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"The Little Guy"

"The Little Guy" is the second episode of the police procedural drama television series Awake. The episode premiered on March 8, 2012 in the United States on NBC, simultaneously broadcast on Global in Canada and subsequently aired on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2012.

The show centers on Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs), a police detective living in two separate realities after a car accident. In this episode, Micheal Britten deals with a case at his work with a homeless man Bernard Mackenzie and his death. Meanwhile, Hannah (Laura Allen) and Rex (Dylan Minnette) try to deal with each others death, in both green and red realities.

The episode was written by series creator and executive producer Kyle Killen, and directed by Jeffrey Reiner. "The Little Guy" was well received by television critics, who praised its storylines. Commentators noted that the script was well-written and that is was good, but it wasn't as "serene" and good as the pilot episode. Upon airing, "The Little Guy" obtained 4.33 million viewers in the United States and a 1.6 rating in the 18–49 demographic, according to Nielsen ratings.

Plot

The episode opens in the green reality (where Rex is alive, and Hannah isn't). Rex is starting to notice differences about the way his father does things that his mother normally did. Michael decides to watch his wife in the Red World to make things better for Rex like using a fabric softener when he washes. Dr Evans is fascinated by Michael ability to maintain a flowing reality in his dreams even though Michael would rather not work two sets of homicides.

Later Micheal and "Bird" are working on a case where a Dr. Bernard Mackenzie, a fertility doctor has been killed by a poison made to look like a natural heart attack. Someone murdered him by drugging his insulin.

Back at home Micheal learns that his son also doesn't care for his cooking since Hannah used to do that too.

In the red reality (where Hannah is alive, and Rex isn't), Micheal learns that Rex was having parcels sent to his friends house and he suggests to Hannah that they open a package. She doesn't want to just yet, as she is still not ready to learn more about her son. Dr Lee points out that Michael is dealing with Rex's death by pretending that he didn't die. Dr. Lee is not as happy about Rex's "dreams" has Dr. Evans is.

Back at the station, Michael sees Bernard's name on a list of murder victims. In the Red World Bernard is listed as a homeless murder. Michael naturally wants to investigate but Vega is not interested because it is not high profile.

We now skip to the first part in the series where Michael is not present. Hannah has opened the parcel and decides to confront Cole, Rex`s friend, with its contents. Cole shows Hannah the motorbike they were working on. The part were mailed there because Rex`s parents would not approve. Everytime Rex said he was going to the beach he actually went over to fix the bike. Hannah suggests to Cole that he finish the bike.

Micheal and Vega show up to the area where Bernard was found, but Vega is not happy that his partner chose this case. Michael gets angry and tells Vega he can leave if he wants, since Vega only got the job to watch over Michael's back. They both walk the streets asking if anyone recognizes the victim in pictures. Only one homeless man does and he says he was killed by "A Little Guy".

Back in the Green world, they bring in a guy for questioning on Dr. Mackenzie's murder, but the man is quite large and Michael imediately feels it is not the right man. He confirms his feelings by comfirming that the suspect was watching the football game at the time of the murder. Det. Bird is concerned about why Michael assumed right away that he was innocent. The suspect was a former partner of Mackenzie's but he became upset with the way the doctor was taking in bussiness and he lost his partnership in a court battle. Mackenzie was turning away poorer people who really did need there help for richer couples.

They decide to check emails on the Clinic's server and they discover that the computers had been hacked and several files were deleted hours before the murder. The IP address belonged to a client with a 17 year old son Sam Harveson, who they figure was the hacker. When they question the boy at his home he admits to hacking into the system to look up his father but he accidentally altered other files and couldn't fix them. He didn't have an alibi but he did have the ticket stub from an online sale.

Before they left Michael asked him how tall he was. He answered roughly 5 foot 5. Freeman questions Michael as to why he keeps asking about height. He says that one theory is that a window in the office was broken and he figured maybe someone could have climbed in there and messed with the Dr's insulin. Freeman is frustrated at Michael theories and Michael doesn't want to tell him where he gets his ideas.

Back at home Michael has now learned how to cook a meal but Rex want's to go to the beach with Cole. At Cole's house. Rex is trying to convince Cole to go away for three days to a music festival with the bike. Cole is reluctant and realizes that Rex wants to go because of a girl.

Back in the red reality, Hannah reveals that Rex was working on a bike with Cole instead of going to the beach. She is now much happier knowing more about her son. At the station Michael is looking through mug shots of Little Guy's and he has asked the homeless man to come back in to take a look. Vega gets into a shouting match with him causing the police cheif to take Michael into her office. The cheif had previously suggested that Michael retire after the accident but he refused and still does. She tells him to deal with the homeless man and go work on a new case.

