Drama
Finding Her Edge
All in all, Netflix’s ‘Finding Her Edge’ could use a bit more sharpening to hone its own edge.
With his one mind, Angelo Doyle leads two lives.
In one, he’s a father to his pregnant daughter, Maria. He sells photocopiers. He stops by Maria’s small-town home and has dinner.
In the other, he’s a hitman (but he only kills bad people). He’s never had a wife or kid. And he’s quite content to do whatever it takes to ensure his targets wind up dead.
Someone knows about Angelo’s two lives. Angelo finds this out the hard way, when another hitman attempts to murder his daughter right in front of him. Angelo saves Maria from the attack, but the shooter gets away.
Angelo has never told his family about his true occupation—but with that attack, his two lives come crashing together. He still keeps Maria out of the loop, but now he knows there’s someone out there who has no qualms hurting those in his civilian life.
Angelo is a seasoned hitman, so it’s not long before he’s on the shooter’s trail, tracking down the person who ordered the hit on his daughter.
But his one mind is failing him. Angelo has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. And it’s progressing fast.
Memory of a Killer starts with a fairly generic plot—one that we, at Plugged In, have seen many times.
A father leads a double life, but his dangerous second life threatens to harm his family, forcing him to juggle the deadly circumstances with keeping his family from the truth. Spoiler warning: In every single instance, the family figures it out. Still, Memory of a Killer adds a twist to that standard start, putting forth actor Patrick Dempsey as the hitman suffering from Alzheimer’s.
The show, premiering on Fox and Hulu, is rated TV-14, so the blood and gore here is less than what one might expect from something of this variety. It’s still present, of course: People are shot or stabbed in the head. But even those deaths come with little blood.
Likewise, romance is tempered. Rather than show us every carnal detail, an early romantic scene simply implies more, cutting to black instead. Crude language, too, is kept in the TV-14 range: We hear misuses of God’s name and words like “a–” and “b–ch.”
And because of all that tempering, Memory of a Killer isn’t a show that’ll shock in the way that plenty of other releases on Hulu might. But these issues will still be worth consideration.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
Angelo worries that he’s being followed—and his concerns are confirmed when a hitman’s bullet narrowly misses his daughter.
Angelo stabs a man in the head with a metal rod, and he fistfights the guy’s bodyguards, killing them. We see the body of woman on the side of the road and learn she died after being hit by a car. Angelo beats a man to death with a wooden baseball bat. Someone fires a bullet at Maria, but Angelo tackles her out of harm’s way.
A man and woman kiss passionately. The woman unbuttons the man’s shirt, but the scene cuts to them lying in bed (presumably naked), covered by sheets. A woman wears a dress that exposes cleavage.
Angelo’s brother is also suffering from Alzheimer’s; he lives in a Christian care home. Someone asks, “What am I, God? How would I know that?”
People drink shots, champagne and beer.
We hear God’s name used in vain four times. “A–,” “b–ch” and “b–tard” are each used once.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
All in all, Netflix’s ‘Finding Her Edge’ could use a bit more sharpening to hone its own edge.
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