Memory Of A Killer Review
Memory Of A Killer is an American crime drama television series created by Ed Whitmore and Tracey Malone and based on the 2003 Belgian film De Zaak Alzheimer and the 1985 novel of the same name by Jef Geeraerts. The series premiered on Fox on 25 January 2026.
The premise is centred around Angelo Doyle, a man living a double life, as a family man and a contract killer, hiding his job from hid family and his family from his job. The two worlds are on a collision course, and he has early-onset Alzheimer’s…
The Good
Patrick Dempsey as Angelo Doyle delivers a performance that is restrained but magnetic, elegant without being subtle, dangerous without being over-the-top. He lives two completely separate lives, by day, he is a devoted father and copier salesman and by night he sheds his dad-clothes for designer threads, swaps his station wagon for a black Porsche and kills people for money…
Michael Imperioli lands the production his Sopranos credibility and texture, bringing weight to every scene he is in as Angelo’s longtime friend, boss and mobster chef and restaurateur, which serves as a front for his darker role as a high-stakes executive in organised crime.
The series has gripping tension, balancing action thrills and emotional stakes as Angelo’s worlds collide; meanwhile, he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and the symptoms are creeping in…
The Bad
For a show called Memory of Killer, they only used his condition as a footnote plot device. I expected the show runners to lean more into his battle with Alzheimer’s, what happens when an assassin can’t trust his own mind, when to pull the trigger and if the target is even the target, and make some horrendous judgment calls as he mixes up his family life with his killer-for-hire lifestyle.
The dual identity structure does not quite land, while Patrick Dempsey nails the family man part, he doesn’t quite pull off the vicious, emotionless hitman bits. Dempsey’s domestic scenes are an overkill when next to Odeya Rush, who plays Maria, Angelo’s pregnant daughter. Her performance is unconvincing and rather forced, so you are not really invested in their family life.
The original showrunners Schulner, Whitmore, and Malone, stepped down mid-production in November 2025 and were replaced by Aaron Zelman and Glenn Kessler, that kind of creative upheaval might have contributed to the tonal inconsistencies and the show seeming to forget why it existed.
The Ugly
Memory Of A Killer faces the same challenges as The Day Of The Jackal where the lead character is a contract killer and so we aren’t inclined to be sympathetic when their lifestyle comes to collect… There’s an attempt to soften this by having Angelo target “bad people,” but morality doesn’t quite bend that easily.
Final Thoughts
Memory of a Killer has all the ingredients for a sharp and intriguing crime drama, although it was served slightly undercooked. The show has been renewed for a second season and they have a chance at refining and building on the story arcs from season 1. It’s a flawed but intriguing debut and worth a watch by fans of slow-burn crime dramas with a psychological edge.
Have you watched Memory Of A Killer? Does it sound like something you would watch?
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