# Awake (2012)

> A grieving detective juggles two realities after a car accident, solving cases with clues from both worlds.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/36166

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 13
- Episode runtime: 44 min
- Status: Canceled
- Genres: drama, mystery, science fiction
- Created by: Kyle Killen
- Network: NBC
- Cast: Jason Isaacs, Wilmer Valderrama, Steve Harris, Dylan Minnette, Laura Allen, Michaela McManus, Cherry Jones, BD Wong
- TMDB rating: 7.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839683/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: melancholic, cerebral, tense, dreamlike, bleak

## What critics say

Audiences rated the single season positively, praising its high-concept double-reality premise and lead performance while finding the mystery format uneven.

## Synopsis

Awake (2012) is an American network drama created by Kyle Killen for NBC, a single-season canceled series of thirteen 44-minute episodes. Jason Isaacs plays Michael Britten, a Los Angeles police detective who survives a car accident and then lives in two overlapping realities. In one he has lost his son Rex, and in the other his wife Hannah, and he cannot be certain which version is real. Each reality assigns him its own therapist, Dr. Judith Evans (Cherry Jones) in the green reality and Dr. John Lee (BD Wong) in the red, and each brings a different partner: Wilmer Valderrama as Detective Efrem Vega and Steve Harris as Detective Isaiah Freeman. Michael's strange behavior strains his team, yet his gift for solving crimes using clues from both worlds keeps pulling him back into the job. The engine of the show is his effort to hold the two lives apart, with color-coded wristbands as his anchor, while each case becomes another puzzle about grief and identity. Episodes are mostly self-contained crimes that feed a continuing mystery about which reality matters. The tone is melancholic, cerebral and tense, with a dreamlike unease in the shifting worlds. Fans of Dark, The Leftovers and Fringe will find resonance in its mix of procedural mystery and psychological puzzle.

## Shows like Awake

- [Chance (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58916)
- [FlashForward (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/17643)
- [Day Break (2006)](https://ember.film/tv/4396)
- [Touch (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/36288)
- [Emergence (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/77889)
- [The Lost Room (2006)](https://ember.film/tv/3681)
- [Tru Calling (2003)](https://ember.film/tv/2075)
- [Train (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/87630)
- [Somewhere Between (2017)](https://ember.film/tv/61560)
- [A Gifted Man (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/36618)

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