Cop's nightmare, but 'Awake' is a dream

Which one? Beats Michael, because he is now living two separate realities -- one in which his wife is alive, another his son. In fact, one may be real, the other simply a very lucid dream. He has shrinks in each realm -- Dr. Evans (Cherry Jones) and Dr. Lee (BD Wong) -- trying to convince him that their world is real and the other but a dream. And he has partners in each -- Isaiah "Bird" Freeman (Steve Harris, "The Practice") and Efrem Vega (Wilmer Valderrama, "That '70s Show") -- who are just about as bewildered as you are right now. Michael, you see, uses clues or leads from one realm (or dream) to solve crimes in the other.

NBC, in fact, pulled this one off the shelf a few months ago to (probably) work out that very problem; after all, not many cop procedurals are so deeply rooted in Eastern philosophy, Cartesian thought puzzles, or "The Matrix." But the results are promising. Well acted, smartly written and cleverly stitched together, "Awake" works on many levels -- both intellectual and emotional.

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Foremost, it's a puzzle you are meant to work on just as much as Britten does. Plus, his bereavement and predicament are heartbreaking. He is a man who refuses to resolve his dilemma -- who is alive? who is dead? -- because he can't bear to know.