Awake: What Are You Doing?!?!?

BY: ORANGECHAIR

“So tell me how this works.

I’m awake with my wife, when I close my eyes I open them, I’m awake with my son.

And this has been happening since the accident?”

This show has been on for nine weeks now and I am still trying to figure out where it’s going. Each new episode brings about disappointment and excitement in equal waves. As the s how continues to follow the two cases an episode format I become more disappointed.  Each new episode presents two new cases, one in each of the worlds that Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) believes he is living in. As he goes to sleep in one world and wakes up in another, he finds connections between the cases that allow him to solve them both. The consistently seems in danger  of turning into a psychological Law and Order which bothers me immensely because the story concept is way too good to fall into such a generic, cookie0cutter style of television.

Though I’m disappointed with the general structure of the show, it is starting to give me the continuing story line that I crave.  The show has done a great job expanding on Michael’s relationship with his wife and son even though both of them are dealing with a loss that Michael does not quite understand. The show is going bigger however, focusing more on Michael’s psychological/supernatural problem in addition to his changing relationships. Already they have eluded to the fact that Michael’s boss and Michael’s boss’ boss had something to do with his car crash. This plot line is not only continuing but will be accelerating during the next episode. What I thought was brilliant in the most recent episode was the show’s exploration into Michael’s multiple universes. The episode’s crimes center around the outcome of a football game. In one world, a field goal was scored to win the game. In the other world, the field goal was missed resulting in the other team winning. In each world, each event happens slightly differently. When his son Rex (Dylan Minnette), tells Michael that he got his girlfriend pregnant before the crash but she lost  the baby, Michael decides to follow a hunch. Things happen slightly differently in each world and in the world where Rex has passed but Michael’s wife is still alive, the baby survived. This astounding and rather brilliant plot twist opens the door for any number of future twists. What does this mean for Michael and his wife? More importantly though, what does this mean for the connections forming between Michal’s two worlds?

Awake: A Continuing Story Line Emerges?

BY: ORANGECHAIR

Last night, NBC premiered the 5^th episode of their new drama Awake. The story looks at a man named Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) after a terrible car has torn his life and his mind apart. Whether he is special or just trying to cope with an extreme loss, Michael Britten lives two separate lives. In on life, his son Rex Britten (Dylan Minnette) survived the car crash his wife Hannah Britten (Laura Allen) did not. In this world, Michael falls asleep and wakes up in another world. In the second world, Michael’s wife survived the crash while his son did not. Each time Michael falls asleep, he wakes up in the other world. So far, the story has not touched much on the mysteries that surround Michael’s crash. The show has structured itself by creating a new case for Detective Britten to work on in each episode. Episode 5 was no different, pitting Britten against the notorious Gemini Killer, but a single phone call at the end of the episode finally gave the audience some input as to where the show’s mysteries are heading.

In the past, the show has given us some insight into the mysterious crash but nothing quite like the end of episode 5. As an audience, we have been clued into the fact that Britten’s boss has some knowledge of the oddities surrounding Britten’s crash but we don’t know the true level of her involvement.  Each episode also gives us some connection between Britten’s two worlds, a connection that generally helps Britten solve his current case. The end of the most recent episode however provides us with the most direct yet cryptic clue yet. Though Britten is able to save Gemini’s final victim, the Gemini Killer is able to elude the Detective for the entire episode. The episode’s close includes a phone call from the Gemini Killer who, throughout the course of the episode has developed quite an understanding of Michael Britten. In the phone call, the Gemini Killer suggests that he has an understanding of Britten’s situation, referring himself and Britten as “men like us.” Gemini’s language and confidence suggests that he knows something more about Britten’s situation than Britten does himself. The two men, according to Gemini, see the world in a different way. At the end of the phone call, Gemini makes it very clear that this may not be the last we are seeing of him.

This new character that NBC has introduced could mean a number of things for the future of the show. This is the first time there has ever been any reference of somebody else “like” Michael Britten. Though Gemini does not reference any real specific similarities his mention of the unique way he sees the world seems to mirror the unique way Britten uses his two worlds to solve his various cases. There is some odd connection between this serial killer and Britten and I hope this isn’t the last we see of the Gemini Killer.

