If it were just another thriller drama series about a hitman working for the mob, I would have given Memory of a Killer a pass.
But a fascinating twist reeled me in: Patrick Dempsey’s Angelo Flannery is not only living a double life, as a slick, Armani-clad hitman for a crime boss and a cardigan-wearing, grocery cart-pushing dad, but he’s also starting to lose his memory due to early-onset Alzheimer’s.
How is this going to work? I wondered. And the question hooked me as the 10 episodes unspooled, each one growing more tense and fraught as Angelo’s double life began to catch up with him, and his creeping cognitive decline became more pronounced.
Dempsey, known for his role in rom coms and as “McDreamy” from Grey’s Anatomy, is riveting to watch, both in his roles as a kind neighbor and nurturing father (and grandfather to be) and a ruthless, tactical assassin. Viewers can’t help but like him as the first and fear him as the second.
His relationships fuel the plot and make it a character study of a man torn in two by his dual life. As Angelo Flannery, he adores his daughter, Maria (Odeya Rush in a compelling role) and tries to accept his rather drippy son-in-law for her sake. Together they mourn his wife and her mother, killed a year prior by a drunk driver who ran her over in their yard.
What Maria doesn’t know is that she has an uncle, Angelo’s brother, Michael (Richard Clarkin), who is lost to Alzheimer's already and living in a memory care center. Clarkin is affecting as Michael, who obviously loves his brother but can’t remember much else.
Michael straddles Angelo’s two worlds, as he used to be deep in the crime organization run by the brothers’ childhood friend, Dutch (Michael Imperioli of Sopranos’ fame). Dutch knows about Michael but has no idea his henchman, who goes by Angelo Doyle, actually has a family in a bucolic small town outside the city of New York. Dutch also lives a double life as a restaurant owner of an Italian eatery (a front for his mob activities).
The chemistry between Dempsey and Imperioli elevates the show considerably. While there is obviously love, loyalty, and deep history between the two, the viewer senses that one wrong move will upset this delicate balance of loyalty versus deception. Both men are keeping huge secrets from one another.
In Matthew 6:24, Jesus warns that “no one can serve two masters.” He is talking about God and money, but it applies here as Angelo strives to serve Dutch (who can be caring and merciless and cruel) and his family.
He can’t serve both masters forever, that much is clear. As he tries to extract himself from the mob (a famously difficult endeavor), Angelo continues to live two lives, to his own detriment. As James 1:8 declares, "A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,” and Angelo is a gripping character study of this truth.
This show is more violent and bloody than I prefer, but because it airs on network TV, it is milder than a movie or a cable series. One detraction for me is how dehumanizing all the killing is, no matter how “necessary” it may be to protect various people in Angelo’s life. Every viewer will have to discern whether or not the violence is worth the engrossing exploration of the darker side of human nature.
Overall, the Alzheimer’s twist keeps me engaged and looking forward to season two. There is psychological depth to Angelo’s struggle to keep his two lives in their compartments. He is coming apart at the seams, especially with his encroaching mental frailty. Episode by episode, the tension ratchets up to an incredible finale. Along the way, thrills, surprises, and reflection abound as viewers ponder a deeply double-minded man. One wonders if redemption is possible as the curtains slowly but inexorably close on Angelo’s life and faculties.
The series is based on De Zaak Alzheimer (The Alzheimer Case), a book by Belgian novelist Jef Geeraerts that has been adapted for the screen: first in a 2003 Belgian film of the same name, then in the 2022 American movie, Memory, starring Liam Neeson.
(Rated TV-14 for violence and implied intimacy. Fox, Hulu)