There are some creeping worries with Awake that are tough to shake, despite the undeniable fact that it’s
probably the best and most fully-realized dramatic pilot I’ve seen since 2006’s
Mad Men (that is, literally, the
biggest compliment I could possibly pay a pilot). It’s a beautifully tragic
premise from Kyle Killen, whose two-step track record of this NBC psycho-drama
and FOX’s critically loved one-off Lone Star
show that he’s got a thing for the Struggling White Male and the double-life
conundrum. In this go-round, Detective Michael Britten struggles with the
mental aftermath of a tragic car accident and the two realities that sprout
from the rubble: one universe where his son has passed, another where his wife
is the survivor.
In each, one lives while the other is dead, and there’s a deep
emotional struggle in the survivors to cope with what’s happened to the other. Michael's wife Hannah is barely hanging on to herself, one minute
making attempts to move out of the house her son no longer inhabits (a great
conflict, as that empty room upstairs isn’t empty at all to Michael), the next
desperately considering having another child, ostensibly to replace the other.
Her ability to cope with Michael’s “dreams” can drive her farther into delirium,
and yet it’s a strange comfort in her last on-screen moment, where she whispers
a plea for Michael to say “hello” to him. This world crumbles around the both
of them pretty wonderfully, especially when
Michael wakes up and fears that he has drifted into a third universe where neither wife nor son exist (which serves
a bigger purpose, really: smartly ruling out that the third universe will never
happen).
Michael’s son Rex clearly hasn’t been able to relate to his busy
dad for a while, and the loss of his mom has only made things work. He takes up
tennis “to feel closer to her”, but feels very real grief when he realizes that
it’s not working. There’s a thick resentment in Rex towards a dad he barely
knows, but his coach Tara, whom Rex has the ability to confide in, plays the
catalyst for him to try and mend their relationship, which seems to be
improving at the end of the hour. There’s a curiously tempting parallel that as
Michael has potential to grow closer to his son, the madness of what’s happening
to him will drive the wedge deeper between himself and his wife.
But on top of it all, Michael can’t figure out which
of his loves is gone, or which he may actually lose. He awakens to one. He
awakens to the other. And both really exist in his eyes, as well as his
desperation to maintain this polarization of truths, for the fear of actually
having to deal with losing one of them. Cold hues paint each puzzling universe:
the world his son inhabits an icy, chilling blue, and his wife existing in a
sharp beige. In each, there are the therapists who really push the show’s big
which-one-is-real dilemma, both insisting their reality is the real one. B.D.
Wong (Dr. John Lee) and Cherry Jones (Dr. Judith Evans) are great here, but the
convictions that they each have for why make things extremely compelling. It’s
all a head-spinner, this dueling reality business, and the more Michael becomes
grounded in what’s happening to him, the more everyone around him insists that
he’s going mad. For a television series, that’s about as perfect a conflict you
can create.
But my first problem with the show rests in these
alternate-reality detectives (played by Wilmer Valderrama and Steve Harris) and
the Waverly cases we explore tonight, because there’s a legitimate fear in Awake skewing towards a mundane
detective-drama, because NBC loves them so much. The pilot doesn’t really
indicate how his cases will relate to the big mystery as a whole, other than
learning that there will be some cuh-razy parallels between them. Yes, seeing
all aspects of Michael’s life affected by his situation and both detectives
clearly doubting his sanity only adds more to the mix, but I’m not up for Awake as two Law & Order episodes
crushed into one with hokey clues peppered in. As apprehensive as I think
anyone will be after the pilot and what the show is trying to do, I can’t imagine
it succeeding if it retreats in that direction.
Awake, in its
premise and in its execution, is a definitively depressing show, and that’s the
other thing. It’s not one that wallows
in the sadness of love/loss directly, instead pressing on a twisting real-life misery
with an eerie supernatural element and a parasitic fear of what’s actually happening here. That's not a bad thing, and it’s really done
brilliantly; all things said, this is a critical win for a floundering
network whose only real success schedule-wide is The Voice, but it’s very hard to imagine anything possibly curtailing
the series’ descent into a really sad piece of work, no matter how long it
lasts (let’s be honest, NBC’s crop of dramas haven’t stood a chance this year). It’s a compelling story of
a man caving in, absolutely. But there’s a certain discomfort that exists with
that, watching a man’s harrowing descent with no end to the rabbit hole in
sight.
SumOlogy: Fantastic
pilot, but there’s apprehension as to where we’re going next.
Grade: 9/10
Leftovers
I really liked Dylan Minnette in this show, probably best of
the entire cast. I think Jason Isaacs is great at bring that brash roughness
that Michael has with poking moments at his internal struggle, but Dylan makes
me really feel for this kid who lost his mom and doesn’t really feel like he’s
got a dad. How sad.
I actually have the first four episodes of the show, which means that NBC must have some idea of where things are going, but I wanted to spill my premiere thoughts before I continue on. Next week, my thoughts on the second episode will likely include more knowledge on where things are headed as a whole. Spoiler-free, though. Promise.
“Thought it would be more Winning Wimbledon, not Qualifying
in New Jersey.”
“Remember when you thought ‘solved’ and ‘fixed’ were the
same thing?”
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