Tagline: For every decision, there’s a consequence

Have you every watched ‘Groundhog Day’ and wondered what it would be like as a weekly police procedural TV show? Apparently Paul Zbyszewski did. He’s the creator of the TV series ‘Day Break’, a show that ran for one season from 2006-2007 on ABC.

Today Detective Brett Hopper will be accused of shooting state attorney Alberto Garza. He will offer his rock solid alibi. He will realize he’s been framed. And he will run. Then he will wake up and start the day over again.

‘Day Break’ starred Taye Diggs as Brett Hopper, re-living the same day over and over again while trying to figure out who has framed him and why he’s stuck in this loop. Each episode mostly consisted of a single day, learning from each previous attempt through that day Hopper gains new information on why he’s stuck. This new information may be helpful or it may just lead farther down an existential rabbit hole.

Along the way Hopper sees how his decisions can change how the day plays out, for better or worse. Getting the chance to repeat encounters gives him greater insight into the people around him and some of them may turn out to not be who he thought they were. People like his ex-partner Chad (Adam Bladwin – Firefly – “I’ll be in my bunk.”) who has become spiteful and suspicious of Hopper; or Detective Spivak (Mitch Pileggi – The X-Files – Skinner) the detective trying to take him down for the assassination.

‘Day Break’ keeps the repeating day motif fresh for the entire run, working in new plot threads and never getting to the tedium that such a concept could produce. Unlike some 1 season shows, it does resolve the central plot, and in a satisfactory way, and manage to leave room for the story to continue had they chosen to do so. When this show first aired I don’t remember ever hearing of it. It was only a couple years later when it appeared on Netflix that I saw it, and I thoroughly enjoyed, enough that I bought the DVD and have watched the whole run again. I don’t believe it is streaming anywhere right now, but if this all sounds interesting to you, maybe pick up the DVD.