Awake - Another Great Sci-Fi Show...

...destined to be cancelled. It's what the networks do. They give us well-written story's with believable characters and story lines that draw us in. Then they cancel the show in favor of more reality TV, or another version of CSI. 

Yeah, I still miss Firefly. Awake is a Fox production, imagine that...

After a car accident takes the life of a family member, a police detective lives two alternating parallel lives, one with his wife and one with his son. Is one of his "realities" merely a dream?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839683/

Jason Isaacs plays Michael Britton, an LA detective with a problem. In one reality, Britton's son survives a car accident accident. In the other, his wife. Which is real? And which is a dream? Or are they both real? Each morning, Britton awakes to the competing reality, trying to find a way not to decide which is real, but to hold on to both in order to prevent the loss of either. 

I have a collection of short-lived Av shows like New Amsterdam and Journeyman that are some of the best shows to hit the air, yet audiences don't have the capacity for. One more for the collection, or will the studios start learning that involving, intelligent entertainment is more demanded and revered in the long run? Are you listening, Fox?

"Awake" is an intriguing drama about a detective (Jason Isaacs, "Harry Potter," "Brotherhood") who finds he is leading an arduous double life that defies reality.

Following a tragic car accident, detective Michael Britten finds himself awake in two separate realities: one where his teen son, Rex (Dylan Minnette, "Saving Grace"), died in the crash and his wife, Hannah (Laura Allen, "Terriers"), survived and another where Hannah has perished, leaving Michael and Rex to pick up the pieces. In order to keep both of his loved ones alive, Michael begins living in two dueling realities, churning up confusion. In one reality, Michael and his wife debate having another child, while in the other, his son Rex is turning to his tennis coach, Tara (Michaela McManus, "The Vampire Diaries"), to fill the void from the loss of his mother.

Trying to regain some normalcy, Michael returns to solving crimes in both worlds with the help of two different partners, Detective Isaiah "Bird" Freeman (Steve Harris, "The Practice") and Detective Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama, "That '70s Show"). Michael is assigned a different case in each reality and quickly discovers that his dual existence is actually a powerful tool. He begins to solve impossible cases by using his two realties to gain unique perspectives and link clues that cross over from world to world.

Helping Michael to navigate his two realities are his bureau-assigned therapists Dr. Evans (Emmy Award-winner Cherry Jones, "24") and Dr. Lee (BD Wong, NBC's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"). While both therapists work to untangle his two worlds, Michael has no interest in proving either one is false. But when memories of the accident begin to haunt him, he is forced to confront the truth about what really happened the night of the crash.

Credits

Starring

Jason Isaacs, Laura Allen, Steve Harris, Dylan Minnette, BD Wong, Michaela McManus, with Wilmer Valderrama and Cherry Jones

http://www.nbc.com/awake/about/