The TV Thread

[EmilScherbe]

another childhood friend (Kuriyama Chiaki plays her role)
lost her love, her father died just before her marriage,
her husband cheated on wife and run away,
and her restaurant business went bankrupt
then she run away with her sickly mother.
(last part was ep71 aired on Dec 23)

Originally Posted by deadgrandma

Is the show any good Emil?

script, direction, acting is good
if it has weakness, that is theme song.

[The Most Curious Thing]

Any fans of The Prisoner? Got the BD for Christmas and have been falling in love with it again. Patrick McGoohan is amazing.

[TeslaGuy]

I've been a huge Prisoner fan since high school. An all time favorite.

Kosho

And it was great to have 30 Rock back this week. Worth the wait.

[TeslaGuy]

Community Returns Trailer

[Glathannus]

I have to say, Awake is seriously fucking twisted right now.

It's not just about.. which of the details are bleeding through each of the realities, or which of the details are different - it's about how the characters (not just the main one) attempt to rationalize or conduct themselves under the circumstances. It's definitely a psychological thriller instead of sci-fi, and Awake is all-the-more nuanced for it.

I cannot recommend this show enough, as of Episode 3.

[TurtleFu]

I love all the different layers to Awake, with the single exception of the fucking "mythology" or "conspiracy" they are trying to force on it. It's already a police procedural ala Law & Order, a family drama ala Lifetime, and a psychological thriller. It does not a 24 or Lost-esque mythology. It's cheesy, it's pointless, and it ends up making the show TOO narcissistic about the Dad.

I seriously fucking love the two psychologists, because they are both so nuanced and both show how psychology/psychiatry are not a one-size fits all type of thing. I think all people training to be psychologists should watch the show just to understand the different ways to treat someone who suffers from grief.

I had an idea the other day that I really hope ends up on the show. What if the mother and son ended up having dreams where it's the DAD who died? So then there are three realities, one where each person died. That would make everything way more interesting than any fucking "conspiracy".

[Glathannus]

Originally Posted by TurtleFu

I had an idea the other day that I really hope ends up on the show. What if the mother and son ended up having dreams where it's the DAD who died? So then there are three realities, one where each person died. That would make everything way more interesting than any fucking "conspiracy".

That could only work if Awake were a sci-fi show - which it's not.

I also don't think conspiracies have any concern about "multiple" realities, or about how the main character perceives reality. It's just another single-reality element of the show, and people are overreacting about it because they're concluding Awake isn't a psychological thriller.

I'm becoming an increasingly strong believer in Red, and least of all because of the conspiracy. However, that doesn't mean everything in Red is real. The main character and his wife never interact with any of the same people, which means that her entire "life" after the accident could be a hallucination of the main character, even if she seems (to us the audience) to be interacting with other people. No third persons in Red have confirmed to the main character, that his wife is present in Red.

The main character and his son could have mutual acquaintances in Green, but that doesn't validate the existence of the son if the entire Green world is fake. The only non-illusion in Green, is that the wife is gone. I doubt the main character will have house guests in Red while his wife is "present", because these would be real people who could point out that his wife isn't truly around. The Red shrink doesn't necessarily know the truth about the wife or "go soft" on the main character about her death, because all the shrink knows is what the main character tells them, and the main character believes his wife is still alive in that world.

I'm also suspicious of how the wife wanted to leave the date early, to go home with the main character. Leaving the date early, meant that no third persons ever had much chance to acknowledge (or ignore) her in-front of the main character.

I think the desert shack in Green was created on-demand for the main character's fantasy. Just because we (the audience) already saw the shack before the main character heard about it, doesn't mean that this shack had any sort of manifestation in the Green world before the main character heard about it. In fact, it could very well be that if the main character had tried to visit the Red version of "the desert", it would have been an entirely different location. So how did the main character 'know' about it? He probably picked up on some subtle details about it when he was originally hunting down the accused. So he gets hints about "the desert" 10 years ago in the real world, and recently fabricates a lot more detail about that in the Green world. The Red convict could have told the main character ANYTHING about "where" the desert was, and whether those details were true in the Red world or not, the Green world would mold itself to the main character's interpretation of those details so long as he believes the convict.

[Tokyo Jihad]

Thursday Night you can watch Person of Interest and then switch over to Awake right? I'll have to check it out.

[TurtleFu]

I don't like the conspiracy because 1) I hate conspiracy TV shows and 2) Awake already has too many elements going for it. I'm acknowledging it's a psychological thriller.

I like the 3rd reality idea because it doesn't necessarily have to be real. Becuase Rex said he would have preferred for his dad to die, so if his dad finds out then he could fabricate a third fantasy where he does die, as a means to come to terms with his guilt. Maybe his guilt leads him to believe that the "best" reality is the one where HE dies, so he creates a scenario where that's possible.

God damn, I love this show. It has now surpassed Community in my brain.

[Kingyohime]

One more week until Mad Men is back! One crushingly, excruciatingly long week. May I not implode with excitement wondering what brand-new trainwreck Don's life will have become by season's end.