Memory of a Killer Premiere Explores The Cost of Living a Double Life

Critic’s Rating: 4.2 / 5.0

4.2

Memory of a Killer is off to a fascinating start. And quite frankly, it’s a good time.

When everything works in an opening hour, you feel both excitement and anticipation for what’s on the horizon.

You’re left wondering, will the show zig in the right way, leaning into the dual-life intricacies and psychological tension that could make it one of the best? Or will it zag in a way that squashes its promise?

Patrick Dempsey’s a terrific leading man, and that’s not some shocking statement. He may be forever linked to his time as McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy, but he’s got a very wide range, and a role like Angelo Flannery is perfect for him.

It must be exhausting leading a double life.

Maintaining two separate lives and constant lies would tax even the most hardened person. Add being a hitman, and it’s a miracle to keep such a secret for long.

That alone is a pretty compelling story, but Memory of a Killer takes things even just a little bit farther, as the hired hitman’s mind may be starting to slip.

A good pilot will set everything up for you and then leave you wanting more at the end, and that’s exactly what happens here.

When we first meet Angelo, there’s nothing amiss. He’s a middle-aged salesman who loves his daughter, is mourning his late wife, and all seems well in the world.

The series does well to introduce family man Angelo first, rather than his hitman persona, because it really sets the tone.

Angelo going for an early morning run and grabbing fresh flowers to put on his wife’s grave immediately endears him in a way that wouldn’t exist if our first impression of him was long-range shooting someone in Manhattan.

The beginning of the hour is a little slow-moving, but it is necessary to set up the dynamics, and within the first five minutes, you can conclude: Angelo loves his daughter very much, Maria loves her dad right back, and Jeff is annoying.

We’re eased into finding out what happened to Angelo’s wife and Maria’s mother, though we can surmise on a series like this that she was most likely killed. It’s a predictable turn, but not all predictable things are inherently bad depending on execution.

Angelo and Maria’s relationship is clearly rooted in a lot of love, but seeing the two sides of Angelo makes you wonder whether she’s ever had doubts about her father, despite his two lives cleverly curated to fool people on both sides.

Angelo working for Dutch, his childhood friend, and keeping his family hidden from him was a shock in the most interesting of ways, further proving just how calculating Angelo has been throughout his life.

Aside from Dutch knowing his brother, he was none the wiser about Angelo having a whole other life, and on the one hand, that’s somewhat normal, right?

Your co-workers don’t need to be privy to your life outside the confines of your job.

But it’s a tad different when you’re a hitman employed by a childhood buddy.

With that kind of job, you have a responsibility to remain anonymous while also protecting your family. And Angelo did that by keeping things separate, but in doing so, he also had to be perfect.

And being perfect and meticulous at all times really isn’t feasible.

Obviously, with a title like “Memory of a Killer,” it was apparent that Angelo’s mind would become a factor in everything, but another thing the pilot did well was gradually introduce that, instead of dropping it into our laps straightaway.

First, we meet Angelo’s brother Mike, who’s in a nursing home-type facility, and we learn that he suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Then, throughout the hour, we see small things emerge, like forgetfulness, and it’s easy to deduce that perhaps he’s suffering from the early-onset of the very same disease as his brother.

Considering how carefully Angelo has had to live his life, forgetfulness and cognitive changes could mean the difference between life and death for him.

When it becomes clear that someone from his past is after him, you start to wonder if perhaps these symptoms have been around for a while and it’s part of the reason everything is starting to come crashing down.

You learn a lot about Angelo over the course of the hour, and once he realized that someone had made him enough to know where his real home was, he wasn’t going to let Dutch or anyone stop him from going after Mosher, even if the act could actually make things worse for him.

Did Angelo really have a choice, though?

Maria and his grandchild are clearly of the highest priority, as they should be, and it’s one thing for someone to be after him, but it felt so obvious that no one had ever gotten THIS close to him before.

He was spooked, and a spooked father won’t let anything stand in the way of protecting his family. Especially not Master Chef Michael Imperioli.

Having said that, did anyone actually believe Mosher was stalking him? It was too neat and convenient for it to be that simple, but Angelo wasn’t really willing to look outside of Mosher, again, because he was so rattled.

We’re just getting introduced to Angelo, but I have a feeling he wouldn’t have gone so far as to flirt and pick up a club manager just to get information on Mosher’s whereabouts on his dead wife’s birthday if he believed there was a better option to protect Maria.

But killing Mosher now sets Angelo up on a collision course with Dutch and the mob, and that weird man wasn’t even the one after him.

Do you know how diabolical it is to try to shoot a pregnant woman in broad daylight in front of her father and her husband?

One could say Angelo was just as diabolical when he killed a girl’s father in the bathroom of a karaoke bar while she sang “Crimson and Clover.”

But we’re rooting for Angelo, right? We’re excusing his deadly job because he’s out there killing the bad guy in the big city.

But it’s really just not that simple, and I enjoy a series where there aren’t necessarily any heroes, but instead this amalgamation of intriguing characters that make you feel.

It’s early days yet, but Memory of a Killer is off to a promising start, and it’s looking like the perfect show to absorb yourself in this winter.

Killer Notes

• Flashbacks in general are hit-or-miss for me, but I am interested to see whether Leah knew about Angelo’s life. If we’re going to have this storyline thread of her killer now roaming free, then I hope we get to learn more about her.

• It was all about Angelo, but there are other interesting characters, like Joe, who’s clearly very green and new to the hired-to-kill business, and Detective Dave, who’s familiar enough with Angelo and his daughter to roll up to their houses late at night. Hopefully, we get more of them in the next hour.

• Angelo was putting on an act, but saying he only kills bad people to Nicky, then not knowing he killed the brother of a crime boss seems a little suspect. Does he do any research on the people he’s contracted to kill? Or does he just take Dutch at his word?

• Speaking of Dutch, the way he talks to Angelo, like Angelo owes him his whole life, makes me desperately want to know more of their story because they do NOT fully trust each other.

• I loved the reveal that Angelo never put the gun in the safe. There were some nifty camera tricks, and Nicky opening the refrigerator and just running off was a really nice touch to that whole reveal.

This series isn’t trying to do too much, but it’s got an interesting premise, a good cast, and the promise of a good mystery right at its fingertips. You can’t really ask for more than that.

Well, what did you guys think about the premiere?

Will you be coming back for more? Or were you left feeling a little underwhelmed?

Let me know in the comments below so we can discuss!

You can watch Memory of a Killer on Mondays at 9/8c on FOX.