Awake (TV Series) Kate Is Enough (2012) User Reviews

Cream rising to the top

[stephenrtod · 9/10 · 23 March 2012]

Despite the plethora of new shows on television, many exiting swiftly stage right if they cannot command the Nielson ratings or the plush advertisers - the new show "Awake" has stirred something in me.

The show is a tense sort of dance between a confused and tormented police detective who is never completely sure that the verisimilitude of his dreams exceeds that of his conscious days.

Jason Isaac has piercing eyes. He can be tough or compassionate. As a detective, he is just as fatherly with people in trouble as he is with his own son. Screenwriters, editors, directors and producer all combine with excellent actors to keep the audience suspending disbelief about which of the very real seeming realities is the actual truth.

This past episode, I was pulled in much deeper. Although my own son is now grown to be a very successful man, I have known for a long time just how difficult, how damaging my divorce from his mother 35 years ago - hurt him. He's still dealing with it.

The most recent episode, ostensibly about a damaged tennis racket belonging to the son's deceased mother - touched me deeply, demonstrating that our deepest feelings greatly transcend the realities of possession, wealth, power, and emotional stability.

As in Shakespeare and Dickens, there are no minor characters in this show. Even those with minimal speaking lines fit into the plot puzzle quite convincingly. The dialog is simply outstanding every moment.

No time at all is wasted with chase scenes or shoot-em-ups, a rarity in a show devoted to detectives.

"Awake" is like a schizophrenic chess game for viewers.

Give it a viewing, and maybe you will agree with me: good story, good writing and good acting.

Two Worlds With One Kate And, For Britten - That's Enough.

[AudioFileZ · 9/10 · 26 March 2012]

Awake is like watching two shows that intersect into one. A simplistically brilliant idea where the protagonist survives an accident: in one reality the accident takes the life of his wife with his son surviving, whilst in the alternate reality his wife survives, but his son doesn't. The two blend so seamlessly and intersect many times no matter into which reality Michael Britten "Awakes".

Michael Britten, played by British actor Jason Issacs, is a police detective. Plagued by, perhaps, a mysterious phenomenon, he survives a horrific accident where he is trapped in two existences which seem equally real. The viewer, like Britten, isn't sure which of the two is the real outcome and which is only in his mind. He is under the care of psychiatrists in both who seek to help him decide. The most brilliant piece of the puzzle is how the intersection occurs with strange similarities enabling him solve his cases - you guessed it - in both realities.

This week show revolves around a former babysitter to his young child (i.e. around the time he was five years old) named Kate. Kate lost her sister in a drowning accident and she suffered survivor's guilt. That guilt took two very different directions in each of Michael's realities. When a possible suicide occurs on a yacht hosting a party for a tech start-up company all is not so cut and dried as the former babysitter, Kate, appears years later as a successful investment banker. In the alternate reality a young man is murdered execution style and while investigating possible suspects Kate is the deceased ex-girlfriend whose path was quite the polar opposite in that she is now spiraling downward in a drug-induced dependency. Michael has two realities with two deaths to solve and one Kate who is common to each. As the title implies Kate is enough and leads Michael to solving both.

There is really no need to go through the entire episode, except to say that it is solid. The plausibility of the two realities, while perhaps "out-there", is feasible as we believe one is only in the dreams, or mind, of a man suffering through a traumatic loss - again, a simplistically brilliant idea that works as such. It works in no small way due to Jason Issacs screen presence and acting skills. He is like a more right brain driven Mel Gibson where he never lets his emotions overtake his actions, in spite of his somewhat fantastical two realities of which both seem just as real. Issacs was unknown to me as I am not a Harry Potter acolyte (plays Lucius Malfoy in the beloved movie series), but found him to possess great star-quality in his character Jackson Brodie in the BBC produced series "Case Histories" last year. He really made that series rise to excellence and I feel he is going about the same here. Add to that the truly fine writers and the novel series idea of Kyle Killen and many of us have a new favorite TV-series...Awake, don't miss it as you can start with any episode and will, almost certainly, want to view any you may have missed.