Things are a little drowsy on NBC Awake set. The show, which was set for a midseason release in early 2012, has halted production after taping five episodes. The production pitstop is not a problem in itself. Occasionally production halts do occur in TV land. For instance, back in August, One Tree Hill shut down production for a while in response to Hurricane Irene. It’s when unplanned breaks occur without there having been some sort of accident or disaster that halts may indicate instability on a set.
Allegedly, Awake is taking a break so writers can catch up on scripts. According to Deadline, the time will be spent plotting out the rest of Season 1. Showrunner Howard Gordon had to say about the halt:
“This is a creatively challenging show as anyone who has seen the pilot can imagine.”
The logic there is valid. Awake stars Jason Isaacs as a detective Michael Britten. One day, Britten will wake up after a terrible car accident and find himself with one foot in a reality where his wife survived the crash and the other foot in a second reality where his son survives. As Cinema Blend’s Kelly West has said, it all sounds tricky. You can check out more about Awake in Kelly’s post and check out our review of the pilot episode from Comic-Con last July here.
Here’s the problem. It’s hunky dory now if writers need a little time to figure out the direction of the show or work on characters. However, they should have understood how much work Awake would be going in. Once the season starts, if there are episodes left to write and the writers can’t hack it, the quality of the programming will likely falter. That makes me a little nervous for Awake.
