NBC's Awake

[David]

Is anyone else watching this show?

The cast and the concept pretty much sold me on this show.  We're fans of Jason Isaacs and the non-Donal Logue cutie from Terriers is nice to look at, plus being keen on the Life On Mars 'idea' (though we like the UK version, the US attempt wasn't bad) where the viewer doesn't know what's "real" made this pretty much a no-brainer.

Unfortunately, we're now three episodes in and I'm having one problem.

The premise is Michael Britten has a wife and son and the three of them are in the family Jeep when it goes off the side of the road.  Michael survives the crash.  In one reality his wife survives and their son is killed.  In another reality his son lives, but his wife dies.  There are some nice tricks with rubber bands and the filming in one reality differs slightly from the other.  He goes to sleep in the world where his son is alive and when he wakes up, he's with his wife.  There are aspects where one reality bleeds into the other.  Michael's a detective and there are connections where a case with one partner plays a part with solving another.  It's well done.

My problem is that Michael's wife and son have "lives" without him being present.  His son will be riding with his tennis coach or fixing a motorcycle with his buddy and dad his nowhere around.  Same thing with his wife.

To keep the mystery alive I think this could fixed with Michael's son telling dad about his day and with flashbacks we can witness these events the same time Michael's hearing about them.

I thought the whole idea was that we weren't sure what was real in this man's life.  Is he dreaming up one reality?  Both?  Maybe he's the one that didn't survive...

There's definitely something afoot because Michael's captain has a connection to some sinister group, a group that seems to be behind the auto accident.  And I seem to be okay watching those conversations even though Michael isn't around.  But there's something about us watching Michael's wife at a fundraiser while he's working a case on the other side of town that doesn't 'feel right'.

[ryan]

YES! Loving this show. Part of me wishes this was only a 2.5 hr movie tho... I have similar issues with how his "life" within the two realities he's created/living in seem... distant? Not sure if right word or if i can express it fully. And I hope they can keep it as intriguing as it has been so far. I don't want it pulling a Fight Club or something that we can see coming a mile away and have to sit thru it wishing it could be better (see latest season of Dexter ). Again, why I almost wish it was a movie. That pilot episode I could watch over and over. Man, sooo good.

[JohnnyNoPrize]

I'm watching it and didnt really have any issues with it until I say DAP's post on Facebook. I responded with the idea that maybe we were seeing two alternate realities. But. Then I started thinking and I am now also having issues with the other characters having experiences that Michael isn't privvy to. I can still work with the alternate reality idea but I wish we had more time with our only glimpses of the wife and kid being when Michael is around. I see this right now as another crime procedural with hints of genre thrown in for the geeks. Its why I dropped "Grimm". Im on the fence about staying with the show.

[Tempo House]

Is anyone else watching this show?

So far it is one of the shows I picked up this year.

My problem is that Michael's wife and son have "lives" without him being present.  His son will be riding with his tennis coach or fixing a motorcycle with his buddy and dad his nowhere around.  Same thing with his wife.

To keep the mystery alive I think this could fixed with Michael's son telling dad about his day and with flashbacks we can witness these events the same time Michael's hearing about them.

I thought the whole idea was that we weren't sure what was real in this man's life.  Is he dreaming up one reality?  Both?  Maybe he's the one that didn't survive...

I'm actually expecting other sets of alternative realities to start creeping in, in a Lost/Fringe fashion: one in which they both died, another in which the accident was averted but someone else died.  One thing that would make me scream in despair is if it turns out they are all in some kind of purgotary.

It is possible that the perspective shifting away from Michael Britten makes sense. We'll just  have to see.

There's definitely something afoot because Michael's captain has a connection to some sinister group, a group that seems to be behind the auto accident.  And I seem to be okay watching those conversations even though Michael isn't around. 

Aside: for once I want to see a show with this kinds of metaphysical mystery at its core and with a narrative of conspiracy weaving in, but it turns out that the conspiracy has nothing to do with the central mystery.  That would be a cool way of messing with the viewers' expectations of the metaphysical conspiracy genre.

[NeverWanderer (Joey Cruz)]

I'm actually enjoying having my expectations of the show challenged and rearranged with each episode. It keeps things interesting, keeps my mind working.

Of course, there's always the possibility that the writers are just really sloppy and don't know what the hell they're doing, but such a view just seems too cynical. At that point, why put my faith in any show to take risks and pull them off well.

