YMMV / Day Break (2006)

• Fridge Horror: In every timeline where Hopper is arrested and brought to the Quarry, Rita will be assassinated as a threat to Hopper. If he doesn't get arrested and she doesn't meet with Billy, Chad will take her home at the end of the day and she appears to be safe. It's not until very late in the season that we find out Dominguez will visit them at night and kill both of them.
• Funny Moments: Hopper's knowledge can sometimes make for some amusing moments in later loops, like when he walks right up to the two men in the black van who have been stalking him, addresses them by name, and tries to have a heart to heart talk with them.
• Heartwarming Moments: Many moments, since the series thrives on karma. A small sampling:
  • Hopper prevents Andrea's junkie boyfriend from shooting someone, then threatening to shoot himself, by talking him down and admitting that he did him wrong in the past, but that he's going to help him now.
  • Andrea returns the favor when Hopper is not only framed for Garza's murder, but Chad and Rita's as well, keeping him from giving up all hope when he's truly ready to throw in the towel.
  • When his sister dies, the first thing Hopper does when the next day comes is to jump in his car, race over to her house and hug her.
  • Jared watching Hopper after he solved everything and is finally living a happy life again.
• Magnificent Bastard: Defense attorney Barry Colburn is the secret mastermind of a cabal that controls much of Los Angeles behind the scenes. Seeking to exert his vision of justice on the entire city and maintain the system that he built, Colburn and his junior partner city councilman Tobias Booth frame Detective Brad Hopper for the murder of ADA Alberto Garza and blackmail his loved ones to cover up a separate murder tied to Booth. Colburn volunteers as Hopper's defense counsel to better manipulate him, while also planning to assassinate the defiant Judge Nitzberg and several of his colleagues. Hopper is only able to defeat the conspiracy by exploiting a "Groundhog Day" Loop. Despite this, Colburn remains a free man with enough resources to rebound from this setback, and willingly gives his greatest enemy some peace of mind by revealing the identity of his father's killer despite standing nothing to gain from it.
• Moment of Awesome: After a tense Hostage Situation at the police headquarters, Chad throws Hopper a bone in case he's right about being stuck in a temporal loop: "Oh, and by the way.. If you're right, the book's on the front seat of my car."
• Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: Subverted. Mitch Pileggi plays an Inspector Javert-type detective who is made to appear to be The Mole, but later turns out to be a Red Herring Mole.
• Tear Jerker:
  • In Episode 8, Hopper rushes to the hospital after an armed stand-off gone wrong, but is too late to prevent the death of his sister. He then flashes back to their difficult relationship and all the people who died during the loops as a result of his direct actions. Hopper can't even comfort his wailing mother in the hospital because he's still a fugitive.
  • The day gets even worse in episode 11 and 12 because of bad karma, resulting in Rita and Chad both dying. The second time around, Hopper tries to prevent it by warning them, but fails again, then visits her body in the morgue, visibly holding back tears.

---