Awake

If you had to choose between your spouse and your child, how would you do it? Police detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) survives a car accident in which either his wife or his son was killed. But which one? Each time he goes to sleep, he wakes up in one of two parallel realities—one in which his wife survived, and one in which his son did. In each reality, he has a different therapist and he’s working a different case. One might be a dream, but if that’s the case, he can’t tell which is real. He is grieving, dealing with the grief of both his son and his wife, and still holding on to each of them.
The well-acted, tightly-constructed pilot episode of “Awake” premiered on NBC this week. It brings up a lot of questions, in a good way, and it left me wondering where this will go next. Part psychological drama, part crime drama, this is excellent television—let’s see if they can keep it up. The episode includes one intimate scene between Britten and his wife; this show is in the later time slot for a reason. I’ll be watching again next week.