What to watch: ‘Unforgettable’ is a crime show worth bingeing

'Unforgettable' serves up old-school crime drama and a detective with an extraordinary memory - here's why it's worth watching If you liked The Mentalist, you will love this show. It’s called Unforgettable and it ran for four seasons on Netflix. It’s worth a binge, because it’s an enjoyable and undemanding watch that kind of makes you wish you had a photographic memory. And it brings back the kind of crime television that used to make for great evening viewing. Carrie Wells, played by Poppy Montgomery, has more than just a picture perfect memory. In fact, she has a condition called hyperthymesia. And it’s a real condition, first documented scientifically two decades ago. Fewer than 100 people worldwide have reportedly been identified with it. Highly Superior Autobiographical Memory (HSAM), as it’s also called, is a rare neurological phenomenon allowing extraordinary recall of personal experiences without conscious effort. People with HSAM can often recall what happened on a particular date, sometimes including what they wore and significant news events. Memories can surface involuntarily, triggered by ordinary conversations or experiences. It’s not a photographic memory per se, because the extraordinary ability primarily concerns their own personal experiences. The show takes a few liberties with the science, though, and stretches Carrie’s abilities well beyond what researchers have established. Rare condition helps solve crime But now, imagine being a police investigator and having the condition. And that’s the premise of this highly entertaining show. Carrie was previously a detective in Syracuse, a city in New York state, where she worked alongside Lieutenant Al Burns, played by Dylan Walsh. The two were also romantically involved, but their relationship ended and they went their separate ways. Burns continued his police career in New York City, while Carrie left law enforcement behind. When a murder takes place at Carrie’s apartment building, Burns turns up as the investigating homicide detective. And this is how the pair meet again. From there, Carrie gets pulled back into police work as a consulting detective and ends up helping solve several murders. Her extraordinary recall allows her to revisit crime scenes mentally and identify details that everyone else missed. What’s really nice about the show is the old school crime per episode storyline. It’s a great formula that television networks used to serve up all the time. And it’s fantastic, because you can binge as much you want without cliffhangers demanding another three hours of couch time. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end to most investigations. Case closed, next episode. Of course, there’s the complicated romantic history between Carrie and Burns, with an occasional spark that’s more unsaid than showcased. Their chemistry works, largely because neither character seems particularly interested in admitting that there might still be something between them. Some of the supporting characters are less convincingly developed, though, and occasionally seem to float in and out of the storyline without much purpose. Familiar storylines, great execution Montgomery is excellent as Carrie. She plays the character with confidence, a little arrogance and enough attitude to make her interesting. Carrie is not always particularly likeable, either, which makes her more entertaining. Burns, meanwhile, provides a more conventional counterweight to her unconventional approach to police work. Carrie also brings some baggage to the table, because despite her HSAM ability, she cannot identify her sister’s killer. Her sister was murdered when Carrie was a child, and the memory remains frustratingly incomplete. It’s an interesting contradiction, given that her extraordinary recall is supposed to make forgetting almost impossible. Her search for justice forms part of the loose thread that holds the characters together, particularly during the first season. In a nutshell, the performances are strong, the storylines are solid and the directing is great. It’s almost as though every technical and creative box has been ticked. The only criticism, really, is that there is nothing particularly new about it. Strip out Burns and Carrie and insert a different set of characters, and many of the stories would remain the same. You cannot help but wonder whether you’ve seen an episode before, simply because the storyline feels so familiar. Critics could easily dismiss the whole thing as one giant yawn. But they would be wrong. Because where the formula ends, all the good bits come into play. The chemistry, the performances and the sheer simplicity of solving a murder in an episode make it enormously watchable. And beyond that, it’s not the sort of show from which you should expect anything more than entertainment. It’s not a National Geographic documentary, after all. Nor does it pretend to reinvent the crime genre. It knows what it is, sticks to the formula and delivers exactly what viewers signed up for.