Television has gotten weird. Some of the most popular shows on prime time star fairy tale characters, vampires, meth cooks and zombies, and are actively competing with the same kind of detectives and forensic scientists who’ve been around for years. One side of television has been rapidly progressing into strange new places whilst the cop precedural shows and their globe trotting spinoffs cycle ever onwards in their usual fashion. We now have a slew of new procedurals taking cues from the progressive genre, mixing the weird with the routine. This is where “Awake” comes in.

The premise in “Awake” is weird indeed; within the first seconds of the show, we witness a car accident that leaves Micheal Britten (Jason Isaacs, who you may know from playing Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series) living life through two alternating realities. In one, his wife has died in the accident and he’s left living with only his son and in the other, his wife survives but son doesn’t. In both lives, he’s a detective who uses details that cross over from both worlds to solve the cases in each, or to help either his wife or son deal with their grief in either reality. Britten also has work appointed therapy sessions in each world where we get to learn the most about the rules of his two worlds. One shrink is determined to convince Britten that one reality is real and the other is just a dream he’s using as a coping strategy. The other is trying to explore the benefits of this rarely-tapped level of open consciousnes.

This is definitely a show of recycled parts. There is the case-an-episode feel (although with a bonus one since he works on one in each reality), the constant questioning of his sanity, and then the standard home life drama with the twist of ever hanging grief. The world jumping is clean and concise, done expertly with lighting or the character’s discovery, and the entire plot is easy to follow without ever falling into a pattern of condescension. These are all elements we’ve seen before, yet the show ties them together in an extremely watchable way. “Awake” is like a television Frankenstein’s monster that entertains and engages rather than accidentally killing and running from mobs. Maybe it’s the brilliant cinematography (the likes of which I’ve never seen on basic cable) or perhaps it’s Isaacs, who is an acting force to be reckoned with, the supporting players who fight gallantly to not be outshone, or maybe it’s the idea that with two convergent stories each week, I feel like I’m winning a buy-one-get-one-free deal with every episode.

Whatever it is that makes me love this show, all I know is that four minutes into the pilot episode I was geeking out and so excited to see more, and after the second episode am still not disappointed. I am a hard-to-please television viewer too, and only premium cable shows have been able to wow me the way “Awake” has. If you’re a fan of the cop procedurals, here’s an exciting new option. I highly encourage anyone to check out the first two episodes on Hulu and then dive in like I have.