New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

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 His Wilmer Valderrama partner always goes along with him except for when he doesn't trust him, his son is always withdrawn and sulky except when he realizes how much his dad cares (which is only at the end of any given episode and then immediately forgotten) and his wife is always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.

Continued:       1       2