unforgettable 3

https://youtu.be/u2JJIzxgUBg

(******6/10)

Starring: Poppy Montgomery, Dylan Walsh, Jane Curtin, Tawny Cypress, Dallas Roberts, James Hiroyuki Liao

Unforgettable is the Michael Myers of TV series. It keeps getting killed, over and over, then all of a sudden – there it is, back on television like nothing ever happened. This year it is going to be on A&E instead of CBS, having been cancelled and then brought back a second time. I’m not sure why the series never fully caught on and required the constant resurrection. It’s got a lot of things I should like. A protagonist with a unique ability (to never forget a single thing she sees or hears). A blazingly hot star (Poppy Montgomery). A supporting cast filled with actors whose names seem tailor-made for porn (Tawny Cypress, Dallas Roberts, Dylan Walsh).

And yet – it’s just not destination viewing for me. I like it – I’ll watch all of season three within a few weeks, as it’s being released by Paramount Home Entertainment May 12th. But I’m not searching up the debut of season 4 on A&E so I can set my PVR. And I think that’s because I get burned out on Unforgettable after every three episodes. Mostly because the show insists on cranking the annoying ‘sexual tension between the leads’ up to eleven at every opportunity. In season 3, Carrie (Montgomery) starts dating a secret service agent, making her ex (and obviously future) boyfriend Al Burns (Walsh) all jealous. But she still, for some reason, torments him by saying annoyingly flirty things, teasing him like a 17-year-old drama queen while winking and pouting with all the subtlety of a just-turned-18 porn star.

I think the reason this bothers me so much is that Poppy Montgomery is so, so much better than this. When she’s questioning suspects or figuring out a case she has a great sense of timing, and of aloof good humour, that really works. But twenty minutes of solid acting is undone for me with just one utterance of something obnoxious like ‘wouldn’t you like to know?’

Unforgettable, really, is just a run-of-the-mill police procedural starring Poppy Montgomery’s boobs. And it would do well to stop focusing so much on those boobs and attributing this character with an overt sexuality, and rather focus on her idiosyncrasies that come with her condition – is the gambling an actual problem? Is the sexy business a pattern of reckless behaviour or just a cutesy thing that allows us to see her wink more? How does her perfect-memory condition actually affect her? Is it a horrible burden or just a party trick? Many episodes begins with the party-trick portion of it, reciting people’s lunch orders sight-unseen, or playing chess vs. multiple people at once. And only a couple of times does Carrie throw off a line about how much it sucks to never forget anything, ever. Help me invest a little more in this character, and I will care a lot more about this show.