Jason Isaacs stars as Michael Britten in Awake.
© NBC
Awake is a thriller about a cop who finds himself experiencing two realities after waking up from an accident, from Kyle Killen, who created the well-regarded by short-lived series Lone Star. The series also stars Wilmer Valderrama and B.D. Wong.
The idea has been to position Awake/REM as being in the style of the film Inception, since the central character, Michael Britten, is experiencing interlayered realities--but this spin is very likely to fall away as Killen and his team steer the series toward its own voice.
A better model would be Fringe, whose multiple realities have been much more flexible than, say, the preordained present/future dualities of FlashForward, the other recent twin-perception show that comes to mind.
Here is he official description from NBC:
Awake is an intriguing drama about a detective (Jason Issacs, Harry Potter, Brotherhood) who finds he is leading an arduous double life that defies reality. When Detective Michael Britten (Issacs) regains consciousness following his family's car accident, he is told that his wife Hannah (Laura Allen, Terriers) perished but that his teen son, Rex (Dylan Minnette, Saving Grace), has survived. As he tries to put the pieces of his life back together, he awakens again in a parallel reality in which his wife is very much alive--but his son Rex died in the accident. In order to keep both of his loved ones alive at one time, he begins living two dueling realities in parallel worlds, which churns up confusion--in one moment, Michael and his wife debate about having another child to replace their son, while in the other reality, he is attracted to his son's tennis coach, Tara (Michaela McManus, The Vampire Diaries), to fill the void from the loss of his wife. Trying to regain some normalcy, Michael returns to police work and solves crimes in both worlds with the help of two different partners--Detective Isaiah "Bird" Freeman (Steve Harris, The Practice) and Detective Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama, That '70s Show). Also starring are Emmy Award winner Cherry Jones (24) and B.D. Wong (Law & Order: Special Victims Unit) as therapists in each respective world. The series is produced by 20th Century Fox Television. Kyle Killen (Lone Star) and Howard Gordon (24) are executive producers. David Slade (Twilight: Eclipse, 30 Days of Night) also serves as executive producer and directed the pilot written by Killen.
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Comments
AWAKE is one of the best series I’ve ever followed, it is very well written and has a lot of human heart in it. Intriguing and intelligent plots, It’s totally a winner on my selected chart of series, comparable to Lost.
WHYY!!!!!? why cancel these amazing shows! and kardashians is still running? there is something massively wrong with this world. People who only care about making money off a show.
DO NOT cancel a well written INTELLIGENT show… get rid of the reality and mean spirited crap!
It would figure that an intelligent, mind-blowing series would be cancelled. Why watch a show on television that makes you think a little when you can watch some reality crap that has little to no meaning for anyone other than the ego filled celebrities creating them? Don’t get pissed at the network for it. It’s the public that continues to watch these ridiculous shows that keeps them running every season.
We PVR’d this series and the whole family watched. So sorry it’s over! One of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time.
Totally loved the Awake series! I will miss it now its been cancelled. Fantastically well written and so well performed. Well done.
Shame on you NBC for canceling a show finally worth watching!
This show was a show that you have to really follow and I loved that. I was intrigued the entire time. I was hoping that they will not cancel the show but of course they did. TV Networks really suck, the only shows the survive are reality junk shows. The “Biggest Loser” is the only reality show that NBC has that is worth watching. Bring it back and give it another chance!!!! I think the executives should just be fired!!!