Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Awake on NBC



Unlike The Firm on NBC, Awake is actually a good mid-season show.  I've been watching this over the past two months, and I'm hooked.  I'm bummed that there's a 90% chance it will be cancelled.  Not Firefly bummed, but I would still like to see another season of this show (or see a satisfying end over the next month or so).

After Michael Britten and his family are involved in a car accident, Michael somehow bifurcates into two alternate realities.  In one, his wife is alive.  In the other, his son survives.  He goes from one world to the next by simply going to sleep.  Which raises the question: which world is real, and which one is the dream?  Or are they both real?  Or both dreams?

The more interesting parts of the show are the ones where his psychiatrists analyze his situation.  Of course, each psychiatrist tells Michael that their world is real and the other one is the dream.

As a cop, somehow clues from one world's case help Michael to solve a case in the other world.  In some cases, these connections only make sense if one world is indeed a dream.  For example, in the trailer above, 611 refers to a parking space in one world and a building in the other world.  There's no rhyme or reason to it, but the clues always pan out -- well, almost always.

This will be another one of those shows that I've enjoyed watching and will miss when they cancel it.  I'm just wondering what NBC could have done differently to attract more viewers to this show.  Did people even know it was on?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh...Firefly.

It's getting so I don't want to invest my time in a show with a cool premise for just this reason. I watched Outcasts (BBC) on Netflix last month and LOVED it only to find out there will be no 2nd season. Gah!

Erin Latimer said...

I saw a bit of this on TV the other day. Interesting concept. But I'm with Milo. I don't want to get hooked if it's just going to get cancelled. Talk about a catch 22 for the show, they can't get viewers because we're all too scared it will be cancelled, so it will probably be cancelled!