TV Review: AWAKE is Sending me to Sleep - Two Birds 1.12

A lot can be said of Awake, I’ve certainly said plenty about it in recent weeks following its cancellation by NBC, that penguin back in episode six should really have been built on more as that was probably the first time Awake dealt with one case in the two realities. Moving onto to last weeks “Say Hello to my Little Friend” and once again Awake pulled it out the bag providing us with it’s best episode yet, build that again to this weeks “Two Birds” and Awake again provided us with a brilliant episode where the conspiracy has finally started to bleed through both realities. This is something which should have been happening a lot more, as everything which spiralled from the accident should have had a consequence in “red” or “green”, had we been given that Awake may well have fared a little better when NBC were handing out second season orders to their shows.

I have really enjoyed Awake the last two weeks but again find myself in a position where I don’t really feel like I want to go into to much depth, after all next weeks season finale will be the last we see of the show and I feel that the cancellation has effected my view on weekly proceedings since then. I really haven’t felt emotionally attached to the show like I was in the beginning, of course I still want to find out which dream is real and see a satisfying conclusion to the conspiracy case, but I'm not holding my breath.

The reality of the show is the one which most people will be wanting answers to, which is it? Red or green? Recent episodes have been focused in the red dream and have certainly started to sway my opinion somewhat, like last weeks falling incident at the fair ground, Britten woke back up in the red dream. That as we all know is a sign of dreaming, however this week they swapped that one round when Britten was shot he woke back up in the green dream, this makes me more inclined to go back with this being the actual reality.

I find that when I watch Awake I don’t really care about any of the other characters involved, I only want to see Michael Britten and only care about his story. There are a host of other things going on however none of them seem to interest me. Vega for instance, not interesting at all, although this is the fist episode where he seems to have sat up and took any notice at all. Captain Harper, not interesting she seems to want to hear Britten out back in the green dream, but you can’t help but think that’s only to cover her own tracks, again I don’t really care. That building where all the heroin was being stored (don’t remember and can’t be bothered to look up its name), this is the centre of the conspiracy, but again I’m not interested.

After all is said and done about Awake you really do have to tip your hat to Jason Isaacs, this guy is a brilliantly talented actor and if anything he has put his name back in the spotlight for the right reasons. In Particular this episode he portrayed Michael Britten as a
man on the edge, at breaking point with some style, note Jason Isaacs looks like a mean ass motherf**ker sporting the unshaven look.

I suppose you can call that more of a summing up than a review but lets face it there is one episode left now and yes I will be watching it hoping for answers to the questions which I have posed above, it will be nice to see Awake rounded off properly with no loose ends left to tie up and I think Kyle Killen will be looking to have that done for us tonight.

TV Review: AWAKE - Say Hello to my Little Friend 1.11

You just couldn’t make this stuff up could you? The day following Awakes best ever episode NBC go and cancel the show meaning that it won’t be on their schedule next season, I really can’t say I’m to disappointed about that decision as Awake has been very poor in previous offerings in my opinion and “Say Hello to my Little Friend” is by far the best episode I can remember since the one with the Penguin. Don’t be expecting to much from this review, yes this was good but I also fell asleep at one point so maybe we will have to fill in some blanks. I would go back and watch it again but due to it being cancelled I really don’t see the point in covering this or the next two episodes in any great detail, so here goes;

Are you all thinking “red” along with me now? Following this episode and the few that have come before it “red" has been the order of the day and certainly seems to be the reality of the two dreams, but do you really think the answer would be that simple? I doubt it, and maybe we were right in the earlier episodes when we said that “green” is actually the reality, although there was one prominent remark made in this episode by the psychiatrist which resembles waking up from a dream that I think may well be the biggest clue yet.

It was during the scene at the fair ground when Michael, Rex and Emma went to do a spot of bungee jumping, before they had the chance to hook Michael up properly he slipped and fell off the rigg before waking back up in the red reality, in speaking with the shrink about it the fact was pointed out that its a typical dream state reaction, one which we can all pretty much relate to, I’m sure you have been there, I know I have when I feel like I’m falling then all of a sudden wake up with a fright. Maybe we are guessing right about the red reality maybe that is the real one.

The conspiracy end of the story finally reared it’s head this week with Michael discovering that the accident was in fact not an accident at all, more of an attempt on his and his family life. This for me was again pointing towards “red” being real as the entire conspiracy has taken place where Michael lives happily with Hannah, maybe though show creator Kyle Killen was looking for it to loop this way towards the end of the first season before changing the conspiracy to the “green” reality for the beginning of the second, after all the story in both is no different it just happens that Michael lives different lives in each.