In the green reality, Michael shows the forensic detecive the files that were deleted and he determines that all the files have the same genetic markers. In other words, all of the children were fathered by the same man. They get Sam in for questioning and he admits that he killed Mackenzie becasue he was using his own sperm to father children. He begs the detectives to not tell anyone. He felt betrayed because he is the son of a monster and he killed the doctor so that no one else would know.

The two therapists continue to react differently about the case results but Michael feels he is still missing something because homeless case was not solved even if it did help him solve the Doctor case. He makes ammend with Vega by offering him lead in the questioning of the new case. Just after he and Vega take off, the cheif notices that Michael is looking at mug shots of short people.

Rex tells his dad that he is going to the beach with Cole. Michael tells Rex to, "Wear a helmet," letting on that he knows about the bike and is "ok" with it.

The episode ends with the LAPD captain is sitting on a bench when she is approached by an unknown man (Mark Harelik). They are having a debate on how troublesome Michael is and the chief is being protected somehow by the accident that was done on purpose and took out Michael's "whole family." She convinces the man that she is controlling the situation and she asks him if the man who caused the accident was "A little guy."[1][2]

Production

Series creator and executive producer Kyle Killen wrote the episode's script.

The episode was written by series creator and executive producer Kyle Killen, and directed by Jeffrey Reiner. Guest stars included Laura Innes as Tricia Harper, Mark Harelik as Carl Kessel, Logan Miller as Cole, Brian Norris as Sam Harvinson and Chris McGarry as Dr. Banks.[3] The episode is rated TV-14 on television in the United States.[1][4]

According to HitFix, director Jeffrey Reiner was trying to maintain the visual style set up by David Slade from the pilot episode.[5]

Reception

Ratings

"The Little Guy" was originally broadcast on March 8, 2012 in the United States on NBC between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., preceded by Up All Night.[6][7][8] Upon airing, "The Little Guy" obtained 4.33 million viewers, making it second place in its timeslot.[6] Despite airing simultaneously with The Mentalist on CBS and a rerun of GCB on ABC, it acquired a 1.6 rating in the 18–49 demographic, according to Nielsen ratings, meaning that it was seen by 1.6% of all 18- to 49-year-olds.[6] The episode's ratings dropped from the previous episode.[9] It was simultaneously broadcast on Global in Canada, and subsequently aired on Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom on May 11, 2012, obtaining 300,000 million viewers, making it the third most-watched program for that week behind Game of Thrones and Blue Bloods.[10]

Critical response

Jason Issacs's role as Micheal Britten on the episode has meet with praise from television critics, particularly Den of Geek's review.

"The Little Guy" was well received by television commentators. Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club enjoyed the episode.[11] He started by claiming that "The second episode of Awake isn't great TV like the pilot, but it's a very enjoyable murder mystery for much of its running time". He wrote that the episode "has some hiccups here and there, but it mostly feels like something that shows how this whole thing can work as a television show going forward".[11] He stated that "there's one last scene that’s so bad it made me want to give up on the show entirely".[11] He noted that he "didn't give up on the show. NBC sent out another two episodes for review, and those are both solid, though not up to the level of this one".[11] He criticized the "final scene, in which Laura Innes meets with some other guy and they talk about how they have to keep Mike in the dark about what really happened the night of the accident just made want to punch something".[11] He stated that "is not a show that needs a conspiracy narrative about the truth behind the accident. It’s not a show that needs a mythology". He criticized that the episode "enough elements already". He claimed that "adding another one just feels like piling on, particularly when it feels like the sort of low-grade "there's a bunch of people out to get you, protagonist!".[11] Despite this, he claimed that "there was plenty of fun to be had in this episode, if we can just ignore the final two minutes".[11] He noted that he was "pretty blown away by how the episode’s teaser neatly set up the two realities gambit and suggested the ways it’s helping Mike make small improvements in his life here and there, via something really simple. In this case, that was fabric softener, which Mike was forgetting to add to Rex's laundry loads, thus making Rex’s clothes smell weird".[11] VanDerWerff stated that parts of the episode cannot be "connected".[11] He noted that "The emotional family story is also well done".[11] VanDerWerff concluded his review by giving the episode a grade of "B+".[11] Matt Fowler of IGN gave the episode a complimentary review.[12] Like The A.V. Club's review, Fowler started by claiming that the episode was "not as tragically serene as the premiere episode" or as good as the pilot".[12] He stated that the episode expanded "a lot of the themes that were presented to us last week".[12] He noted that "the show has also ramped up the tension between Britten and his partners".[12] He liked that "both of them are readily calling Britten out on his lunacy".[12] He enjoyed "how Bird said that Britten was specifically looking for evidence to point to an outcome he'd already decided on", Because on most other shows the impersonal, eccentric detective who goes by intuition is celebrated, so I'm glad to see this series sticking to its guns and trying to ground Britten's police work in reality".[12] He wrote that he was not "sure what's real and what's a dream, it's a little hard to get caught up in the actual people involved within the homicide investigation", "Like the kid who gave the tearful Law & Order-style confession about killing the fertility doctor".[12] He stated that he was "happy that the investigation all came together and made sense".[12] He called parts of the episode "dramatic" and "irony".[12] He stated that the ending scene of the episode "introduces a full-on conspiracy into the mix, is risky, but I'm still in", "I fear that some folks might start to drop off from this show now simply because once you start defining something that was previously unexplained, you're going to lose those who had different ideas stubbornly cemented in their heads".[12] Fowler wrote that "Britten is definitely exploring the strange luxury of his condition and the show is still smart, touching and riveting".[12] Claiming that the episode "has already started to answer some questions and with that comes, for better or worse", Fowler concluded his review by giving the episode a "8.5 out of 10" score, classifying it as "great".[12]

