Every once in a while , one television show comes along that does it all : explore characters at a thick level , delve into major philosophic issue in a fresh , meaningful path , and keep you white-hot - knuckled with suspense . Awake is one such show , and if you ’re not see it , you ’re missing something extraordinary . The last two episode , in particular , have taken this dreaming cop show to a whole new level .
Spoilers before …
One thing maintain popping into my mind , watching the past match of episode of Awake : This show is like the original Life on Mars in all the best way . It ’s capturing the same Dame Muriel Spark of reality - warping cleverness that made Life on Mars such driven viewing , and it ’s using the trouble - solving elements of cop shows to solve internal , psychological problems in a way that reminds me of Mars at its best . Awake is the heritor to Mars in a mode that the American remake could never hope to be .
It ’s worth ingeminate the premise of Awake , for anyone who has n’t been watch it . Michael Britten is a fuzz who gets into a car chance event , in which either his wife or his Logos die . Whenever Britten goes to log Z’s in a world where his wife died , he wake up immediately in a cosmos where his Word buy the farm . And vice versa . He shuttles back and off between the two worlds . Most show would play this premise in terms of Britten try on actively to figure out which world is the real one — but rather , at least thus far , Britten has been crusade against that reality confirmation with all his willpower .
This is the story of a brilliant detective who passionately struggle to avoid face reality .
The one weakness that Awake has shown , in a couple of episodes thus far , has been a tendency to try and show two utter police investigation pass in one installment , with one investigation in each separate reality . And the two investigations , ideally , are presuppose to get in touch with each other via a kind of random dreaming logic that makes Britten look both psychic and a bit flaky . Unfortunately , the show has n’t been able to rend off two cases in one episode in a satisfying mode thus far .
The good intelligence is , most of the episodes have n’t stress to juggle two amply - fledged case at all , and they ’ve been the richer for it . The past two episodes , in particular , had just one case , and they managed to build on each other and on the show ’s roots . In both episode , Britten was dealing with a madman , whose madness is explicitly juxtaposed with Britten ’s own unravel mental state .
In last week ’s episode , a longtime serial killer come to L.A. , and Britten nearly catches him because he notice something that reminds him of his other dreamworld . And because Britten ca n’t explicate how he take in up with the consecutive killer whale , he ’s immediately suspected of being an accomplice or ape — something which only gets worse when the serial killer calls an FBI agent from Britten ’s own nursing home phone . Britten finally clears his name , but the serial cause of death get away — and it ’s a exercise set up for an utterly chilling scene in which the serial Orcinus orca reveals he knows about Britten ’s two conflicting realities , and he conceive they ’re kindred hard drink : the great unwashed who see the world “ sideways . ” ( In other words , either wild people or visionary , bet on how you see it . )
And after last workweek ’s episode explicitly raised the question of Britten ’s sanity , this calendar week ’s installment runs with it . And it ’s brutal . Britten ’s shrink in the Red World , the creation where his married woman is alert alternatively of his boy , is care for a schizoid genius . And we see Dr. Lee enumerate all of the sign of schizophrenia , the refusal to confront reality and the unraveling of the soul — while we also watch all of those things happening to Britten in tangible meter . It ’s not a doubtfulness of whether Britten is losing his grip , but rather of how long he can hold on to the shelf .
After that same schizoid affected role take away a bunch of people hostage and jeopardise to fellate up the genial hospital , Britten is charge in to negotiate with him . And over time , it becomes percipient that Gabe Wyeth III really is balmy . He believes his dead sister is active , being held captive underground by the immorality Dr. Wild — but she ’s actually at the Wild Cemetery , six feet under . Britten ’s shrinks in both worlds indicate out to him , in dissimilar ways , that this is a metaphor for Britten ’s own refusal to confront the reality that one of his worlds ( at least one ) is just a lucid dream . Britten is dealing with someone who ’s make the same problem as he has , only more in advance . All Britten has to do is help Gabe to have a breakthrough and have his sister ’s destruction , and he ’ll have symbolically vanquished his own inner schizophrenic . He ’ll be that much closer to a find of his own .
Instead , Britten deploys all of his superhuman skill at denial and self - illusion on Gabe ’s behalf , facilitate him to become well at tricking himself . He offers Gabe a happier version of his illusion that his sister is active , one in which she ’s detached or else of immobilize . And this allow Britten to purpose the hostage crisis without conceding that realism is better than fantasy . Towards the end of the episode , Britten follow the near he ’s gotten to pronounce a personal philosophical system : Reality take up . Why would you want to face reality ? What ’s the point ? If a hallucination is more pleasant or comforting , why not go with that ?
Awake is n’t just call for the historic period - old question , “ What is realism ? ” Or probing the notion that realism is what everybody agrees on , rather than something nonsubjective and external . Those are capital questions to inquire , but Awake rifle a footstep further and require whether one somebody , through downright force of will , ca n’t remold reality to his own liking . For Michael Britten , populate in two discrete versions of the earthly concern is simply an organisational problem . As long as he can keep his married woman and son ’s coffee orders separate and keep caterpillar tread of the little details , he ’s aureate .
But of course , he ca n’t . This sequence shows him unraveling more than ever . He accidentally address Vega as his pardner , in the earthly concern where Vega is just a beat cop . He gets the phone bank note disconnected and turn a loss track of stuff .
And then there ’s the lingering uneasiness from that conversation at the end of the previous episode — because Britten is basically doing what the nonparallel killer severalise him to do . He ’s clinging to his delusion rather than waking up , because he feels on some story that his double worlds is a kind of giving . A power , almost . It allow him to find stuff that nobody else can , and it also forbid him from get to swallow his heartbreak over the death of either his wife or his Word .
Even if Britten could manage to keep both Earth absolutely straight in his head — and get enough sleep to function , in both worlds — he ca n’t keep doing this much longer .
In Red World , his married woman Hannah is pushing him to move to Oregon , so they can start over and have a life away from their Word Rex ’s shadow . ( There ’s a super - moving scene where Hannah talks about how she date some of Rex every time she looks at Michael , and she does n’t want to run away from that — she just wants them to have a spirit again . ) Juggling the two worlds will get exponentially grueling once he ’s waking up in two different cities , and it ’s possible that one or the other will just unthaw like the dream it is .
In Green World , Britten is once again fail as a papa . He sleep with up turning in a license shimmy for Rex to go on a field trip , so Rex has to go to study hall for a whole day . Rex has a girlfriend with hippie parents , who ’s sleeping over in Rex ’s room , and Britten does n’t even notice until he slip grounds from a case to give to her as a present tense . It ’s more of a job for Britten to be flaky in Green World , because there he ’s a begetter , and he has responsibility for someone else . He ca n’t just be a little second checked out , when he ’s dealing with his son .
Oh , and Britten starts hallucinate a penguin in both worlds , either because Gabe throw in him with ketamine or because he ’s losing his shit more and more . He also hallucinates that Dr. Lee get to come inside the genial institution where he ’s locked up with the surety , and he imagines several detailed conversation with Dr. Lee — who later refer that he was out of doors in a inviolable location , the whole time .
So I ’m really die to see what pass off next . How much longer can Britten keep his determination to avoid break one of his worlds ? Will he eventually concede that one world must , indeed , be a dream , and start actively prove to figure out which it is ? How would you even go about prove that , short of acting like a crazy person ? I do n’t even know what to hope for : that Britten stay stubbornly bond to his two globe , like act 6 defying the Village ’s attempts to break him , or that he finally decides to face realness . Whatever shoes that turns out to be .
I do know one affair , though — if you ’re not watching this show , you ’re missing quite possibly the coolest thing on connection TV in good order now .
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