Is Awake on Netflix Kid Friendly? Parents Guide

Wondering if Awake (2021) on Netflix is ok for kids? Awake is rated TV-MA for language, violence, and gore. A depressing, zombie-apocalypse type thriller, Awake is chaotic and never really goes anywhere. However, there aren’t really zombies, just sleep-deprived people who turn brutal. Here’s what parents need to know in this Awake Parents Guide.

Awake Parents Guide

Jill (Gina Rodriguez) is an ex-soldier working as security. Previously addicted to pills, she lost custody of her kids, and has just picked them up after working the night shift when suddenly power is out everywhere, cars don’t work anymore, and all technology or anything with a chip is out, too. Things escalate quickly and people realize they can’t fall asleep turning them into angry, unreasonable people.

When Jill realizes her daughter, Matilda (Ariana Greenblatt) is able to sleep, she must protect her from people who want to use her to try to save humanity.

Is Awake kid friendly? Not really. It turns dark really quickly. Why is Awake TV-MA? Parents need to know that Awake has some non-sexual nudity, and a lot of gore and violence.

Language

There are a lot of f-words in Awake (15+) and uses of sh*t, bit*h, g-ddamn, di*k, and prick.

Mature Content

When people get desperate, they start turning on and killing each other. You see someone get shot in the back of the head, people are stabbed, shot, stomped on, hung from trees…Some of the scenes are quite disturbing, especially for children. You do see some non-sexual nudity, but no frontal.

There are scenes with people just shooting each other with automatic weapons, others are attacked. One character bites another to get him off. People are sleep-deprived and crazy. In one scene you see doctors doing tests on a chimpanzee with an exposed brain.

Jill tries to teach her young daughter to use a gun.

A child asks her brother if he ever “did it” with his girlfriend and then says he’s never had sex.

Is Awake Appropriate for Kids Under 18?

If your kids have watched shows like The Walking Dead, then this is definitely more tame, but still too much violence for younger kids. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone under 16 years old, but if your kids have seen other zombie-type films, then they’d probably be ok.

The whole overall mood is depressing and sad. If you want a post-apocalyptic story with a more hopeful, yet still somewhat disturbing premise, I’d choose Sweet Tooth.

Awake was just chaos from the beginning. All of a sudden there are sleep-deprived people who go from human to wanting to sacrifice a child is what seems like 24 hours. Since nobody can fall asleep, they start to hallucinate and can’t distinguish between real and fantasy. But it’s all a bunch of nightmares.

Without much backstory, I had a hard time connecting to any of the characters. As the movie progressed, there was still no character development, and we were introduced to someone new.

Awake just didn’t make sense. The idea was there, but the execution wasn’t. Storytelling was sacrificed at the expense of brutal killings with the worst of humanity exposed, but not explored. There aren’t a lot of answers and perhaps that sets up Awake for a sequel, but it’s not one I want to watch.