Crime
Memory of a Killer
The content issues in ‘Memory of a Killer’ aren’t forgettable, but they’re tamer than most other shows in the “double life” genre.
Another superhero movie? Puh-leeze.
So says the planet with a collective sigh. They’ve seen enough superheroes, thanks—at least on the big screen. Sure, the real ones are just fine if the world needs saving. But do we need to see another origin story splashed out on screen? C’mon. Give Captain America some privacy. Give Hulk a shirt. Give the world a break.
But artsy director Von Kovak insists that the superhero genre still has some flex in its muscle. The famed auteur wants to helm a remake of the old, hackneyed Wonder Man movie—but infuse it with heft and depth and pathos.
“Superheroes are a part of our lives now,” Von Kovak says. “So what will we find when we look at Wonder Man today? What can he teach us about ourselves?”
Struggling actor Simon Williams watches the interview, and he feels like this just might be the break he’s been looking for. Why, Simon loves Wonder Man! He’s seen the original flick more times than he can count.
Sure, to call Simon’s acting career an actual career is a stretch. His big break (on American Horror Story) proved to be a big nothing. His agent hasn’t scrounged up any other roles. And when he does get an audition, Simon tends to sabotage it himself, overthinking lines like, “You want fries with that?”
But Simon feels like Wonder Man is different. It’s a part he was born to play.
Perhaps literally.
Truth is—and this might be a bit of a spoiler warning—Simon’s not just any ol’ schlub in L.A. looking for his first big break. He’s got a special sauce in his makeup: a festering superpower that, alas, he can’t control. Although, he’s kept it a secret for a good long while.
But in this world of superpowered citizens, someone’s bound to find out. And sure enough, someone has: P. Cleary, an overworked, overpressured lackey for the government’s Department of Damage Control. Cleary believes that Simon’s hiding some rare talents—and that those talents make him dangerous. He’d like nothing more than to lock Simon up and, thus, preserve his job.
Cleary has enlisted another down-on-his-luck actor, Travis Slattery, to help confirm Simon’s abilities and make a case for the guy to be imprisoned. And Trevor has more than a passing familiarity with superheroes.
Of all the roles that the acting vet Trevor could be known for, his biggest splash came when he took on the role of the Mandarin—a fake terrorist hired to further a real diabolical scheme. Trevor served some time in prison for it, and now, Cleary’s threatening to send him back unless he agrees to help. And what better way for Trevor to gain Simon’s trust than through a shared interest in Wonder Man?
The two indeed hit it off, and Trevor quickly offers to help Simon with his acting career. But as the two spend time together, Trevor begins to wonder: Is Simon really as dangerous as Cleary believes? Can Trevor justify betraying the man who appears to be about his only friend?
The miniseries Wonder Man comes with a setup as convoluted as anything we see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One could almost argue that the series itself has a secret identity: meta-show.
It’s a show about superhero fatigue that rolls out in an era of superhero fatigue. It’s a show about the inner workings of Hollywood (see The Studio or The Player) filled with plenty of stars playing themselves. It’s a show about a movie featuring a fictional superhero set in a world filled with real superheroes, and a show where its protagonist … becomes the real fictional superhero?
Also, for a superhero show, Wonder Man features an unexpected dearth of superhero activity. Indeed, at least the first part of the series, Simon does his best to not be super—unless you count acting as a superpower.
In some ways, that’s good news for violence-sensitive viewers, at least in the early going. Superpowered fighting scenes are few and far between here, and it seems doubtful that we’ll see any cities destroyed, much less planets. Sultry spandex outfits make only sporadic appearances, and those with a more tongue-in-cheek sensibility.
But Wonder Man still can push the TV-14 rating level in other ways. Profanity frequents each and every episode, including uses of the s-word. Asides can come with a sexual subtext. We hear about Trevor’s unseemly life before his stint as the Mandarin. Some characters appear to have same-sex leanings.
Give the MCU credit: Its TV shows can be expected to throw some unexpected storytelling curves the viewer’s way. Sometimes they work—and sometimes they don’t. But all come with some very typical content concerns, and Wonder Man holds true to form. Just because the punching is held to a minimum here, that doesn’t mean families will be safe from a problematic uppercut.
(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.)
Simon gets fired from American Horror Story his first day on the job, wasting the crew’s time by creating a backstory for his character that ultimately has nothing to do with the show. And when his live-in girlfriend breaks up with him, too, Simon heads to a movie matinee to forget about his troubles for a couple of hours. There, he meets Trevor Slattery, a one-time big-deal actor who fell on some hard times himself. But Trevor lets it slip that he’s angling to land another big role—one in Von Novak’s new, buzzy Wonder Man movie. Simon decides he’s got to find a way into the movie’s audition process, too—even if he must lie, cheat and commit a bevy of traffic violations to get there.
