
CONTACTAbout UsCAREER OPPORTUNITIESADVERTISE WITH USPRIVACY POLICYPRIVACY PREFERENCESTERMS OF USELEGAL NOTICE
© 2025 Equal Entertainment LLC.
All Rights reserved
All Rights reserved
By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Private Policy and Terms of Use.
On one of TV's most highly anticipated new spring series, NBC's Awake, Jason Isaacs plays detective Mark Britten, a talented cop who is in an auto accident that seems to have killed his wife. Hannah (Laura Allen, who played the bisexual drug addict on Dirt). and teenage son. Rex (Dylan Minnette, Medium). Yet when he awakens each morning, he's living one of two parallel lives: one in which his son survived, another where his wife survived. This new take on a police procedural is what Jennifer Salke, president of NBC Entertainment, calls a sliding doors concept. "The implications of this are complicated," says Salke. "But we think that the viewers will get hooked into the clever mythology in the way the stories overlap and affect each other in very interesting ways."
As he moves between worlds, two very different therapists help Mark address his ingenious coping mechanism. It's these conversations the surprisingly self-aware cop has with these two shrinks that fuel much of what's wonderful about Awake. B.D. Wong, the gay actor who played the moral compass at the heart of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for a decade, is the confrontational therapist Dr. Lee. Cherry Jones, the lesbian actress best known as the president on 24 -- and for being the first gay person to thank their partner when accepting a Tony Award, in 1995 -- is warm and comforting Dr. Evans. Each struggles to gain control over Mark's sanity, knowing with certainty that he or she is in the only "real" world. It's the first time we've had a prime-time TV show that lets two openly gay actors play a cat-and-mouse game with each other -- doing so as central characters in a storyline so completely unrelated to sexuality.
Jones and Wong are each sure of their own reality on-screen.
"I am sure that she is not right," joked Wong of Jones's shrink, at the Television Critics Association discussion in January. "That's all I can be sure of. It's really interesting and fun to play a character which is having an argument with someone who they never speak to."
Since the duo -- who never, of course, share screen time -- film scenes back to back on the same stage, they share notes often and, teases Jones, "I get to tell him that I think his approach is ridiculous."
"I think on a weekly basis, his interactions with his therapist tend to force him to question the reality of one side versus the other," says creator and writer Kyle Killen. "I think he makes very ... that he's not particularly interested in that debate. He wants to live in both worlds as if they're real, and he does his best to treat them that way, and we as writers do our best to force him to question that."
Awake is produced by Howard Gordon (whose 2011 Showtime series, Homeland, was a bona fide smash) and features a handful of other talented actors (including Steve Harris and Wilmer Valderrama, who will surprise anyone expecting to see Fez from That '70s Show). The only thing standing in the way of its becoming a hit is the audience perception it might be a bit too high-concept.
"[Marketing people] were talking about 'How do we differentiate between the two worlds? Is there something we should do cleverly on the screen with different colors and different angles?'" says Isaacs. "And I played them ... an iPhone clip of my 5-year-old daughter explaining the story to her friend in the park. So I think most people get it."
deliciousdiane
From our Sponsors
Most Popular
31 Period Films of Lesbians and Bi Women in Love That Will Take You Back
December 09 2024 1:00 PM
18 of the most batsh*t things N.C. Republican governor candidate Mark Robinson has said
October 30 2024 11:06 AM
True
These 15 major companies caved to the far right and stopped DEI programs
January 24 2025 1:11 PM
True
Latest Stories
Transgender teen can't legally change name until age 21, Mississippi Supreme Court rules
April 18 2025 4:51 PM
Military families sue Trump administration to keep their school system diverse
April 18 2025 2:40 PM
After backlash, Planned Parenthood Arizona resumes gender-affirming care
April 18 2025 2:28 PM
What does WorldPride's travel warning mean for transgender & nonbinary people?
April 18 2025 10:14 AM
Wilton Women’s Week 2025 ushers in a new era of LGBTQ+ empowerment in South Florida
April 18 2025 9:49 AM
Activists stack coffins in front of State Department to protest PEPFAR cuts (in photos)
April 17 2025 3:22 PM
JD Vance wants the UK to repeal its LGBTQ+ hate speech laws to secure a trade deal
April 17 2025 12:37 PM
Chicago Teachers Union ratifies groundbreaking contract cementing LGBTQ+ protections
April 17 2025 7:00 AM
Mahmoud v. Taylor: Everything to know about the Supreme Court case to ban LGBTQ+ books
April 17 2025 6:30 AM
Top 15 safest U.S. cities for LGBTQ+ travel
April 17 2025 6:02 AM
Trending stories
Recommended Stories for You
Diane Anderson-Minshall
Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.
Diane Anderson-Minshall is the CEO of Pride Media, and editorial director of The Advocate, Out, and Plus magazine. She's the winner of numerous awards from GLAAD, the NLGJA, WPA, and was named to Folio's Top Women in Media list. She and her co-pilot of 30 years, transgender journalist Jacob Anderson-Minshall penned several books including Queerly Beloved: A Love Across Genders.