The wife just feels more alive to me. I'm trying to determine if that could be because in Britten's mind he knows his wife better than he knew his son.

—Carissa Pavlica of TV Fanatic[13]

TV Fanatic's round table team including Carissa Pavlica, Lindey Kempton, Carla Day and Nick McHatton, were pleased with the episode.[13] Pavlica claimed that the episode was "much better than I anticipated, frankly. And I'm guessing more people thought it couldn't be done because they seem to have tuned out.[13] Day noted that "It was a nice seamless transition".[13] McHatton simply wrote that the episode did "really well".[13] Pavlica stated that "the wife just feels more alive to me".[13] Kempton claimed that "Rex's motorcycle was a nice touch, personal and not unrealistic, and it helped start developing his character a little bit. It's nice to already see a dynamic developing between Britten and his wife around Rex".[13] Pavlica wrote that he thought the red reality was real.[13] However, Day claimed that she had "no clue" which reality was real.[13] Ross Bonaime of the Paste magazine gave the episode a complimentary review.[14] He started by noting that the episode "shows us how Awake will most likely work as a series". Bonaime also noted that there were "great moments with his wife and his son and his two therapists".[14] He wrote that "the show never shows the faces of either MacKenzie, not even letting us know if they are supposed to be the same person or if they just share the same name".[14] He stated that "Awake is also showing a great ability to show the impact of Britten's decisions he makes throughout the realities, regardless of how small they are".[14] He claimed that the episode had "sweet moments".[14] Like other critic reviews, Bonaime claimed that "The biggest flaw with "The Little Guy" though is the very end, in which Laura Innes’ character, the superior to Britten, has a meeting with a mysterious man. She is the one who made Britten see a therapist in the first place because of the accident, but her meeting with the unknown man sets up the possibility that there is more to the situation than meets the eye".[14] Bonaime concluded his review by giving the episode a "8.4 out of 10" Paste rating, classifying it as "commendable".[14] Caroline Preece from Den of Geek mainly gave the episode a positive review.[15] She called it "promising", "interesting" and "fortunate", and claimed that "the genre elements of Awake have received much more attention than the generic cop show trappings they're wrapped in, but it looks as though the writers are taking the slow and steady path".[15] Despite this, she called the first two episodes "strange".[15] Preece concluded her review by stating that "there's enough here to sustain interest, at least until the sci-fi elements kick in a bit more".[15] Carl Cortez from Assignment X praised the episode.[16] He called it "complex".[16] He noted that "The concept could still be challenging for normal viewers, but this episode makes the conceit go down real smooth, utilizing the cop procedural element to great effect".[16] He called the episode "touching" and "rather effective".[16] He claimed that the episode's ending scene was a "big twist".[16] Stating that the series is "challenging", Cortez concluded his review by giving the episode a grade of "B".[16] Alan Sepinwall of HitFix enjoyed the episode.[5] He thought that the episode "did very well in continuing to show how Britten's new situation is impacting — and often improving — his personal life".[5] He claimed that he didn't care for the ending scene.[5] Lee Kalwat from The Voice of TV gave the episode a positive review.[17] He stated that "It's hard to see how they can sustain these two realities for very long".[17] He noted that he has "mixed feelings about the show", "It's certainly a class act, with talent and creativity beaming at us from every glint of green and red on screen", "While I admire the artistry and the creativity of all involved, I also find myself feeling a good deal of distaste for the main character", "Michael Britten (Jason Isaacs) is not a nice man".[17] He wrote that he was "more of a Dr. Lee (BD Wong) fan than I am a Dr. Evans (Cherry Jones) fan".[17] Kalwat concluded his review by giving the episode a grade of "A-".[17] Screenrant's Kevin Yeoman gave many opinions on the episode's final scene.[18] He called it "unique".[18] Ken Tucker of Entertainment Weekly also gave many opinions.[19] He claimed that the episode "reserved its deeper mystery for the final couple of minutes".[19] Tucker concluded his review by stating that the show "may need an extra layer of viewers to keep it going".[19] BuddyTV writer Laurel Brown called the episode "twisty" and "mind-bending", and called the episode's final scene "surprising", "potentially story-changing", "intriguing" and "problematic".[20] Tim Surette of TV.com's official blog had many opinions on the episode.[21] He noted that the episode "proved that the strengths of the show overshadow its weaknesses".[21] He claimed that the episode's final scene were "worrisome".[21] Surette wrote that "Awake is the closest thing network television has to art, and that final scene smacks of an executive telling creator Kyle Killen how to hold his paintbrush".[21] He argued that the final scene "would have been better if Awake had held those final moments for later in the season", "Let us spend a few episodes getting used to the unique world Michael has created for himself before hitting us over the head with car-accident cover-ups".[21] Surette thought that "the episode also showed us that the two realities won't always lead to happy endings in Michael's casework".[21] He stated that the episode "didn't achieve the same level of excellence as the pilot, but I left the episode feeling much better about the future of the series because I feared so much could go wrong".[21] He also stated that Vega is a jerk, opining that he "all kinds of feisty in this episode, when he should have been in awe of his much-more-seasoned partner".[21]

