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?
