Last nighttime ’s instalment confirmed it : Awake ’s data format just wo n’t work out . agree to the show ’s opening credits , there are two thing that are supposed to pass in every sequence : 1 ) Michael Britten visits two worldly concern , where either his wife or his son is dead . 2 ) In each of those two worlds , he begin inquire a case , and the cases in each universe turn out to be related somehow .
The show is doing a okay job of pulling off job # 1 , but it has not managed to deplume off job # 2 yet , and we ’re four episodes in . I ’m honestly depart to think that this format is just too problematical for a one - hour television show to finagle . you could only meet in so much fiber development and processing , in two different realities , while also investigating two different criminal offence , each of which has to have twists and turns . It ’s not workable . The first sequence had passably forgettable offense , and the 2d episode had the fertility doctor who has a preferent sperm donor snug to paw , plus the murdered homeless hombre . The third instalment broke the design to have Rex kidnapped in one macrocosm . And then there was last Nox .
Neither of the cases was interesting last nighttime . I do n’t know how else to say this . There was the adult female who ostensibly committed suicide on a boat , except that this is a cop show so of form she did n’t , and then we learn that she had secret single file about some super cutting - border silicon unconscious process that her company was develop , which actually did n’t play , so she was murdered to keep the speculation capitalist from con the true statement . ( That ’s life in startup for you . ) And meanwhile , a druggie was pop by a druggie for drug .
Even the usually entrancing family stuff and nonsense was a minute rickety this time around — Rex is acting out and by and large being horrifying , and meanwhile Hannah is just … there . They really need to give Hannah more of a role sometime soon , so this does n’t turn into just a father - son show in which the married woman is incidentally not dead in some other timeline .
The grownup centering this calendar week was actually Rex ’s former babysitter , Kate , who was at both crime scenes . ( One as a watcher , the other as the murderer . ) Kate ’s life-time has choke way , way other than in the two realities : in one , she ’s a junkie and flush it actress , and in the other she ’s an investment banker . I leave it to you to decide which of those paths is the healther . ( Rimshot . ) Anyway , Kate lost her babe in a junkie surfboarding accident years ago — so she represent both the fact that Hannah is doing well than Rex at plow grief ( because Hannah ’s in the “ investment funds banker ” world , while Rex is in the “ junkie ” world . ) In one world , Kate get down over her grief and guilt over her sis ’s death , and in the other she did n’t . This lets Michael know that he should keep reach out to Rex .
More importantly , this might be the first hint we ’ve seen of a divergence between the two worlds that definitely precedes Michael ’s dealings accident — Kate ’s surfboarding accident happened twelvemonth ago , and her life took two very different courses in the two Earth afterwards . It ’s clearer than ever that these are not two “ alternative timelines ” in the classic sense — because there is not a single stage of divergence or anything like that , but rather a gang of random differences . Plus things go along to follow dream logic rather than real - universe logic , with Kate showing up in both aspiration at the same time , and weird conjunction manifest . Best guess ? Both worlds are dream , and Michael is in some kind of in - between not - quite - wake up realm where he ’s visiting two versions of his biography . ( But please , not Purgatory . )
All in all , Awake is still a pretty great show — but it ’s take a format that it can not replicate every hebdomad . The fact that last night ’s episode was written by the show ’s Jehovah , and even he could not pull it off , is a really bad preindication . Time to ditch the “ two police investigations per installment ” formula , guy cable .
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