I’m struggling to get behind the conspiracy story and to be honest I even found it hard going during this episode, probably the reason I fell asleep, but never mind there are now two episodes left to wrap this show up because as I mentioned above it has been cancelled, the question we all want the answer to still remains, which is real red or green? I’m sure that by the season finale that answer will be delivered, quite how they will deliver the answer we will have to wait and see, but for something so high in concept I expect the answer to be quite good even if the creators and writers have had to cut things short thanks to bad viewing figures.

TV Review: AWAKE - Slack Water 1.10

I may as well start by telling you that this is going to be a pretty short review, without doubt this is the worst episode of Awake yet. The show has been frustrating me in recent weeks with nothing of any real significance happening, there are only three episodes left in this debut season now and what started off as a promising new show has quickly gone down hill for me. I would say so far "That's Not My Penguin" has been the best episode, it was certainly the last one which seemed to give us any sort of answer. You may have caught the previews earlier this week and in all honesty Awake looks like it will be brilliant on Thursday night, I'm just not holding my breath.

I said a couple of weeks back following another poor episode that I want the answer to two things. Firstly, the conspiracy surrounding Michael Britten's car accident and secondly, the answer to which dream is in fact not a dream. If anything "Slack Water" gave us a little more info regarding the conspiracy as we now know that it has something to do with a rather large amount of Heroin that someone wants out of L.A. Problem is they can't move the Heroin until Michael Britten moves to Oregon, that's all going on in the red dream which this episode seemed to concentrate on.

The conspiracy was only touched upon briefly and the rest of the episode remained in the red dream but concentrated on Rex's girlfriend, Emma, that's her name, didn't think I'd remember that. Emma is pregnant with Rex's baby and seems to have turned to both Michael and Hannah for support, she clearly wants to keep the baby and have the Britten's involved, however her parents have other ideas on what she should do both with the pregnancy and her life. In the red reality I think that Emma will be moving in with the Britten's, really I don't find that interesting at all, but it will be interesting (I hope) to see where they take the story.

Red seems to have become more prominent in the last couple of weeks, and after seeing next weeks preview It would seem to lean towards the red one even further. Personally, I still think Green is real, although nothing has pointed firmly in either direction. I certainly hope that this part of the story line is done with by the end of the first season because if (and it's a big if) Awake gets a second season I don't think I could take the bore of not knowing for much longer.

I really think Awake should be kicking in a bit more right now, I look at Person of Interest and don't remember the last time I saw an episode which I considered not that good, it's run in has been solid. Awake has had three maybe four episodes which really got me thinking the others just haven't quite cut it. Awake did have a lot of potential and I hope the three episodes we have coming up go up a gear and start to impress me a little.

TV Review: AWAKE - Game Day 1.9

Did you get anything out of Awake this week? I really didn’t, I’ve seen a mixed bunch of reviews some good, some bad and I have to agree with the bad ones. Awake lost my interest a couple of weeks ago, following “That’s not my Penguin” I was really expecting Awake to kick it up a notch, I really haven’t seen that and like last weeks “Nightswimming” I really found “Game Day” to be boring, uneventful and of no use what so ever to anything I want to know about this show. Will that do for you? Of course not so let’s continue.

“Game Day” is the first episode in a few weeks which has afforded equal amounts of time to both realities, as always there were two separate cases to be solved both of which cantered around a football game between L.A and Seattle, in one reality L.A won the game and in the other they lost. That resulted in a gambler having his business burnt to the ground by his wife and a fan being killed by his brother. Really, I didn’t care about either case I felt no investment to them at all and can only think they were there to serve as a filler to the story as always.

I suppose the main story this week was that of Rex and Emma (Daniela Bobadilla), who we found out was pregnant before the Britten’s got into the accident. A neat little twist that I didn’t see coming, probably because I’ve lost interest, I really find myself now just wanting to know which the reality is. There is probably some message there for the audience with the story in both the red and green dreams, the most pertinent of which belongs to the red one, where Michael lives with wife Hannah. The pregnancy of Emma will keep Hannah in L.A instead of moving to Oregon, remember during the early episodes she wanted another baby, so maybe having a grandchild will serve as the replacement for that.

What do you think of that storyline? For me I would rather have seen them move away to Oregon as that would have provided some answers – I think. Had they moved away and then Michael fell asleep and woke up in the green reality (the one which I think is not a dream) then that would be it, case closed. Of course at the end of this episode Michael didn’t tell Hannah, we are just to presume that is what he was going to tell her (unless I was asleep at that point), who’s to say that it will change her mind? They might still move to Oregon. I really don’t know, which is good I suppose, it keeps us guessing but I’m just not sure that I’m interested anymore.

