I did not get the very ending. But that might be because I'm stupid. (Or it might have been shoehorned in at the last minute upon cancellation notice?)
I did not get the very ending. But that might be because I'm stupid. (Or it might have been shoehorned in at the last minute upon cancellation notice?)
According to this interview with Kyle Killen (spoilers, obviously), that was the way that Season 1 was always supposed to end, going all the way back to the initial pitch of the show.
give the show the same level of ambiguous closure that the pilot had, while adding a possible new level for Michael to explore if season 2 had been made.
I'm bummed we didn't get to see Red World resolved at all. I wonder if that would've came back in season 2.
In the Community thread, I just made a long winded rant about how network tv is killing creativity because they don't understand how audiences are shifting and fragmenting. So here I'll just say that I wish this had been a cable show from day 1. The cases would've been backseat to the personal stuff, instead of vice-versa. And we'd almost certainly be seeing a season 2.
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AstaerethIn the belly of the beastRegistered Userregular
Killen fails at procedurals, and just needs to go to cable. He has this ridiculous notion that networks are still the place for quality drama and he needs somebody to disabuse him of that with a stick.
I think I'm just going to pretend for the rest of my life that Awake is the name of a really fantastic 42-minute short film with Jason Isaacs, because everything after the pilot failed to build off of their concept. That show was nothing but filler, and we arrived at the end in the exact same place as we did in the beginning. There were moments of excellence but overall it was just one massive failure after another--failure to make the conspiracy plot interesting, failure to develop Britten's character, failure to balance the use of the wife and son, failure to write engaging procedurals, failure to use the conceit as anything but a clue delivery device and an excuse for cheap surrealism.
I like the show's pieces quite a bit, and the performances and cinematography were uniformly high quality. But like its protagonist, the show was fundamentally broken, torn between two genres and serving neither well.
I wouldn't call it a failure. 13 episodes wasn't enough oxygen for the show to breathe fully.
It was a very human centered show, dealing with grief and pain in a really honest and mature way, I think that was really the heart of the show beyond the scifi and procedural trappings.
I agree with what he says in the interview:
Ultimately, the show was at its best and its most compelling when it dealt with the nature of his situation and his personal life and issues and how they crossed over with his job as a result. So I think there are a few episodes where we pushed it in a pretty rote "two cases of the week" direction, and ultimately those were less satisfying
I wouldn't call it a failure. 13 episodes wasn't enough oxygen for the show to breathe fully.
It was a very human centered show, dealing with grief and pain in a really honest and mature way, I think that was really the heart of the show beyond the scifi and procedural trappings.
I agree with what he says in the interview:
Ultimately, the show was at its best and its most compelling when it dealt with the nature of his situation and his personal life and issues and how they crossed over with his job as a result. So I think there are a few episodes where we pushed it in a pretty rote "two cases of the week" direction, and ultimately those were less satisfying
Couldn't agree with you more. I've enjoyed most every episode because they usually touch on different aspects of Brenton. The actual cases and how they are solved takes a distant second over that.
That's not my penguin spoilers
For example its more interesting that Brenton lies to the mental patient, valuing a happy delusion over a painful reality, then it is that he's able to stop him from blowing up the asylum.
I'm 12 minutes away from finishing up the finale and I'm enjoying it.
They seem to be leaving a lot open to interpretation which is nice. Its changed me from thinking the Green universe was "real" over to the red. I like the idea that he might just have had a complete mental collapse after realizing he killed his son and thus created the conspiracy stuff.
Just watched the finale last night (and then looked up some creator interviews and other perspectives).
My initial response was that the Rex universe was the real one and his wife was really dead, and then at the end instead of accepting that he has a psychotic break and goes into a new dreamworld where he can have everything he wants.
I don't think the case for the Hannah universe being real and that he made up the conspiracy after realizing he caused his son's death really works because we've been getting hints of the conspiracy and that the accident wasn't an accident all season. Plus from a narrative standpoint (based around the fact that we won't get another season so this is all there is), having the Rex universe be real works better for the story since everything is wrapped up then (he even got a goodbye scene with Hannah, but not with Rex). If I remember right, Hannah's world was also the only world he saw things that weren't there (penguin, Dr. Lee as a hostage at the bank, "my little friend," etc) so that further reinforces Rex's world being real. Of course, there is still one glaring problem with that interpretation, and that is that Michael abandons his son to go live in his fantasy dream world. Though you can fix that if you say he didn't have a psychotic break, and simply replaced the Hannah world with a Hannah+Rex world when sleeping now that he knows it's a dream and can be what he wants it to be.
Going by the creator interviews, apparently what the writers intended to do if they had another season was reveal that Michael's theory about a dream-within-a-dream was true so either world could still be real and that he's still in prison in Hannah's World, but now has a third world he can visit that is definitely a dream but where he has both Hannah and Rex (and this world would have his subconscious show him details in more fantastical dream-like ways like penguins and whatnot). They also said Michael would have started dating Rex's tennis instructor in Rex's world, and Hannah would be pregnant in Hannah's world.
While that would have been interesting, we don't have another season, and so based on just what we have I'm going to stick with the idea that Rex's universe is real (still undecided on if he had a psychotic break and permanently retreated into his fantasy Hannah+Rex world, or if he just replaced the Hannah world with that world when he's sleeping since he now know--on some level at least--that it's a dream),
Just watched the finale last night (and then looked up some creator interviews and other perspectives).
My initial response was that the Rex universe was the real one and his wife was really dead, and then at the end instead of accepting that he has a psychotic break and goes into a new dreamworld where he can have everything he wants.
