Common Sense Media Review
By Melissa Camacho
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Violence, innuendo, drinking in bland crime series.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
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Where to Watch
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Memory of a Killer
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
Inspired by the 1995 Belgian movie De Zaak Alzheimer by Carl Joos and Erik Van Looy, MEMORY OF A KILLER stars Patrick Dempsey as a hitman struggling with a life-altering medical condition. Angelo Doyle (Dempsey) lives a double life as a contract killer working for Dutch (Michael Imperioli), an Italian restaurant owner and crime boss in New York City. Unbeknownst to his boss, Angelo has a family, consisting of his adult daughter Maria (Odeya Rush) and her husband Jeff (Daniel David Stewart), both of whom think he's a successful photocopier salesman. He's managed to keep the two worlds separate, but it's getting harder to keep them apart, especially now that he's showing early signs of Alzheimer's disease.
Is It Any Good?
This dark and somewhat bland double-life thriller offers an improbable but mildly entertaining narrative that centers on the evolving tension between Angelo Doyle's two lives. There's some mild suspense with how he manages his two lives while coping with progressive memory loss and as the tensions in the gangster world begin to directly affect his family life. Though Memory of a Killer also strikes a melancholy note as Doyle wrestles with his Alzheimer's symptoms, it lacks the depth required for viewers to become emotionally invested in the morally gray antihero, whose inner struggles are much more interesting than the crime story itself. Nonetheless, the series isn't completely forgettable, and fans of the genre may find it entertaining.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about fictional antiheroes. Are they more interesting than characters that are all good or all bad? Why?
How accurately does Memory of a Killer portray the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease? Is it important to do so in a fictional show?
TV Details
- Premiere date : January 26, 2026
- Cast : Patrick Dempsey , Michael Imperioli , Odeya Rush
- Network : Hulu
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : Book Characters , Family Stories ( Dads , Moms )
- Character Strengths : Perseverance
- TV rating :
- Last updated : February 2, 2026
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