Wake Up

Tonight marked the debut of an intriguing high-concept drama on NBC, Awake. It's the story of a police detective who was in a serious car accident with his wife and only son. Since the accident, every morning that he awakens, he switches between two realities -- one in which his wife was killed in the accident, and another in which his son died instead.

That very cool concept is the framework that easily excuses "yet another cop show" coming to television. Because, despite the trappings, that does appear from the pilot to be what this show is: a detective drama. Half of the first episode was devoted not just to solving one crime but two, a different case in each divergent reality. But actually, even if it were just a "cop show," it would be a pretty good one. The cases were interesting, and the dual reality element trickled into that part of the show too, with elements of one crime suggesting resolutions to the other.

But what worked best about the show was the way that the rather science fiction-like premise was actually dealt with in a very believable manner. In the span of just one hour, we got to see all the pain of losing a loved one, and the joy of becoming closer to another. We got to see the strain of trying to keep the two worlds separate, and the anguish of the main character trying to unify them just a bit and failing.

The last ingredient in this very promising concoction was a cast of fine actors. Jason Isaacs plays the lead in a very gritty a determined way; in the moments where his emotion shows, you feel not just the weight of them, but the releasing pressure of having held them back. It's a full force performance. His wife is played by Laura Allen (of Dirt and The 4400), and his son by Dylan Minnette (of Saving Grace); both play wonderfully opposite Isaacs.

The dichotomy continues in other aspects of the plot. The main character is paired with different partners in each reality, Steve Harris (of The Practice) and Wilmer Valderrama (of That 70s Show). He's also seeing department-ordered psychiatrists in each reality, one played by BD Wong (of Law & Order: SVU and Oz), the other by Cherry Jones (of 24). That's a strong pedigree of great actors that all bring great work to this pilot.

But I confess to being nervous to see more episodes of Awake. It seems like the kind of show that is most likely to go one of two ways. (How appropriate!) It could have great difficulty matching the drama of this first episode, and devolve quickly into a run-of-the-mill cop show. Or it could end up with a handful of very compelling hours of television before running out of places to go with the plot; a scenario in which the show would have made a brilliant, limited-run BBC-style series.

Here's hoping that the writers of the show manage to carve out a third reality for the series instead. I'm very intrigued to see more episodes.