Despite my multi-decade contention that TV is an intellectual wasteland, I've become intrigued with 'Awake'.

The central question is: which world is real? Or both? ( Logically, there is the fourth possibilty of neither, but that is such horrible writing that I doubt that it would have been allowed into production. )

My current preference is 'both'. ( I tend to prefer it because the alternatives imply appalling levels of insanity. )

After a little reflection, a few other questions then arise:

1) How did it happen? Was the accident itself responsible for creation of dual worlds? Or did they exist previously, and the accident merely a trigger for dual habitation?

2) Why him? What is so unique about Michael Britten that he should be experiencing this?

3) Are there others? If so, do they share one world with him, or both?

4) How far can it be stretched? So far, he has always gone to sleep and woken up in the same bed. What happens if he goes to a motel on wife-world, and then wakes up in son-world. Does he wake up in the motel? Or at home?
What happens if something wakes him up in the middle of the night? Which world is he in?

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I am interested in this show as well. As to the question which world is real, I would have to guess that the world he lives in with his wife would be the real one. I only base this on the difference in filming. The world with his son has a darker kind of murky appearance/feel while the world with the wife is in its natural vibrant state. Though I guess you could use the logic to argue the other way or claim that the difference is only done by the film makers to make it easier for the viewer to distinguish which world the main character is supposed to be in.

1) Not enough info

2) A good question, wish I had an answer

3) Spoiler Alert for those of you who aren't current with the series

4) Spoiler alert:

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I'm thinking...

I can't comment because I've only seen an episode or two when I wandered into the room, but my wife is watching and enjoying the show, and what I saw seemed intriguing.

But Joaz, keep watching TV. I primarily watch Sesame Street, Caillou and Yo Gabba Gabba these days, but everyone whose opinion I know about seems to think the past decade has been a golden age of extended, well-developed television dramas (The Wire, Mad Men, the Sopranos, and uh...other stuff?).

I know, I know, argument from popularity...

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I've been watching it too. The premise is interesting, but I think Joaz is over-intellectualizing it a bit. Yes, those questions are in the subtext of the show, but I don't think one should go that far. It was caused by his accident, and there's no suggestion that there are two worlds, rather the suggestion is that one is a dream world.

As for question 4, it looks like that is going to be the subject of future episodes, with Portland and LA being locations.

As an aside, Joaz, you're actually missing a lot if you dismiss all TV series out of hand. There have been some pretty amazing series in the last couple of decades (essentially starting with West Wing), notably on HBO, as they don't have to fit into the standard network cookie-cutter-commercial-break model.

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Joaz - here's my question 5 - how many days does Britten experience? He's there for his wife and son everyday so it seems he leads a 14 day week. At first I thought he wasn't really sleeping but then his wife talked about him tossing and turning. I'm behind schedule though - I have several episodes on my DVD.

Logically, he experiences 2/3 day for each day. He works 1/3 of the day, does whatever else he does 1/3 of the day, then, when he goes to sleep, he wakes up in the "other" him, and therefore doesn't live that 1/3 of the day when he sleeps.

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There are other questions as well. Silly ones, but fun.

What happens when he naps?

Does the lack of restful sleep, even if each of his sleeping bodies gets physical sleep, cause psychological damage? We do need a break after all. Is he afraid of sleep because of the waking dream, like someone with PTSD or other trauma?

Does aging in one life age him in the other? Illness or injury in one life afflict him in the other? Repletion and satiation? And (tantalizingly) does he retain full vigor in one life notwithstanding the attentions he pays in the other?

Can he go visit himself?

I haven't watched the show, so maybe I'm missing the details, but I did watch a rather fun movie years ago with Demi Moore, playing a woman living with her daughter in the South of France, except when she slept at night, at which point she awoke in New York to pursue her busy career. She had shrinks in both lives, neither of whom seem bothered by the possibility of being a figment. (Not like the shrink Kurt Russell played in Vanilla Sky who (spoiler alert) ) She also had lovers in both lives, who handled the possibility they might go on hiatus, so to speak, fairly calmly.

Perhaps I will give the show a try.

We don't know that. All we know is that the bifurcation of worlds and the accident were contemporaneous. To assign cause and effect is a leap of logic.




On the contrary, there are three points of view suggested. One is that wife-world is real and the other a dream, an opinon held by the male psychologist; a second is that son-world is real and wife-world is not, held by the female psychologist; and the third which Britton himself believes - or at least acts as if he believes - that both worlds are real.

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spoiler:

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My prediction: it turns out that he's been in a coma, and somehow the police are using his mind to solve crimes. If you remember, there were a couple of points - episode 3, I think - where the woman who is his lieutenant was talking with someone about him, knowing about what is happening.

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Yes, we need another version of Outward Bound.

I'd guess that like Lost, the writers weren't thinking at first of how they plan to resolve all this.

I also have noticed that the son-world is bluish and wife-world is brownish. I don't infer that one is more real than the other from it though.



I think that is true. At least. It goes further than just a cast overlaying the scenes. Some things are different colors in different worlds. The Ricky's Tacos bag in wife-world has red writing when he finds it in the empty building. In son-world, when his partner hands him a taco, it is pulled from a Ricky's Taco bag with blue writing.

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No, they're tinted green and red, corresponding to the rubber bands he wears.

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I've also heard it's yellow and blue, his wife and son's favorite colors.

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We can quibble about exact shades, but it gets us nowhere. I think we can all agree that there is a shorter wavelength ( blue green ) cast to the son-world, and a longer wavelength ( red yellow ) cast to wife-world.
The more important question is what does it mean. It is just a cue to us viewers, or is Britten's view of the world(s) actually changing? I think that it may be the latter. When Bird - the black partner in son-world - hands Britten a taco, he stares at the bag for a few seconds, presumably noting that the writing on the bag is a different color.

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I think it's so viewers can have an idea which world he's in, even if they haven't been following closely.

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One of the creators already weighed in on the question of whether any of the worlds is real:

And yet, having one of them a dream isn't very interesting either.