I hear that the ratings on this show are low enough to suggest that it might not be picked up for a second season, personally I can see why as I don’t feel invested at all. I really hope that Awake can deliver some answers in the next couple of weeks and maybe even give us some bigger clue (unless we’ve had one I missed) as to which dream is real. I put a theory forward a couple of weeks back that both of these worlds we see now are dreams and that we are yet to see the reality, I’ve took a look at what the show creators and NBC say on that matter who confirm that one of them is not a dream, so what’s your vote red or green?

How you doing with Awake? Do you still think it’s full of mystery, are you still invested in the weekly lack of clues, or like me have you just about given up on what promised to be a very intriguing show that has failed to hold its audience base?

TV Review: AWAKE - Nightswimming 1.8

I do really enjoy this show but since the episode which featured the penguin a few weeks back I’ve become a little disheartened. From that point I really expected things to be ramped up a bit, instead what we have had are two boring weeks in my opinion. Nothing has really happened other than police procedural drama with a view into what life is now like for Michael Britten in either of his dreams or reality’s. Following “Nightswimming” I stand even more by the point I made last week that both red and green are merely dreams and we as the audience are yet to see the reality.

The focus this week shifted to the red dream/reality where Britten was trying to relocate a couple in the witness protection program, that situation was happening in the green dream though and served only as a way to cross over the story of police procedural and Britten’s life with his stunning wife Hannah. It was all about how their life is now, Britten was working with a couple in the other reality who had a relationship similar to his, although they love each other they needed reminding of what life was like when the first got together. What is there to say really?

There is nothing here for me to even guess at or make me come up with a new opinion. I have stated a couple of times recently that I thought this show could finish up by the end of this first season, eight episodes in with five left and we are really no further forward. Still, if Awake just continues in this form as police drama would it even get a second season? I’m not so sure it would and I’m guessing that a lot of people may have stopped watching it already.

We have mentioned before about how stunning Michael Britten’s wife Hannah is, “Nightswimming” could have worked a lot better had the Director not tried so hard to cover Laura Allen up, I certainly wouldn’t have minded seeing any of that, wouldn’t you agree? In fact if Laura would like to go skinny dipping on a weekly basis I see no good reason to object.

No Rex again this week, not that I missed him. I can see why he didn’t feature here as it wouldn’t have added as much weight to the scenes between Britten and Hannah, but it seems when they are both involved that there is a little more mystery to be had. I’m sure that next week Rex will be back in the mix and hopefully Awake will deliver us a little more mystery and get us back to where we expect to be by now.

I really can go no further than that this week, again I found myself bored. There are plenty police procedural’s to choose from and Awake should concentrate more on it’s mystery for me.

TV Review: AWAKE - Ricky's Tacos 1.7

I really don’t have that much to talk about with Awake this week, would it be wrong of me to say that I found it a little boring? I suppose it’s not, but that is what I felt like this week, maybe it was the fact that none of the cases really crossed paths, but then again when it came to the shows main plot, what happened to Michael Britten? The cases did cross and the conspiracy grew some more. For me Awake has two questions that I want answered (well three actually, but the third may or may not be relevant, I’ll get to it shortly) I want to know which reality is real and what the conspiracy against Britten is?

I suppose with all the twists and turns in which reality is real I’m not going to get an answer to either of those questions any time soon, although I would still say that Awake could be wrapped up in one season if everything is revealed in the next four episodes. It may well go on longer, who knows? The show could give us the answer to which reality (green/red) is real then roll into a second season with the conspiracy storyline. It really does have potential.

One thing I want to touch on, it’s something I’ve noticed before but never really paid that much attention too. Awakes slogan “Two dreams, one reality”, is it just me or would that suggest Britten is dreaming two dreams and as the audience we are yet to see the reality, say maybe he is in a coma or something like that and before he wakes up he is solving all his cases. It maybe is a little far fetched but to suggest that one of the dreams is a reality shouldn’t the slogan say “Two dreams, one is reality?” This could well be the reason I don’t
work in TV, am I missing something?

The Westfield Distribution case is seemingly going to be the main focus of attention as to where this conspiracy actually lies, does that mean the red world is real? I honestly don’t know and the more I think about it the more I seem to confuse myself. Whatever Westfield Distribution has to do with things then certain people including Britten’s boss Captain Harper don’t want him digging to deep, it may also have something to do with “Ricky’s Tacos” or was that just helping out with a clue in the blue world? It’s Ricky’s Tacos where Britten hallucinated this week believing the ordering machine told him to go check out Westfield Distribution. That really is all I got from this episode.

