Awake — “Awake” may be my favorite new network drama of the season. The show comes from Kyle Killen, who was responsible for one of the best pilots in recent memory, “Lone Star,” a show that Fox pulled two years ago after only two episodes despite wide critical acclaim. “Lone Star” was about a guy who led a double life: He was involved with two wives/lives and had to shuttle back and forth between the two. “Awake” plays in the same ballpark. It’s about a detective who was in a tragic car accident in which either his son or his wife died. For reasons that aren’t entirely yet evident, the detective lives in one universe where his wife is still alive, but when he goes to sleep, he wakes up in another universe where his son survived the accident. Neither the detective nor the viewer knows which life is real, and despite seeing a shrink in each universe to deal with the trauma, the detective just as soon continuing living both lives, as it means he gets to continue seeing both his son and wife. On the flip side, he also has to deal with their grieving. Naturally, there’s a procedural component to it, as well: The detective uses clues in one life to help solve murders in another life, and vice versa. Kyle Killen had hoped to avoid being burned by the serialized nature of “Lone Star,” so he installed an episodic element to this show.
“Awake” is a little airless — there’s no humor to speak of — and it hews a little too closely to the procedural formula, but it’s intriguing. I want to know which life is real, if either is. Plus, there’s an ongoing conspiracy surrounding the circumstances of the accident that killed his wife and/or son that has me hooked.
Will It Be Renewed — Ratings have not been stellar; in fact, they’ve been downright dismal. The most recent episode scored a 1.2 in the demo, and only 4.6 million viewers overall. But, it is doing better than “The Firm” did in the time slot and no worse than “Prime Suspect.” I’d say there’s only a 25 percent chance that “Awake” returns, but it will depend on whether NBC develops anything good during pilot season. As it is, “Awake” does as well as anything in that time slot for NBC, so they might be smart to let it have some time to pick up some viewers. The compelling premise should eventually snag a few additional eyes.
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Seriously, “Touch?” I fear that “You like the worst things, Dustin” is going to become the new “Bring back Matt.”
/still pissed off that Dustin panned “Unsupervised.”
Here’s the thing about Unsupervised — it’s terrible.
So true Queefer. I watched the first two episodes and wanted to like it but it is horrible.
I’ll stand with on this one Zack. I enjoy Unsupervised, though if you asked me I couldn’t tell you why.
“Amen and Goddammit!”
Those kids are just so positive. And I don’t know why, but everything Russ says is really quotable. Probably his weird voice.
I’m in the pro-Unsupervised camp as well. It took a few episodes for me to come around on it, ‘cuz really it’s not especially funny (certainly not when you’re coming into it expecting something “Sunny”-ish), but those kids are frickin’ lovable as hell (hehe… sorry). And Darius and Russ are pretty funny. All in all it feels like one of the more realistic school-based shows I’ve seen, and it’s quite charming once you get into it.
Life’s Been Short hasn’t been picked up for a second series in the UK yet Dustin, they haven’t decided yet.
Maybe things have change since then, but in December Gervais tweeted confirmation that the second series would run in the Spring 2013.
It’s “Life’s Too Short” Rowles, not Life is Short/Life’s Been Short.
Seems like the information here is a little short.
NBC should cancel “Awake” so TNT can pick it up.
Ashley Judd’s series undone by a Kentucky run through the tourney?
Delicious.
Heh, nice catch. That is amusing.
I wouldn’t trust anything that Tim Kring does; not after the way that Heroes nosedived into failure.
Besides, I’m convinced that everything good in the first season was the work of Bryan Fuller.
You would.
(I agree with you, but I’m just bitter that every time I see your avatar I’m reminded that Pushing Daisies isn’t on anymore)
Olive > Chuck.
There, I said it.
Did you just use “has a solid foundation” to describe a show about a contacor? Jesus Christ.
Enough with the carpenter jokes.
The show took forever and was over budget.
Spoiler alert, The dude on awake is really dead.
Probably, but I’ll be disappointed if that’s the case. Lindelof already burned us on that, so hopefully Killen won’t fall into that hole.
I don’t think so. The stuff about the conspiracy, especially the fact that Britten isn’t in those scenes, seems to me to rule that out.
So is the show.
I’d like one TV show to have a realistic autistic character. My nephew is autistic and he doesn’t have this incredible magical gift to remember numbers or play an instrument or psychic ability. (as far as we know…I’ve taken him to a casino, music store, palm reader and nothin..)
what about aspergers? parenthood has been doing this for 3 seasons.
also, abed on community? (supposedly)
Aspergers and autism are two different things.
“Missing
lost me when Judd drove a fucking Vespa, face first, through a shop window and came out unscathed on the other side. The show picks and chooses when it will be realistic. No thanks.
You are so right; Vespas don’t go fast enough to go through a shop window.
I gave up on Touched when the radio commercials featured the kid who doesn’t talk doing voiceover.
Is Touched just a TV version of Mercury Rising? Kiefer Sutherland is basically a tv version of Bruce Willis, right?
I know, right? Was talking to my mom and she described “Touched”, which I wasn’t watching. I said, “So it’s Mercury Rising meets the show on CBS where the two guys show up at crimes before they happen.” Which it turns out is Person of Interest.
At first I thought Touched was just a scripted ‘To Catch a Predator’.
Margo Harshman’s back on TV?!? Oh man, I might have to start watching this “bent”
Kinda curious – why would NBC basically kill “Bent” on purpose like that? I know networks run though episodes of shows that they don’t plan on renewing, but at least they try to give those a shot.
Seems like they picked it up and then realized they hated it.
Yeah, that’d be my guess. Either that, or their schedule just turned out to be in a different shape than they had expected. Maybe they expected that Whitney-Chelsea block to be a bigger deal (to provide a credible lead-in for Bent), or they expected one of those shows to be canceled already, clearing room for Bent to have a legitimate one-episode-per-week run. Or maybe it’s just an “Ah fuck it, who even cares?” angry pessimism sort of situation.
I like Awake a lot, and Bent is pretty decent as well. The latter obviously won’t return, but I hope Awake manages to stay alive, because that’s a very compelling concept, Jason Isaacs is a good actor, and Laura Allen is sexy as hell. I hope they at least try it in a different time slot before canning it altogether. I’ve never understood why they don’t just have another hour of comedy in that timeslot, instead of a drama.
“It will depend on whether NBC develops anything good during pilot season.” So, Awake is a LOCK to get renewed then?