Day Break
What’s it about?
Day Break follows detective Brett Hopper who finds himself trapped in a time loop, continually repeating the same day that sees him framed for murder. He’d better take care, as any injuries carry over to next time.
Starring
Taye Diggs, Moon Bloodgood, Victoria Pratt, Meta Golding, Ramon Rodriguez, Adam Baldwin, Mitch Pileggi, Ian Anthony Dale, Jonathan Banks
An Introduction to Day Break
It’s day break, 6:18am, and Detective Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) awakens. He’s staying with his girlfriend, Rita Shelten (Falling Skies’ Moon Bloodgood), a nurse and ex-wife of Internal Affairs jobsworth, Chad Shelten (Firefly‘s Adam Baldwin). Chad still holds a torch for Rita, so isn’t Hopper’s greatest fan.
On the way into work, Hopper sees a newspaper headline announcing the murder of Assistant District Attorney, Alberto Garza, the previous night. While this is shocking news, Hopper doesn’t realise that he is now the number one suspect for this heinous crime, despite being with Rita when it was committed.
Hopper notices a woman absent-mindedly dropping a note so, being a decent chap, attempts to return it to her. This delay causes her to miss being hit and seriously injured by an errant bus whose driver has just had a stroke. Well played, detective!
Hopper stops off at his flat for a change of clothes only to find himself arrested by a SWAT team led by Detectives Spivak (The X-Files‘ Mitch Pileggi) and Choi (Ian Anthony Dale). Back at the police station, Hopper explains he has an alibi – the trouble is, no-one can get hold of Rita to back him up. Off he goes to a holding cell.
That evening, Hopper is kidnapped from the police station by shadowy figures and dumped at the feet of the sinister Mr. Detweiler (Breaking Bad‘s Jonathan Banks). Hopper is instructed to accept the frame-up or lose those closest to him. As a cruel demonstration of power, Detweiler shows Hopper a video of Rita being shot by an assassin. Hopper is naturally distraught and is sedated into unconsiousness.
It’s day break, 6:18am, and Detective Brett Hopper awakens. Rita rolls over and smiles at him. Thank goodness, it must have been the worst dream! But hold on, this day seems mighty familiar…
Summary
Day Break is an addictive, hugely under-rated show. If you’ve enjoyed time-loop films such as Groundhog Day (1993) and Edge Of Tomorrow (2014), you will certainly love Day Break. It’s smart, brilliantly written and definite binge-watcher material.
All the classic challenges of a character being stuck in a time-loop are present: learning, adapting, dogged perseverance and moments of despair are all inevitable ports of call for the poor passenger. What does Hopper need to do or is he just doomed to repeat the same day for good? Will he ever see tomorrow?
Episode one sets the scene and introduces the first loop, and things get more and more crazy (in a good way) after that, with so much to reward the viewer once you’re on board. Tense, intelligent, cleverly infuriating and darkly comic in places, Day Break tests our trapped hero to the absolute limit of his endurance and sanity.
The shadowy Mr. Detweiler’s ominous catch-phrase is always pertinent and stays with you: “For every decision, there’s a consequence. Remember: decision… consequence. Decision… consequence.”
Day Break was only around for one season but uses it well and doesn’t cheat you on the final episode. Despite being prematurely cancelled first time around, it has now found an appreciative audience thanks to DVD box-sets and streaming. Unreservedly, this show is one the best binge-watching experiences around.
Check out the Series Trailer here:
