When You Get To A Fork In The Road, Take It
I caught the pilot of Awake. It wasn't bad. The concept is a police detective (Jason Isaacs with an America accent) in a car crash with his wife and son. His life splits into two realities--one where his son died in the crash, the other where his wife did. Or to put it more positively, both survived, just not in the same place. Whenever he goes to sleep, he wakes up in the other. So which is the dream? Is one a dream? Since we see things from his point of view, neither seems fake (and they're shot differently--one with bright, warm colors, the other with a shadowy, desaturated look).
And that's my problem. This astonishing thing happens to the man, and we're going to watch him each week solving crimes? I'm not sure how we can get any progress in figuring out which world is real (if one is fake) without ending the show. It's a great gimmick for a movie, but week in, week out, I don't see where this will go.
PS The actor who plays the detective's son is the same one who played Jack Shepard's son in the alta-world of Lost. Is that supposed to be a clue?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:10 AM
4 Comments:
Sounds like Woody Allen's "Melinda and Melinda," right down to the visual schemes. Though maybe the conceit works better for a series.
Melinda and Melinda is a good idea for a film, but has weak execution. Part of the problem, in addition to so-so writing, is Woody seems to have a shaky view of the comic versus the tragic vision.
It's not that close to Awake in that the point of the series is the protagonist is stuck shuttling between both worlds (neither of which is comic) while the two Melinda tales are completely separate.
What happens when he pulls an all-nighter? Drinks and passes out. Does he wake ip for 12 hours and then sleep for 12? otherwise, it seems onw world is getting short shrift
Is he getting the necessary REM sleep- seems like he would be exhausted.
these questions of course come from one who has seen promo 100x but missed the actual show.
I liked the pilot but have the same concern. Unlike "Unforgettable," where the gimmick of perfect recall easily feeds into solving a weekly crime, there is no way Jason Isaacs "condition" can be anything other than the central feature of his life. His job solving crimes would have to be somewhat secondary (plus what police force would leave him on the job given what he is telling the psychologists).
I'm hopeful that they will take this element into consideration - and it looks like they will (I glanced at the summary of an upcoming episode, and it looks like his son will be kidnapped, which leads to a plot of him using the other world to save his son). It will also help if his wife comes to believe that the other world is real, and communicates with her son through the husband (very poignant).
This series will make it if we get a sense that "something is going on" - some sort of supernatural occurrence. It could be "Donnie Darko" for TV!
P.S. Jason Issacs is also Lucius Malfoy from Harry Potter. Is it cheaper to get British actors to play American detectives? "Awake" runs opposite "The Mentalist."
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