First Impressions: Memory of a Killer (Fox)

Memory of a Killer “Pilot”/”Ferryman”
Written by Ed Whitmore & Tracey Malone
Directed by Daniel Minahan/David Petrarca
Airs Monday nights at 9pm ET on Fox

With its sleek production values, dark color palette, and high concept premise (hitman living a double life develops early onset Alzheimer’s), Memory of a Killer makes for an interesting, if superficial, antonym for Fox’s other new European-adapted drama of the spring, the aggressively bright, affably soft Best Medicine (which you can read more about here). But where Best Medicine feels perfectly catered to its identity as a low stakes Hallmark-esque procedural, Memory of a Killer‘s bifurcated identities – introspective family drama and hitman thriller – struggle to coalesce, making the Patrick Dempsey-led adaptation feel like a very sleek, sterilized, and flat drama just begging for a sense of personality.

The biggest problem is an obvious one: Memory of a Killer, like so many series with such high concepts and a fairly grounded visual palette, takes its premise way, way too seriously. Dempsey plays Angelo, who splits his time between being a widowed father figure and an incredibly efficient middle-aged hitman (visually represented by the beige crossover vehicle he drives as the former, and the black Porshce as the latter, of course), the kind who tries not to miss his pregnant daughter’s ultrasounds, right after murdering an adversary with a baseball bat in broad daylight in the Bronx.

Dempsey plays Angelo as straight as one possible can, even as “Pilot” and “Ferryman” pile on ridiculous concept after ridiculous concept. My favorite amongst them is Michael Imperioli’s Dutch, a crime boss who employs Angelo and just so happens to be owner and head chef in an upscale Italian restaurant – but as Memory of a Killer lays out its premise and introduces its cast and overarching narrative, it fills itself with tons of the kind of ludicrous elements that could make for a really fun series: the underachieving son-in-law Angelo underhandedly chides, the wall of guns he indiscriminately picks from to run around New York with, the unnecessary pathos of a dead woman motivating our antihero’s actions (in this case, his wife who was killed by a drunk driver, whom Angelo learns got out of prison early in “Pilot”).

Unfortunately, Memory of a Killer leans hard away from the inherent craziness of its foundational elements, instead opting for the driest, grayscale version of itself it can possibly be. As “Pilot” plays out and begins to tease Angelo’s developing mental hiccups (we know that things will only get worse, because he regularly visits a brother who’s become non-functional from Alzheimer’s), Memory of a Killer presents a very conventional narrative style and delivery, opting for simplistic dialogue and aesthetic choices, both of which are clearly begging for something more magnanimous and outlandish.

There’s definitely a version of this series that skews closer to something like Hannibal, leaning into the moralistic conflicts of a hitman trying to protect a family he’s lied to his entire life, letting Angelo’s presence as an increasingly unreliable narrator of his own story drive some of the pathos the series hints at in the clarifying moments of both opening episodes. Rather than risk alienating a potential audience, however, there’s a distinct lack of creativity to the design and delivery of Memory of a Killer‘s first two episodes that leave it bereft of personality, even when it’s trying its hand at being an existential drama, or something particularly laden with metaphor within its text. It’s a series that tries to uses its slickness – which is more monochromatic than its writers clearly think it is – to disguise its thematic shallowness, which renders a lot of what’s happening in these first two episodes a mix of vaguely intriguing and mildly unengaging (which is perhaps the most dangerous place for a young series to find itself in).

It all just feels a bit passionless; there’s nothing inherently terrible or reductive about how it introduces its story and characters, but its cold, distant approach to its own material makes its parts feel disparate and detached from each – even in the moments Memory of a Killer begins to tease the bleeding and blending of Angelo’s two worlds. There’s a desperate lack of personality, making the series feel like it has nothing much to say about its characters, walking them through the motions of storytelling simply for the sake of it.

There are certainly some encouraging elements; Richard Harmon (aka Julien from Continuum) is brutally underutilized as Dutch’s nephew and Angelo’s reluctant student, but his presence portends more interesting, reflective storytelling in the episodes ahead. And despite its sleek, detached nature often working against its nascent attempts to establish a baseline personality, there’s a The Girlfriend Experience-like quality to its depiction of modern displays of wealth and so-called “coolness”, relying heavily on neutral colors, sharp corners, and purposeful camera work, that does give its visual language some semblance of voice (though a more expansive use of color, light and movement never hurts, like the flash-laden fight sequence that opens “Ferryman”).

But as Memory of a Killer moves from introduction to teasing out the elements of its larger mysteries and conflicts, there’s a distinct feeling that the series is putting the cart before a horse – one that feels like its already on some level of creative cruise control. There’s definitely a good show deep within the skeleton of the show’s first two hours – but it’s too inconsistently surfaced in its first two hours, limiting Memory of a Killer‘s ability to really embrace the inherent potential of its unreliable narrator and violent intrigue.

Grade: C-