References

  1. ^ a b "The Little Guy". Awake. Season 1. Episode 2. March 8, 2012. NBC. {{cite episode}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |began=, |episodelink=, |city=, |transcripturl=, |ended=, and |seriesno= (help); Unknown parameter |serieslink= ignored (|series-link= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Delman, Matthew (March 2012). "'Awake: The Little Guy' – Recap". Science Fiction. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  3. ^ "Awake Episode Guide 2012 Season 1 - The Little Guy, Episode 2". TV Guide. 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  4. ^ "Awake - Episode Guide - The Little Guy". NBC. March 8, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  5. ^ a b c d Sepinwall, Alan (March 8, 2012). "Review: 'Awake' - 'The Little Guy': Conspiracy theories". HitFix. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  6. ^ a b c Bibel, Sara (March 9, 2012). "Thursday Final Ratings: 'American Idol' Adjusted Up; 'Parks & Recreation' Adjusted Down". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  7. ^ "Listings - AWAKE on NBC". The Futon Critic. March 8, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  8. ^ "Awake: The Little Guy". Zap2it. March 8, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  9. ^ Kondolojy, Amanda (March 2, 2012). "Thursday Final Ratings: 'Awake' & 'American Idol' Adjusted Up". TV by the Numbers. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  10. ^ "BARB's multichannel top 10 programmes". BARB. Retrieved June 2, 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e 13 May 2012", listed under Sky1
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k VanDerWerff, Todd (March 9, 2012). "The Little Guy". The A.V. Club. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Fowler, Matt (March 8, 2012). "Awake: "The Little Guy" Review". IGN. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  13. ^ a b c d e f g h i Round Tables (March 15, 2012). "Awake Round Table: "The Little Guy"". TV Fanatic. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  14. ^ a b c d e f g Bonaime, Ross (March 9, 2012). "Awake Review: "The Little Guy" (Episode 1.02)". Paste. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  15. ^ a b c d Preece, Caroline (March 12, 2012). "Awake episodes 1 & 2 reviews: Pilot & The Little Guy". Den of Geek. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  16. ^ a b c d e f Cortez, Carl (March 9, 2012). "TV Review: AWAKE – Season 1 – "The Little Guy"". Assignment X. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c d e Kalwat, Lee (March 8, 2012). "Awake 1.02 "The Little Guy"". The Voice of TV. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  18. ^ a b Yeoman, Kevin (March 9, 2012). "'Awake' Season 1, Episode 2: 'The Little Guy' Recap". Screenrant. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  19. ^ a b c Tucker, Ken (March 9, 2012). "'Awake' tried to jump-start a mythology, but will it wake up viewers?". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  20. ^ Brown, Laurel (March 9, 2012). "After 'Awake': What Was Up with 'The Little Guy'?". BuddyTV. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
  21. ^ a b c d e f g h Surette, Tim (March 9, 2012). "Awake: Outside Interference". TV.com. CBS Interactive. Retrieved June 2, 2012.
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