Awake

[CRAMBAM]

So there's a new show starting called Awake that seems interesting.

A guy is in a car with his wife and son. There's a bad car accident. The guy survives.

He soon finds himself waking up in 2 different realities. In one, his son survived but his wife died. In the other, his wife survived but his son died.

The show is about him bouncing between the two.

Very interesting premise. I wonder where they will go with it.

[TrekBeatTK]

Trouble is these high-concept shows don't usually last very long. I'll be very surprised if it runs a full season. But I may check it out when it premieres.

-TK

[CRAMBAM]

In some ways it reminds me a bit about Life on Mars. The premiere is March 1, but it might already be available on demand.

[Astachoth]

It sounds interesting. I will have to wait for it to be released on disc since I don't have television. Well, I guess I could watch it on the Internet. I hope that it isn't cancelled. Every time since Enterprise, good science fiction show become cancelled. I have Enterprise, the Invasion series, and the Sarah Connor Chronicles, which are amazing. They should have never been cancelled.

[Mel]

I dunno. It sounds like, no matter which reality he's in, it's heart-breaking. Given that, I'm not interested in seeing it. I don't want to get emotionally entangled. It's exhausting.

[CRAMBAM]

Have you seen the previews? He has the exact opposite attitude. In the preview scene, he doesn't know which reality is real, and there are people in both realities that say the other one is fake. His attitude is that he doesn't care, because in both cases, he has one of them, so from HIS point of view, he has it all, and doesn't want it to end.

[gavin1701]

I watched it last week. The pilot has been available to download officially for some time (although have to wonder how that will affect the ratings for the premiere). It was a decent first episode. They didn't run around the houses and you are deep into the plotting within minutes rather than long stretched out intros. I hope people watch it because I have no one to talk to yet about the show without talking about spoilers.

It has the potential to be long running depending on where they go with it. It is a cross between a police procedural and the sci-fi concepts of Fringe. Procedurals can go on for years and Fringe has proved that if you keep reinventing the situation around your protagonists you can remain fresh each year.

[CRAMBAM]

Ok. Just watched it. I guess we can't do spoilers yet HERE, because it's only fair to wait until it airs, but this is a good show.

[CRAMBAM]

By the way, I believe the pilot for this show officially airs Thursday at 10pm. If you don't feel like waiting and have 45 minutes, it's on demand now. I think it's also on hulu.

There are a ton of directions this show can go, though I guess thanks to shows like Journeyman and Life on Mars, they won't be super original. However, the show has LOTS of potential to be enjoyable.

[CRAMBAM]

SPOILERS









Ok, so last night I watched the next episode. What I'm finding is that while the show is interesting, I'm worried it will turn just into a case of the week show. While I get the concept that one reality is helping him solve crimes in the other, they need to put together some subtle hints that there IS some sort of answer.

I think they were starting to hint at that in the last scene, but they need to do a little more.

I like how there's different lighting in each reality. Helps you keep track.

[CRAMBAM]

SPOILERS





I like this show, but one problem I'm having with it is that it's simply not developing the main plot. People aren't watching because of the Case of the Week. They are watching to find out why this guy is moving between realities.

The way I see it, one of the realities CAN'T be a dream. If that happens, the entire show's premise is ruined. So somehow, we have to find out that both realities are either real, or fake with a third reality being the real reality.

One theory going around is that both therapists are in on the conspiracy. What I find interesting is why is he seeing 2 different therapists? Where are their doppelgangers in the other universe?

[gavin1701]

I think you're being a little unfair. It's only been a few episodes and most shows are told by the networks they have to have a procedural element so that people can tune in at any point in the show and not get lost, and so they can run reruns in any order as well. Nearly all first season shows are like this in the US and build their mythology gradual. Journeyman, Life on Mars, Fringe they were no different -- case of the week, person to help of the week. Arguably the longer a show runs and the less its audience is (when it turns truly niche) it can bog down with answers. It took Lost 6 years to tell us what the island was When we've seen the full season we can better judge if they took the slow-burn route.

If I was him I'd be trying to find out information about other people that can only be found in the other reality, and then use that information to convince people who matter, that he isn't dreaming. He won't get an definitive answer, but at least he won't have to put up with therapists saying he is mad.

[CRAMBAM]

I don't mind that they move slowly, but the selling point of this show is that it's a show that deals with the mystery of a man who is finding himself in 2 different universes.

Lessons and clues from one universe help his cases in the other. But the primary mystery is, what the hell happened to him?

Without even acknowledging that, it's just a cop show.

Lost may not have given us answers right away, but they sure were setting up the questions and having the characters deal with them.

All the shows you mention did something to further their main mystery, even in Season 1.

Of course a few of them didn't even GET to Season 2.

I don't know how Awake is doing in the ratings, but I'd like to see more. So far, all Awake has done was show that the accident was no accident.

[gavin1701]

In episode 2 we found out that his female police captain was in on a conspiracy which involved doing something to him, but we're not sure what!

I don't think it's doing bad at what it's doing, I'm pretty gripped each week, although this week wasn't the best episode.

[CRAMBAM]

Yeah, but there's been several episodes since that, and we haven't had a followup.

Even Lost threw us a bone every now and then. Once Upon A Time is throwing us answers and adding questions.

[Mel]

Awake ratings: (And no, I haven't seen it)

NBC's Awake was another story. It fell 25% to a 1.2 adults 18-49 rating and it's prospects for renewal move towards grim (as opposed to Grimm, which has already been renewed ).


tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/03/23/tv-ratings-thursday-official-touch-premiere-lower-than-preview-community-falls-back-missing-awake-plummet/125713/

[CRAMBAM]

NBC is interesting though. They'll deal with bad ratings if they believe in a show's concept.

