Crashing Pilots: Awake Part 2
Time to Hit the Snooze Button on this Sleepy Drama
By Tom Houseman
April 3, 2012
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Killen, the show's creator, must have known that I had given him a five-episode deadline in which to impress, because that fifth episode tried oh so hard to reel me in. And to be honest, if I had more faith in the show it might have worked. I might be willing to sit down next Thursday night as a way of saying, “okay, you've started building something here, let's see what sort of shape it starts to take.” But watching the first five episodes of a TV show not only gives you a sense of the potential the show might have for greatness, but also the pace of the show, how driven it is by overarching plots and mysteries and how likely it is to ignore those mysteries in favor of microplots that will be tied up neatly at the end of an episode. The impression I have gotten from Awake is that it is in no hurry to explain anything anytime soon.
There has only been one time in the history of ever when a show has successfully pulled off the scene where the people in power reveal that they have information that our protagonist doesn't which will lead to a much bigger secret. That was the Parent-Teacher conference episode of Buffy, and it was because it came a season and a half into the run of the series. It was earned. If you put that scene at the end of the second episode it will feel cheap and lame. What is more, if you drop that little bomb that hints at bigger things to come and then completely ignore it for the next three episodes, you are making it painfully clear that you are manipulating the audience by doling out tiny bits of information to make sure they keep coming back. It is entirely possible that the writers themselves are not sure where all of this information is leading them, but even if they do, they are moving in that direction at a snail's pace.
Yes, there was another such startling revelation at the end of the fifth episode that is supposed to leave our mouths agape and drooling in anticipation over what is to come next. So why is my mouth closed and my saliva planted firmly in my mouth? Because I know that this teaser isn't going to take us anywhere, at least not for a long time. We will get another couple of episodes of generic cop-drama stuff with filters to make it seem exciting and edgy, and then at the end of the eighth or ninth episode we will get another hint, not even a clue, just an indication that there is some sort of bigger secret hiding out there, which, let's be honest, we already knew. So what's the point?
Awake is, at its heart, a procedural drama with aspirations of grandeur that lead it to think it is above the rules of procedurals. In every episode there are two mysteries, one in each universe, that Britten has to solve using clues that sync up between universes. The clues that he gets often don't have anything to do with the cases, and have included a random number, a random name, and a random person. This means that Britten has to do hardly any actual detective work, but merely wait for a clue to point him in the right direction. Of course, in the most recent episode there was only one mystery because, hey, why bother having an established framework if you aren't going to ignore it when it's inconvenient?
But yes, when you get down to it, Awake is a procedural masquerading as a mystery. Good procedurals have to be driven by interesting characters, and for bad procedurals (Psych, Monk) the characters are even more important. Unfortunately, we are given the most bland of collection of vagabonds ever collected in a TV show and told that we are supposed to care about them. Jason Isaacs occasionally smirks, but other than that rarely shows any emotion, and none of the other characters are well-developed beyond a few traits. His Wilmer Valderrama partner always goes along with him except for when he doesn't trust him, his son is always withdrawn and sulky except when he realizes how much his dad cares (which is only at the end of any given episode and then immediately forgotten) and his wife is always supportive except when she is sneaking around behind his back. Even the shrinks have gotten progressively less interesting since the pilot, now essentially serving as plot devices who allow Britten to explain what he is feeling so that he doesn't have to show any emotions.
I am sure that there are fans of the show who will vehemently disagree with me on every point I have made about this show. They will argue that Britten's stoicism and understated emotion are a refreshing change of pace from protagonists who burst into tears at the slightest provocation. They will claim that Awake has an intricately designed mystery hanging over the head of every episode whether it is addressed or not, and that by taking things so slow they are allowing the complex plot to unfold naturally, rather than rush through everything as a way of appeasing philistines like me.
And to those of you who waving your “Awake is the new Lost” picket signs, more power to you. I honestly hope that you are proven right and that Awake does not collapse under the weight of its story, failing to bring together all of its pieces into a coherent puzzle. But whether it succeeds or not, I have no interest in being around to watch either the magic or the train wreck; neither of them will be worth the hour of my week that I will have to waste on Awake. I'd much rather be asleep.