Awake
Starring: Jason Isaacs, Laura Allen, and Dylan Minnette
To kick off my section of TV I decided to start with the series premiere of NBC’s Awake. I’ve been seeing commercial upon commercial for this show in the past couple weeks and the premise intrigued me, it was something that I’ve never seen on TV. Police detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) is newly returned to work after being in a car crash along with his wife Hannah (Laura Allen) and his son Rex (Dylan Minnette). After the crash Britten discovers that every time he goes to sleep he switches between two realities, one in which his wife died in the crash and one in which his son died. In the reality where his wife is alive he is partnered with rookie Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama) and is seeing a confrontational department-recommended psychiatrist Dr. Lee (B.D. Wong). His wife has redecorated the house and begins pushing him to move in an apparent effort to move past their son’s death. In the reality in which his son is alive, Britten maintains his long time partner Isaiah “Bird” Freeman (Steve Harris) and sees a more nurturing psychologist, Dr. Evans (Cherry Jones). His son, previously a football player, has recently returned to playing tennis, and is coached by Hannah’s former doubles partner Tara (Michaela McManus). Britten remains unsure which of the two realities, if either, is real, and begins to worry he is losing his sanity when details begin to cross over between the two. Jason Isaacs, aka Luscious Malfoy from Harry Potter, single handily take this show on a believable and thriller ride, delivering a powerful performance and is able to portray the main character with ease and sophistication. The acting so far is at it’s greatest just like the show it’s self.
Like countless movies, such as Inception and Total Recall, the main character has a tough time distinguishing between reality and what he is dreaming. Unlike Inception he isn’t given a totem to determine if it is a dream or not, which, is causing him to lose his mind. It is evident that even he doesn’t know what is really or not by the fact that he wakes up to find neither of them and to force himself to determine what is going on he cuts his hand to see if the pain is real or not. To me this is the beginning moment of him completely losing his mind and wouldn’t know what to do if it was all a dream. This show has to be one of the best that I’ve watched because it keeps the audience guessing and will keep on the mind games though out the entire season or series, which is a good thing because it will attract more viewers. It is quite possibly one of the most clever TV series out there right now and is something that I intend to watch for the foreseeable future. The only problem that I have is that it may become to melodramatic and lose focus and what is important in the show, which will ruin the integrite of the show. All in all a great introduction to a series that will keep me watching the end of either the season or series. My recommendation would be to watch this show just to see what you are getting into and if you enjoy it keep going cause I’m sure it will get better as the story progresses.
10 out of 10
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