My own take on the shows mystery has evolved with ever episode. At first it was up in the air whether both realities were real, or they were both figments of Michael's imagination -- maybe he's in a coma, maybe he's the dead one. I always suspected, though, that the realities were both real, that they were created at the moment of the crash, and that each variance in the experiences of others he runs into were caused by changes that happened at or around the same time; one timeline becomes two, and from that moment, the butterfly effect causes the divergent details between the two realities to take effect.

That seemed to be confirmed when we started seeing the side players get their own spotlight -- if it's all just Michael's imagination, why are we seeing his wife and son do things without him around? I think the writers goal was to cause that exact confusion in us. The therapists seem to be the voices of reason in each reality, tell Michael (and the audience) that the other reality is just a dream. Now the narrator comes in and says all is not as it seems. They are BOTH wrong. Both realities are real. And they let us tangle with the implications of that.

And now, after episode 4, we can't deny that the divergence in the timelines happened LONG before the crash. If the evil doctor/homeless junky wasn't hint enough, the vastly different fates of Rex's babysitter are confirmation. So, we're dealing with two living breathing realities that have been different for a long time, and Michael is only just discovering those differences now with his "condition."

Wanna know what I think? I think Michael died in the crash, and in order to escape true death, his consciousness latched onto other versions of himself from parallel realities. Dead Michael is only "alive" when he is awake, so he lives vicariously through one version of himself, and when that version sleeps, he jumps to his other waking self. The problem is, that bond with his parallel selves is causing him confusion, and they're experiencing what HE experiences through their dreams.

So, yeah. All possibilities are true. Michael did die. And he lived. And all realities are true. And he is experiencing them as dreams.

Booyah. 

[NeverWanderer (Joey Cruz)]

Either that, or the crash has stuck him in some godlike manifestation of Schrodinger's theory, where nothing exists until he perceives it, and only after he has perceived it is it allowed to go off and exist without him.

Though, that would mean he'd have to have "perceived" every extra in the background of the supporting character's scenes for it to work. Which is possible with the people at the teen hotline center, and with Rex's best friend, but not with the people at the park, or the nurse who held that dude escape.

Yeah, that's probly not it. Fun to think about, though! 

[Tempo House]

One thing that is not being made clear thus far (or I missed it) is whether he lives every other day in each reality .. or if he leaves each day twice. I would say the former would create a lot of plot problems, so it has got to be the latter. Which means, among other things, he has to process twice as much information per day, and remember twice as many things.

They gotta take this question on at some level.

That and they need to start having him mix up realities more often as we go deeper in the story. It's fine that they color code the realities for the viewers, but there has to be a downside of this whole shtick with closing cases using facts from the other reality.

[David]

I have to remember to treat this thread like the Walking Dead TV series thread and not peek in until after I've seen an episode.  We don't watch it until the weekend and as soon as I saw Joey talking about last week's show I screamed "Abort!  Abort!" and hightailed it outta here.

Now there's a whole 'nother winkle because here's someone that was in Michael's (and his family's) life long before the accident and this woman's life took two different paths depending on who survived the crash.  That's just weird.  But in a curious and interesting way.

Renée feels something's "up" in the world his son lives in.  Because here's Michael's partner talking about how Britten having hunches isn't quite right.  She calls bullshit on that because that's something his rookie partner can get away with questioning, not the dude that's worked with you for however long.

I'm not sure how I feel after watching it.  The babysitter definitely had most of my attention when it comes to trying to figure things out.  And the battling shrinks, too.

Maybe I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have.

Now to read the posts I've avoided to see what I might've missed.

[NeverWanderer (Joey Cruz)]

I have to remember to treat this thread like the Walking Dead TV series thread and not peek in until after I've seen an episode.  We don't watch it until the weekend and as soon as I saw Joey talking about last week's show I screamed "Abort!  Abort!" and hightailed it outta here.

Now there's a whole 'nother winkle because here's someone that was in Michael's (and his family's) life long before the accident and this woman's life took two different paths depending on who survived the crash.  That's just weird.  But in a curious and interesting way.

Renée feels something's "up" in the world his son lives in.  Because here's Michael's partner talking about how Britten having hunches isn't quite right.  She calls bullshit on that because that's something his rookie partner can get away with questioning, not the dude that's worked with you for however long.

I'm not sure how I feel after watching it.  The babysitter definitely had most of my attention when it comes to trying to figure things out.  And the battling shrinks, too.

Maybe I wasn't paying as close attention as I should have.

Now to read the posts I've avoided to see what I might've missed.

Sorry, homey! I'll clearly demarcate the spoilers next time.    I just assumed anyone reading the thread would be all caught up.

[David]

And that's that.

[Chris Campbell]

My wife watches. I never bought in.