I don't think the case for the Hannah universe being real and that he made up the conspiracy after realizing he caused his son's death really works because we've been getting hints of the conspiracy and that the accident wasn't an accident all season. Plus from a narrative standpoint (based around the fact that we won't get another season so this is all there is), having the Rex universe be real works better for the story since everything is wrapped up then (he even got a goodbye scene with Hannah, but not with Rex). If I remember right, Hannah's world was also the only world he saw things that weren't there (penguin, Dr. Lee as a hostage at the bank, "my little friend," etc) so that further reinforces Rex's world being real. Of course, there is still one glaring problem with that interpretation, and that is that Michael abandons his son to go live in his fantasy dream world. Though you can fix that if you say he didn't have a psychotic break, and simply replaced the Hannah world with a Hannah+Rex world when sleeping now that he knows it's a dream and can be what he wants it to be.
Going by the creator interviews, apparently what the writers intended to do if they had another season was reveal that Michael's theory about a dream-within-a-dream was true so either world could still be real and that he's still in prison in Hannah's World, but now has a third world he can visit that is definitely a dream but where he has both Hannah and Rex (and this world would have his subconscious show him details in more fantastical dream-like ways like penguins and whatnot). They also said Michael would have started dating Rex's tennis instructor in Rex's world, and Hannah would be pregnant in Hannah's world.
While that would have been interesting, we don't have another season, and so based on just what we have I'm going to stick with the idea that Rex's universe is real (still undecided on if he had a psychotic break and permanently retreated into his fantasy Hannah+Rex world, or if he just replaced the Hannah world with that world when he's sleeping since he now know--on some level at least--that it's a dream),
I'm pretty sure the penguin first showed up in blue, based on what I remember of its colouring. Regardless, it followed him back and forth between worlds.
Pissed that we didn't get another season. BUT, at the same time, I think they did a fantastic job of telling a stand-alone story with this season, so I'm oddly at peace with this particular cancellation.
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Mojo_JojoWe are only now beginning to understand the full power and ramifications of sexual intercourseRegistered Userregular
I'm not sure how the writer can claim he wasn't pulling a Dallas there when he gave no suggestions of a more likely interpretation.
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I won't even discuss it in more depth until a couple other people have seen it. Plus, I need time to process it.
I hope some of you dudes besides @hippofant will catch up to the ending so we can all discuss it!
According to this interview with Kyle Killen (spoilers, obviously), that was the way that Season 1 was always supposed to end, going all the way back to the initial pitch of the show.
I'm bummed we didn't get to see Red World resolved at all. I wonder if that would've came back in season 2.
In the Community thread, I just made a long winded rant about how network tv is killing creativity because they don't understand how audiences are shifting and fragmenting. So here I'll just say that I wish this had been a cable show from day 1. The cases would've been backseat to the personal stuff, instead of vice-versa. And we'd almost certainly be seeing a season 2.
I think I'm just going to pretend for the rest of my life that Awake is the name of a really fantastic 42-minute short film with Jason Isaacs, because everything after the pilot failed to build off of their concept. That show was nothing but filler, and we arrived at the end in the exact same place as we did in the beginning. There were moments of excellence but overall it was just one massive failure after another--failure to make the conspiracy plot interesting, failure to develop Britten's character, failure to balance the use of the wife and son, failure to write engaging procedurals, failure to use the conceit as anything but a clue delivery device and an excuse for cheap surrealism.
I like the show's pieces quite a bit, and the performances and cinematography were uniformly high quality. But like its protagonist, the show was fundamentally broken, torn between two genres and serving neither well.
It was a very human centered show, dealing with grief and pain in a really honest and mature way, I think that was really the heart of the show beyond the scifi and procedural trappings.
I agree with what he says in the interview:
Couldn't agree with you more. I've enjoyed most every episode because they usually touch on different aspects of Brenton. The actual cases and how they are solved takes a distant second over that.
That's not my penguin spoilers
I'm 12 minutes away from finishing up the finale and I'm enjoying it.
I don't think the case for the Hannah universe being real and that he made up the conspiracy after realizing he caused his son's death really works because we've been getting hints of the conspiracy and that the accident wasn't an accident all season. Plus from a narrative standpoint (based around the fact that we won't get another season so this is all there is), having the Rex universe be real works better for the story since everything is wrapped up then (he even got a goodbye scene with Hannah, but not with Rex). If I remember right, Hannah's world was also the only world he saw things that weren't there (penguin, Dr. Lee as a hostage at the bank, "my little friend," etc) so that further reinforces Rex's world being real. Of course, there is still one glaring problem with that interpretation, and that is that Michael abandons his son to go live in his fantasy dream world. Though you can fix that if you say he didn't have a psychotic break, and simply replaced the Hannah world with a Hannah+Rex world when sleeping now that he knows it's a dream and can be what he wants it to be.
Going by the creator interviews, apparently what the writers intended to do if they had another season was reveal that Michael's theory about a dream-within-a-dream was true so either world could still be real and that he's still in prison in Hannah's World, but now has a third world he can visit that is definitely a dream but where he has both Hannah and Rex (and this world would have his subconscious show him details in more fantastical dream-like ways like penguins and whatnot). They also said Michael would have started dating Rex's tennis instructor in Rex's world, and Hannah would be pregnant in Hannah's world.
While that would have been interesting, we don't have another season, and so based on just what we have I'm going to stick with the idea that Rex's universe is real (still undecided on if he had a psychotic break and permanently retreated into his fantasy Hannah+Rex world, or if he just replaced the Hannah world with that world when he's sleeping since he now know--on some level at least--that it's a dream),
I'm pretty sure the penguin first showed up in blue, based on what I remember of its colouring. Regardless, it followed him back and forth between worlds.
Pissed that we didn't get another season. BUT, at the same time, I think they did a fantastic job of telling a stand-alone story with this season, so I'm oddly at peace with this particular cancellation.