Grade: A
Creating an original series is hard. Doing something original that has not been done or is a fresh take on something is very hard on television (Especially when one has to deal with the ever growing ‘Tommy Westphall Universe’).
NBC may have finally struck gold with its new series
Awake which deals Michael Britton, a police detective, who was recently in a car accident that left him with a precarious mental condition in which he now lives between two realities. In one reality where he wears a red band on his arm, & warm lighting & filters are used, his wife survived the accident & their son died. In the other reality, Michael wears a green band on his arm, where more subdued lighting & blue filters are used, & only his son survived & his wife died in the accident. This leaves him with a unique view & look on not only his relationship with his wife & son but also a strange connection between his case load. The problem is that only one of these realities is real & while Michael is not trying to get any better his doctor in the red reality Dr. John Lee, played by the awesome BD Wong, believes that if he continues down this path where his mind will continue to become more & more exhausted due to not resting that there will be serious consequences.
As the episode starts off we are dropped right into the accident in a very dramatic way. A rolling car, shattered glass, muted screams & a dizziness like that of Michael’s. As the episode continues we see the dynamics of both realities where Michael has been assigned to see a therapist in both to continue to be cleared for work. As one finds the situation unique & the other damaging the journey of odds continues as we see how this has affected his work where his partner in the red has been transferred & he is now being monitored & reported on by rookie detective Efrem Vega, played by the ever incomprehensible Wilmer Valderrama. In the green reality he continues on with his partner Isalah ‘Bird’ Freeman as they work through a case that begins to have connection to the case that Michael is working in the other reality through familiar names & people.
As the episode goes on it continues to become more & more captivating just to watch how Michael deals with each reality. Seeing how he makes connections & works through each problem he faces is brought out wonderfully by Jason Isaacs.
Awake in its premiere is able to set itself apart as the best pilot of 2012 & set its bar very high as a series. While there will no doubt be stumbling along the way, it would take a bit of effort to derail the series. The problem & real hurtle is that
NBC has a track record for doing just that.
