• Network: NBC
  • Series Premiere Date: Mar 1, 2012
  • Season #: 1
Awake Image
Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critics What's this?

User Score

Universal acclaim- based on 131 Ratings

  • Summary: After a car accident, police detective Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) wakes up to discover his son has also survived the crash, but his wife has died. A few days later, he wakes up to see his wife is alive but finds his son had died in the crash instead. Living in the two realities, he sees two different therapists and works with two different partners. Expand
  • Genre(s): Suspense
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 29
  2. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. Reviewed by: David Wiegand
    Feb 28, 2012
    100
    Awake grabs you, unnerves you, breaks your heart and even makes you work a little.
  2. 80
    The cop stuff feels like it could be happening in any other NBC cop show; I kept expecting Prime Suspect's Maria Bello to show up in that cute hat. But given the originality on display, and the venue, those are minor complaints.
  3. Reviewed by: Emily Nussbaum
    Apr 2, 2012
    80
    Awake may be hard to categorize, but it's worth our attention.
  4. Reviewed by: Mark A. Perigard
    Mar 1, 2012
    58
    NBC's newest drama Awake adds a drop of fantasy to its crime procedural formula and then practically buries it in musings about the mysteries of the subconscious.

See all 29 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 33
  3. Negative: 1 out of 33
  1. 10
    One of the best shoes I've ever seen on tv. I can't believe it was cancelled. Maybe someday someone with more courage will pick it back up. Awake will be missed Expand
  2. This is a seriously good show. It won't last, simply because of that fact. Watching it involves using brain cells and that's hard for most viewers busy playing with other techi toys. Are we watching a sci fi show or a show about an extreme defense mechanism? I opt for the former and the clues we have so far bear this out. Keeping up with alternate realities can be a difficult task but I think the viewers who like this show will love to do it. It needs some tweaking though. We can't have the main character always being the griever in chief. His wife seems to be in denial and his son is still too controlled. Collapse
  3. Another very good show canceled in the first season. There is still one episode to go before the series finale and assuming they have some sort of satisfactory ending, which it looks like they will, then even just this one season is well worth watching. Expand
  4. I could tell just minutes into the pilot of the show that it's doomed to fail. The writers/produces deprived us of the most satisfying moments. Where was the scene when the lead character FIRST awakes to a new/alternate existence. Where was that look of terror or joy the first time he sets eyes on his wife and son, brought back to life. Instead, we are fast forwarded through the accident and his first days living out these two existences. BBC TV would have mined this for episodes worth of great drama... I get it, they want to keep us guessing which reality is the real one. But guess what, I don't care. Expand

See all 33 User Reviews

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