Awake Pilot Episode: Eye Opening in Two Worlds

BY: ORANGECHAIR

Last night, after yet another flawless night of NBC comedy, the new show Awake aired its pilot episode. As I may
have slightly hinted towards in an earlier post (Awake Finally Arrives), I have been waiting for a very long time for this show to air. As tends to happen when one waits for something, I built up some fairly large expectations for the premiere. Somehow that I cannot imagine, considering the expectation size, this episode managed to live up to my wildest dreams.

It was the premise of the show that originally sparked my obsession with it. The show follows the life of Detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) after surviving a tragic car crash with his son, Rex Britten (Dylan Minnette), and his wife, Hannah Britten (Laura Allen). When the audience meets Michael, he is living two lives. In one life, his wife survived the crash but his son did not. In that world he goes to sleep and when he wakes up he is living a completely different life where his son survived and his wife passed away. Each time he falls asleep he wakes up in the other reality, making it so that Michael Britten does not know which world is real and which world is a dream.

Already the show has introduced a number of possible side plot lines that could evolve as the show progresses. To help keep things straight, Michael wears a green rubber band on his wrist when he is awake in the world where Rex is alive and a red rubber band in the world where Hannah is alive. To make things easier, I am going to use the same idea and called the two worlds Red World and Green World. In Red World, Michael has confessed to Hannah everything that is happening when he falls asleep. They talk about it sometimes but Michael’s insistence that both worlds are real becomes too devastating for Hannah. In each world, Michael is seeing a therapist and already, within the first episode, the therapists are battling through Michael. Each therapist attempts to convince Michael that the other one is a fake and with every new visit, each therapist needs to one up the other. More issues appear in each world as in the Green World, Rex is attempting to make his tennis coach a replacement for his mother while pulling further and further away from his father. In the Red World, Hannah wants to move to a new house and start trying to have another child. Michael is a detective in both worlds and in each world he has a different case and a different partner. Details from the cases begin to cross over and somehow hold importance in both worlds. To top it all off, though he insists he didn’t have anything to drink, Michael’s toxicology report in both worlds suggests that he had ingested some alcohol the night of the crash. The pilot integrates and slightly develops each of these plotlines all while focusing on the most interesting issue of all: the psychology of Michael Britton and his unique situation.

The depths at which you can delve into this show are so vast that they are almost overwhelming. The actors and writers have created a cast of very real characters that do a fantastic job of making such a tragic tale. The episode managed to be quite devastating without creating scenes that beat you over the head with sadness. The show managed to be subtle and powerful at the same time, striking a balance that left the audience quite satisfied. Michael Britton, for me, became quite an admirable character. At first, the fact that he basically refuses to try and fix his duel world problem made him seem like a very insane person. As we get to know Michael better, it becomes clear that he truly believes that both worlds are real and as far as he is concerned that is the way he wants to live. Michael makes it obvious “if the price of seeing them or feeling them, of having them in my life is my sanity, it’s a price I will happily pay. Trust me, when it comes to letting one of them go, I have no desire to ever make progress.” The show is worth watching for the evolution of Michael’s character, let alone all the other amazing performances and aspects they managed to pack into the first episode.

Rising to my insane expectations, this show has the potential to become something truly great. Real characters, an amazing script and great acting support a unique premise to create a brilliant show. The pilot episode has left open a number of different facets for the show to create multiple plot lines and the preview of the season as a whole that played after the show proves it will follow many of them. The preview also showed us clips of a number of mysterious characters that seem to know more about the circumstances of Michael’s crash than anybody else. Whether the show is going to stay strictly psychological or if it is going to start introducing some supernatural or religious elements I have no idea but the show is going somewhere great. I give the first episode of 9 out of 10 and strongly urge anybody reading this to watch it. The show is available on both Hulu Plus and Comcast On-Demand and is well worth making time to see.