having his family complete?

From groundbreaking writer Kyle Killen (Lone Star) and starring Jason Isaacs (Brotherhood, Harry Potter) comes a drama about the power of the mind, where the inception of life is a mystery and reality might just be overrated.

HERE is a trailer for the show.

 

The show sounds interesting but it also sounds like one it'll be very very easy for them to get very very wrong. But I like Isaacs a lot so I'll probably give it a shot.

 

I watched the pilot on hulu and was impressed. But I agree that there has to be some real quality in how they deal with the two realities and they cannot cop out and make it Isaacs' character who is in a coma or something.

 

Yes. It sounds intriguing.

Yes. It could go wrong really easily.

 

Like has been said, the show has the potential to go off the rails in an awful way. But I like Isaacs a lot, so I'm hoping it doesn't.

 

Maybe the trickiest part of this is that it seems like a better idea for a movie than an ongoing TV show. A miniseries would be an easier fit, even, but HBO is the only network that makes those anymore. It can work, but the degree of difficulty is high.

 

I'm a little curious about the long term tone of the show. Will an affair in the world where he's a widower spill over into the world where he's still married? Will large scale events take place in the same fashion (I.e., in reality A Obama wins reelection, in reality B Ramney wins)? Will the mechanism be explained, or will they just go with it?

 

The trick is to maintain high tension for a long time.

Its hard.

 

Who knows how the show plays out long term. It's going to take meticulous writing to ensure that the cases he's working in both universes are interesting to bring people back. But it really depends on how much bleed through from one universe to the other is allowed vis-a-vis his family. Like Raven said, what if he starts an "affair" with Tara in the greeniverse and he meets her in the rediverse? Will she ever "feel" or "see" what happened in green as opposed to red?

I think eventually they have to deal with the "reality" of green v. red. And I think they have to explain the mechanics eventually. Mysteries are only good if there's pay off (LOST...yes, I said it) and not when writers/producers frak with the viewership (The Killing).

 

I apparently can't watch this legally in Canada at the moment. This sort of thing is why I'm tempted to pirate.


I actually think that it can go entirely without being explained, as long as the mystery of why it's happening doesn't become a plot point in of itself.

You can pretty much guarantee that the following will occur at some point:
-A case where the same crime has a different perpetrator in each reality.
-An episode where he's really awkward around someone he's having an affair with in the other reality.
-An episode where he asks his wife for advice about giving their son advice.
-An episode where he tells his wife and son about the split reality. Probably not first season.
-An episode where one guy is dead in one world, another guy is dead in the other, and he realizes that they were trying to kill each other - which one succeeded just happened to vary.

Etc.

Depending on how they go:
-A third reality splitting off at some point.
-Someone else bouncing between worlds with him.

And so forth.

 

-An episode where he tells his wife and son about the split reality. Probably not first season.

This is actually the case with his wife in the first episode. He's told her that when he closes his eyes he sees their son. She has issues with it. However, at the end of the first episode, right before they go to sleep, she asks him if he will see their son again that night. He says yes. She then tells him to tell Rex that she loves him.

 

This will be a season finale. He will suddenly realize that a mysterious figure is haunting him in both realities and then, at the height of tension, there will be some giveaway that this is not just someone who is stalking him in both realities, but rather someone who is stalking him in both realities. If you get my drift. They did a great version of this on The Dead Zone at the end of the second season, but I won't spoil it.

 

10-11PM | NBC | SERIES DEBUT
Awake

After a fatal car crash, a detective (Jason Isaacs) begins moving back and forth between alternate realities

 

I've recorded this...did anyone see it?

 

I watched it last night. It was my second run through of the pilot episode and I still thought it was a solid show.

 

I watched it last night. It's got potential, but I don't know how long it'll be able to sustain itself.

 

I watched and "solid" is a good description.

But...it's a police procedural. I'm so damned sick of police procedurals.

I won't be watching further.