See Chuck, Quantum Leap and Friday Night Lights to name 3 examples.

Of course, I feel all 3 of those shows were better than Awake, but I want to see where they are going.

[gavin1701]

We've only had 4 episodes and to be fair they are all seasoned shows, even Once Upon A Time has had 4 times the amount of episodes aired (16 now). And that hasn't advanced the plot much at all. Too many backstories, not enough progress in Storybrooke. SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS It meandered after the pointless death of the Sheriff which proved to be a plot device with no consequences, to give Emma a function in the town. Still a good show though.

[CRAMBAM]

Actually, SPOILERS







that death also revealed that the Queen knows exactly who she is, and apparently retains some of the magic from fairy tale land. And it shows that Emma really is partially able to break the curse. The sheriff remembered who he was.

[gavin1701]

SPOOOOOOOOOOOILERS AGAIN FOR ONCE UPON......... They could have had both reveals without killing the sheriff. To me a character death is only done well if it has dramatic consequences for the people who care about that character, or who's death it affects emotionally. The very next week it was business as usual, nobody sobbed, nobody even seemed to care. To me it was a two-fold plot device: 1) to give Emma a function in the town, as previously mentioned, and 2) for the writers to give the impression that anyone can die at any time, which we all know isn't really true. They'd never kill Rumpelstilstkin or the evil Queen as it's two of the shows most popular characters and actors.

[gavin1701]

One of the best shows for killing a character off early was Angel. They literally had 3 stars of the show, no supporting actors. 6 or 7 episodes in, they killed one of the leads and the death resonated for the rest of the season. In fact the actor died a couple of years later from drugs I believe, but they still brought him back in video form in the final year.

[CRAMBAM]

You're right.






SPOILERS

The Sheriff didn't have to die. I guess they wanted to step up the danger level. While it's true they won't kill the main characters, within the context of the universe, the characters don't know if they are red shirts.

[gavin1701]

I really enjoyed this weeks episode. It gave us a potentially recurring villain that knows more than he should. My first thought is that Britton can get an upper hand on him if the villian is still a police officer in the other universe, to create a very interesting dynamic. I also liked that his "hunches" are starting to have consequences. My favourite episode so far.

[CRAMBAM]

It was definitely an improvement. But still, I would like to see some sort of movement as to what's going on with WHY these 2 universes exist.

I guess part of the problem is that he doesn't WANT this to end.

But what would be interesting is if somehow the wife and son are both alive, and there IS a way to get them back together if he can figure out how.

[StarFuryG7]

After seeing this latest episode I think I know what's going on in this show.

He's the one who never came out of the accident. It's what makes the most sense being that he's experiencing two realities, both of which seem real, but with things getting more mind-bending and surreal as he continues to live his everyday life, which in reality is a series of interconnected dreams. So he's either in a coma and lying in a hospital bed, unable to come to terms with what occurred (his wife and son, either or, may well have died in the accident along with him, and perhaps, though unconscious, he's also semi-aware of this, perhaps unsure of which one of them actually survived the accident if one of them did in fact survive), or he died, and much like the Bruce Willis character in "The Sixth Sense", he's not ready to accept that either, but his dreams are gradually nudging him in that direction where he'll have no choice but to ultimately realize and come to terms with his own demise.

[CRAMBAM]

I don't know. I could have sworn I read somewhere that the writers said they aren't going in that direction.

I'm almost positive I read that he's not dead. This is not some purgatory like Lost. And I think it would be a cop out if he's in a coma.

But I do believe in some fashion, the wife and son are both alive.

[gavin1701]

It can't be his own illusion. In both the red and blue worlds we have seen scenes without detective Britten in them revealing things he did not know:
A few episodes ago his wife discovered that their son was restoring a motorbike in the red world. Now if he was dreaming that, he would also know, but he seemed very surprised when he found out.
This episode the son was with the girlfriend in his bedroom in the blue reality, and again Britten seemed very surprised when he was later told his son had a girlfriend.
It can't be his projection if these characters are having private moments he knows nothing about.

[StarFuryG7]

Apr 6, 2012 19:26:04 GMT -5 CRAMBAM said:

I don't know. I could have sworn I read somewhere that the writers said they aren't going in that direction.
I'm almost positive I read that he's not dead. This is not some purgatory like Lost. And I think it would be a cop out if he's in a coma.

This article was brought to my attention by someone on another board:

m.uk.ign.com/articles/1220354

So apparently your memory wasn't playing tricks on you after all. However, if one of the "realities" is real and the other is fake (rendering it not a reality after all), then one of these two worlds will have to be dropped once Britten realizes that he's only living in a dream when he goes there, which would change the show significantly. Of course, it may not matter since this show doesn't stand a very good chance of being renewed by NBC being that it hasn't fared all that well in the ratings. So it looks as though we're looking at another "Journeyman" here.

[gavin1701]

Wouldn't it shake things up IF they killed either the son or the wife, and he had to deal with genuine loss of them on both sides???

If one is real and the other not, then how are these clues manifesting in the other world? Such as the location of his kidnapped son in Blue from interviewing the suspect in the Red world? You can't put that down to any form of intuition that was pretty specific locale if Red turns out to be fake. And vice versa stuff from Blue to Red.

[CRAMBAM]

Damn it. Canceled. Hoep it doesn't end on a cliffhanger.