In flashback, we see Simon as a child watching the original Wonder Man film with his father. The fictional hero (burdened with early 1990s special effects) punches, shoots and knocks around several alien combatants (who shoot at Wonder Man with lasers). Wonder Man talks about his (canonical Marvel) reincarnation: “If a soul fails to turn right after death, it turns to a dark, treacherous place,” the screen-inhabiting Wonder Man says. “I lost whatever’s left of me that makes a person a person.”
While Trevor and Simon hang out at a bar, the former talks about his experience acting alongside the legendary John Gielgud, who would force Trevor to hit his bare backside with a belt every night before Gielgud went on stage. “And that was before we were friends,” Trevor recalls. “Then things got weird.”
Trevor tells Simon that he likes the R-rated (and originally X-rated) Midnight Cowboy (the matinee movie they both attended), because it “really captures being an outsider on the fringe. And it’s a little trippy, which is always nice.” He talks about how he was “blind drunk” for much of his acting career, but says he’s been sober for 13 years now.
There’s a suggestion that Simon’s agent, Janelle, is in a relationship with her female receptionist. We see Simon’s girlfriend pack up her things and move out of their shared apartment. Trevor says that Simon’s method for acting stinks—using a sexual allusion as he does so.
We hear references to the illuminati and “Pizzagate.” Von Kovak talks about how David Cronenberg’s R-rated film The Fly opened up “new, unthinkable horrors.” We see a dead character in Midnight Cowboy. We hear a reference to flatulence. A character excuses himself to urinate.
Characters say the s-word once, along with a few uses of “a–,” “d–n,” “h—” and the British profanity “bloody.”
Simon’s agent, Janelle, asks him to put together an audition tape for a new project. But after Simon’s unusual and uncontrollable powers wreck a bit of his apartment, he and Trevor spend most of the day looking for a place to record. All the while, Trevor—secretly working for the Department of Damage Control—looks for a chance to hack into Simon’s computer with a high-tech ring.
Simon’s powers manifest when he gets anxious. A crack forms on one of his apartment walls before the camera takes viewers outside, where it appears a small interior storm blows out a window. In flashback, we see Trevor tackled by FBI agents after his stint as the Mandarin. DDC agent Cleary later shows Trevor a scene from his work as the Mandarin, where he appears to have a man shot in the head. (“Squibs,” Trevor explains. “Fake blood.”)
Another flashback shows Simon kissing his girlfriend from the time. A skull sits among Trevor’s trophies: He mentions that Richard Burton left it in a bar, “and I nicked it.” We hear that Trevor was fired from a high-profile acting gig because he was high all the time and complained of white worms coming out of his skin. A character excuses himself to urinate.
Lines in Simon’s audition script seem to suggest that the character he’s talking to has immoral and illegal sexual tastes. Simon’s character seems to open the door to a sexual relationship with the unseen man.
Characters say the s-word four times. We also hear “d–n” and “h—” several times, along with the British profanity “bloody.”
Simon prepares to go to his mother’s birthday party—and face his brother, Eric. Trevor, ordered by Cleary to get more dirt on Simon’s life, begs to come along.
A kitchen island is destroyed. We hear about a fire that took place in that same kitchen—a blaze that Simon accidentally set and miraculously survived. In flashback, a doctor marvels at the lack of injuries that Simon suffered during the inferno. “I don’t think I’ve seen a healthier 13-year-old in my life,” the doctor says.
Simon’s mother praises God in her native Haitian language. And later, she says that everyone at her church is “so excited” about Simon’s latest acting gig—a gig that Simon doesn’t actually have anymore. Encouraging a despondent Simon, Trevor recites some lyrics from the hymn “Abide With Me.” When Simon asks where it comes from, Trevor says, “It’s a hymn [that] got me through some tough times. I sang it to my mum as she passed away.”
When a guest at the party asks Trevor about his “role” as the Mandarin, he says, “I took a role posing as an international terrorist to pay my drug and prostitution debts.” (He adds that he’s been sober for 13 years now.) We see several partygoers with wine and beer, and Eric jokingly refuses to hang out with some guests because they’re drinking too much.
Party attendees dump clothes in a tub—donations that Simon’s mother plans, presumably, to give to the poor. Eric belittles Simon and his acting. Characters lie. A character excuses himself to urinate twice.
We hear the s-word once and several other profanities, including “a–,” “d–n,” “h—” and the British profanity “bloody.”
Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.
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