Waking Up Andrew

 

Here's a half-baked idea that I had for a TV show based on my life. It's a mashup of Groundhog Day and Quantum Leap with hints of Matrixy Twilight Zone or some other "what the fuck is this reality that I'm in?" going on. Somewhat different then "Being John Malkovich," in that I'm not a famous person, and no one really wants in on this experience.

It begins each morning as the main character (me) wakes up and sleepily goes to the mirror. The person who goes to the mirror looks like me, but when they see themselves in the mirror they react with varied reactions, as each day I am am possessed by the consciousness of a different Facebook friend or family member. It is a curse that I've placed on all of them for failing to understand me as a person. So, I give each of them a chance to do a better job of being me, by trapping them inside my head for a day. They are unaware of all this, and each one must figure out their own strategy for navigating their day as me.

They have their own thoughts, but have to wrestle with my unconscious programming and also get to hear my stupid narrative going on in their head throughout the day. As we go through my routine, they find themselves compelled to do things as I would, but offer varying degrees of resistance to the structure, based on their own character. My body becomes kind of a Driver's Ed car with dual controls.

So, it looks like me and sounds like me, but, as the day goes on, the person driving the vehicle (with me as a backseat driver) gets to make different choices than I would make, resulting in the real me getting a fresh perspective on what could be my life.  It resets every day with a different person, a different voice cohabiting my headspace. There is continuity, but incorporating the changes made by all these individuals that "ride along" is slow, because of the main character's intense resistance to change of any kind.

The show's name, "Waking Up Andrew," has two meanings, the more positive being that eventually the main character wakes up from his hellish nightmare existence, into a friendlier world, through this transformative experience. It would be kind of dark at first, but throughout the process, some of the characters that have inhabited the main character's psyche would leave subtle changes in his overall outlook, making it slightly less negative.

Occasionally, we'd visit the people who got to take part in the one day incarnation, back in random scenes from their lives, showing how that one day affected them to whatever degree it did. Like remembering a bad dream or having a glimpse at a past life, it would make them grateful that it is no longer their reality. Or it could result in them having insight or empathy for some other difficult or obtuse person, as they could kind of relate, having been on the inside.

In a twist, at the end it could be shown that this was all a part of some radical hallucinogenic therapy dream, in a benign institutional setting. The "curse" was a figment of the imagination, whereas the reality was that this was a benevolent intervention, staged by the concerned and loving friends who were the characters in the drama.

This idea may not be widely saleable as far as using my life for an exact template, so any random losery type guy, who is stuck in some godawful, miserable routine will do. I dunno, it could have potential. Until then, it's just me everyday who is "waking up Andrew." I'm gonna work on my Freaky Friday Facebook spells, though, so beware...