Maybe like I said above we haven’t seen the reality yet, he is in a coma and before the accident he knew people were conspiring against him, it will all build to him figuring out all the clues in a coma and the season finale will see him “Awake” and bring down his foes. That is possibly completely ridiculous speculation but at least it’s a thought, I don’t really know where Rex or Hannah would fit into this scenario, maybe they are sitting at his side when he comes around.

Lastly, that third question I mentioned above, does Michael Britten ever change his shirt? It would seem that he has a vast selection of ties yet only one blue shirt, is that something the writers have done on purpose or am I just not paying enough attention? Or on the other hand to much attention?

TV Review: AWAKE - That's Not My Penguin 1.6

For me this was the best episode of Awake so far, I have really enjoyed the series but so far it's been more procedural crime drama rather than explaining what the Sci-Fi mystery twist is. This far two things have ran constant in Awake that we want answers to, firstly is the police conspiracy side of things which up to now is pointing towards the fact that the Britten's car accident maybe wasn't so much of an accident, and then you have the which reality is real question, the main focus of everyones attention. "That's Not My Penguin" is the first episode which has started to deliver answers to one of those questions, or maybe the writers are just throwing us a curve ball to keep us off the scent.

Every little clue thrown in so far has pointed towards the fact that the blue/green reality where Martin lives with his son Rex is the real one, "That's Not My Penguin" certainly didn't do anything to change my opinion on that, it only served as more concrete evidence that everything in the nice glossy red reality is in fact a dream, a world built by Michael Britten to help him come to terms with the fact he lost his wife. By this reveal, if it is a reveal can we presume that the writers are looking to wrap Awake after one season? Let's face it that's the whole mystery and if Britten is going to start putting together the pieces six episodes in I think he may well have solved it by the time we are at the season finale.

"That's Not My Penguin" focused on a young guy named Gabe who just happened to be holed up in a psych hospital in the red world. Gabe believed that his sister who had died some years earlier had been kidnapped and the nurses on the ward were hiding her from him so, he decided to lay siege to the ward held the staff captive and wired up some explosives. That put Michael in kind of a predicament, he faced a hostage negotiation with a mental patient who possibly has the same condition as him, but that made gripping TV for us as this is where all of the answers came.

I think this is possibly the first episode where I have laughed, up to this point there really hasn't been to much to laugh about but when that Penguin showed up in the psych ward I had to have a little chuckle to myself. That penguin was of course the first of two hallucinations that Michael was about to have, it didn't escape from the zoo section of the hospital, it was never there and only present in the mind of Michael. I'm not sure on this but I have to ask the question, can you hallucinate in a dream? I would say the answer would have to be yes, as the writers wouldn't have done that otherwise unless of course it's not a dream.

Lets say it is a dream, it's a pretty elaborate one, it's a whole other world and the hallucinations seem to point to the other world being the real one. The Dr (B.D. Wong) in the red reality showed up in that psych ward I was thinking this is a bit of a twist, I didn't pick up right away that it was just Michael hallucinating, it really was brilliant at the end of the episode when you find out that he was never there in the first place, Michael Britten's mind sending him a message possibly?

I'm really enjoying this show, it is brilliant and I have no doubt that some twists and turns will be coming our way, but for now I stand that the blue/green reality is the real one, the rest is just a dream, however, I'm still aware that this show could throw us a massive curve ball, we often thought that Lost might provide answers, they never came so why should we think any different in Awake, this show really is that good and I can't wait to see more.

TV Review: AWAKE - Oregon 1.5

I was going to review this show from the beginning, but since the "Pilot" I'm yet to find something of length that I wanted to say, I do enjoy Awake and I am interested to see where they go with things, I know we are only five episodes in but I thought that maybe we would have a little more of the Sci-Fi element going on, rather than the procedural crime drama that we've seen so far. The reality's or dreams always cross over in some way or another but I'm yet to see anything more than a clue helping solve a crime in the red or blue world.

Right from the off in "Oregon" the dreams or reality's are crossing over, I have to say the red reality with his wife looks a lot nicer especially when watching in HD, you really notice how pretty his wife (Laura Allen, quite amusing on her IMDB page she was actually born in Portland, Oregon) is. I liked the great way they used a dog in the reality's almost to warm him, kind of like a constant seeing a dog attack him and then one lead him to a body in the woods, that was pretty clever but still not explaining what is really going on. Michael spent the beginning of the episode looking for Lassie, was he hoping for a statement? The dog had of course found the body first and we were to learn later that it had chewed up and swallowed some vital evidence in the case of The Gemini Killer.

The Gemini Killer for me is probably the first character I can see on a returning basis, he set Michael up for his first murder and thanks to the dog eating the evidence, the FBI believed that Michael was in fact guilty as they had killed the man they believed to be The Gemini Killer years before. Wouldn't that be a good name for a serial killer in Dexter? Once I heard the name come up I kind of thought that maybe Dexter might moonlight onto the set of Awake and hand out a little vigilante justice.

Another example of the realities crossing over was of course the title of this episode "Oregon", Hannah has been redecorating in the red world hoping that would help them get over Rex, now she wants to move to Portland, Oregon and unbeknown to Michael she had already set up costs for moving their furniture with a company named Montana Moving and Storage, on it's own a little boring but back in the blue world Michael was chasing up a lead on The Gemini Killer which led him to an empty building, luckily for him that empty building happened to be across the road from the now empty Montana Moving and Storage building, leading Michael to his first confrontation with The Gemini Killer. When Michael saw the Montana moving and storage co, it was another great moment of the reality's crossing over, in the two reality's the name meant two different things, in the blue one he just ripped off the metal sheeting door, wouldn't you need a warrant for that? I know in England you would.

The ending was brilliant with the Gemini killer getting away, not only that but his conversation with Michael would suggest that he knows more about him, like the situation he finds himself in with the red and blue world's, The Gemini Killer hinted towards the fact that things maybe similar for him. Normally cases are solved on a weekly basis but maybe we are going to get something like Person of Interest where one or maybe two bad guys keep recurring. The Gemini Killer didn't half make the blue reality seem like the real one, and it was that reality or dream which this episode and the ones before it focused on more. There really is no telling or guessing in this show which I love, and I've mentioned before that the weekly procedural drama is probably up there with most shows, but Awake goes one step further adding the Sci-Fi element and I'm really intrigued to see how it turns out.

TV Review: AWAKE - Pilot 1.1

I watched Awake when it first aired a couple of weeks back, and yes, I was intrigued. I do like the premise but thought maybe I already watch enough TV. I have had to reconsider, I really should be making room in my schedule for a well thought out TV show which was initially named REM and was billed as a Inception-esqe TV thriller, if you caught my review of the movie Inception then you will already know just how impressed I was with that, as well as that very good reason to keep watching and start reviewing Awake is the fact that my only loyal commenter Ruben also likes the show which means my reviews will get comments (hopefully), there is a lot of stuff I write about which does not get comments, follow your audience that’s what they say.

Awake is the new TV show brought to us by Kyle Killen on NBC, a network which I hear is in need of a successful TV show right now. Awake follows Michael Britten (Jason Issacs) a police detective who gets into a car accident with his family. From there on Michael lives in two separate realities, one where his wife Hannah (Laura Allen) survived the crash and his son Rex (Dylan Minette) died and the other where his son survived and wife died. Britten switches between the realities by simply going to sleep, in each reality he is still a detective but has different partners, he also has a shrink in each reality, which one is real? If any, that's where the guessing games start for us.

I really loved the "Pilot", I have actually watched it twice as I found it quite difficult to keep tabs on first time round, the realities are separated for the viewer by a tint which comes over the screen, those are red and green, red being the reality his wife survived and green where his son survived. The two realities cross over really well for Britten as one usually helps him solve cases in the other, it also gives us two different stories to concentrate on away from the main Sci-Fi plot.

Those two stories are actually interesting enough even if you do take away the main plot, in the "Pilot" Britten was working on two cases, in one reality it was the case of a missing girl and the other he was working on a murder and I really enjoyed seeing each of the stories and for me Awake leaves you in a bit of a predicament. Which reality do you like better? I have seen all three episodes now and I found that I like different things from each reality, take the two shrinks for instance I like them both but for me Dr Judith Evans (Cherry Jones) is all that more convincing that her reality is the real one , this would be the one where his wife survived. Dr John Lee (B.D. Wong) is also very good but hasn't come out with anything convincing for me as yet. Having said that I enjoy that reality more, I'll go into more detail with further reviews but the stories, especially in the third episode have been better for me.

So, is Britten actually shifting between two realities? I'm really not sure, I think that's the same for all of us, could it be? Or do you think that Michael Britten will turn out to be like Gene Hunt, dead all along, maybe he is in a coma and dreaming the realities, meaning that neither of them are real. There are a lot of possibility's for this show and I'm really looking forward to seeing how the story goes. How about you? What are your thoughts on Awake?