The father (Jason Isaacs) also works as a detective in both scenarios where oddly enough some clues start crossing the barrier separating his family. His son Rex, played by Dylan Minnette from Saving Grace, is your typical mopey, disconnected teenager, whereas his wife Hannah, played by Laura Allen from the short-lived yet superb Terriers, seems both threatened by her husband's inability to move on after the accident while oddly interested in her son from this alternative reality.
The show reminds me of another new show, Touch, where a hard-working dad tries to pick of the pieces of his broken family, connect with his son, and understand odd random clues. Others have compared it to the movie Inception, where one cannot figure out if they are in a dream or living "reality." Awake's creator Kyle Killen, who likes Inception, had his own opinion in a recent Blastr interview:
I don't know how much we have directly in common with it, other than there is certainly that idea of your waking life and your dream life and the dreams feels incredibly real, sometimes so real that you can't quite tell which is which. I think beyond that, Awake is not necessarily an Inception-like experience on a weekly basis. We are simply playing different notes. But anytime someone associates your work with something that is iconic and, I thought, fantastic, I have no problem with that whatsoever.
What I find most interesting about the show is the conflict between the two psychiatrists, who seem both fascinated and threatened by their counterpart in the other reality. The main character becomes a proxy between these two parties and seems none the worse for wear (in the first episode, at least). Whether this remains a theme in future episodes is still up in the air, but I welcome more of it since this battle can speak to all of us in our own realities. Like Touch, this show will take some deeper thinking, but it should be worth the effort.
Update: Unfortunately, Awake turned into cover for a detective story rather than something truly fresh and interesting. I lost interest a few episodes into the series and so did many others since it has not been renewed for a second season.
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