Nightswimming

Tonight's episode of Awake was, unfortunately, a real dud for the series. The writers didn't really do anything with tonight's episode that put the signature "Awake" stamp on a rather conventional one-hour cop drama.

Not only was there no trace of Rex in this week installment, but the two therapists also had the week off. There were a few scenes of quiet warmth with Michael and his wife Hannah, but nothing that really made strong use of the show's two world premise. This tale of anxiety over a pending move could have been told on just about any one hour drama. And when the two of them inevitably don't move to Oregon in a future episode, this is going to seem like even more a distraction.

Some of the more fantastical elements of the show have taken a back seat before, but it's been to give more space to a truly interesting detective story. Not this time. Both the Red World and Green World plot reflected on the matter of picking up and moving (and what you have to leave behind), but neither was a particularly compelling case to unravel, nor did they have especially dramatic conclusions.

In the end, the only tension the episode managed to achieve at all was making you wonder how Michael would end up in the unusual position we saw him in during the teaser. But then, this sort of "XX hours earlier" gimmick is getting pretty tired on TV shows, especially when it seems to exist only for this exact purpose: to inject a little interest into an otherwise inert story.

Every series has a bad episode now and then, so it's not like I'm instantly off the Awake wagon. But I am disappointed.