Review: Awake

Since 2004 network TV has tried to replicate the success of Lost as a sci-fi drama with some mythology with little to no success.*  Where most of those shows failed was where Lost succeeded: developing characters; the temptation was to create this sci-fi wrinkle/ mystery to the show that kept people coming back.  The problem is that if the viewer has no connection or even hates the people wrapped up in the mystery they aren't going to stick around to find out the answer because every week there is no answer people get more and more annoyed.

*NBC has had The Event, ABC threw out V, Flash Forward, and now The River, CBS said why change what's kicking everyone's butt, and Fox canned Firefly and has had moderate success with Fringe.


NBC's new drama Awake seems to have learned the lesson, and it's no surprise that the pilot was very impressive.  The twist of the show is that Jason Isaacs (yes that Jason Isaacs) does not know which reality is reality: the one where his wife survived (played by Laura Allen, who had a stint on last year's Terriers, which if you haven't seen check it out on Netflix, a great character piece set around two not-so-kosher private eyes), or his son (played by Lost alum Dylan Minette, who played Jack's son and is no stranger to parallel universes).  The premise alone lends itself to a need for strong character to super-cede the sci-fi elements.

Writer Kyle Killen demonstrated in the pilot that the idea of grief (and how to cope with it) is just as central to the narrative as the split reality.  The scenes in the competing psychiatrists' offices play an integral role of dealing with Isaacs' Detective Britten as a human being dealing with a very strange and confusing dual realities that bleed into each other, usually for good.*

* Is BD Wong a professional psychiatrist?  He's now played one on 3 shows and nails it every time.


Another nice touch of the show is the contrasting tones in each reality.  We learn early on that red was the wife's favorite color and green the son's.  Consequently the tones in each scene, depending on which reality Britten is in, reflect who survived.  Rex's (the son) reality has a green hue to it while Hannah's (the wife) is more reds.

I think it also helps that the frame of the show is a police procedural.  If Killen really wanted to he could probably run the show for a long time as just a Law & Order: Dual Realities Unit.  It appears that each week there will be two crimes and how Britten pieces together information from both realities will help him solve each.  This leaves the viewer with a sense of satisfaction at the end of an episode instead of only wondering what is the answer to the riddle.  I'm sure (and hoping) that the show develops the cause and effect of the dual realities more, it doesn't seem quite as imperative as finding out just what the V's were on earth for, or why all those people were in that concentration camp in Alaska.

It was definitely a strong start for Awake and it will be interesting to see where the show goes.  If it continues to build on this start it could be around for a while, disproving the myth that all good drama has migrated to cable.