Unforgettable - Television Tropes & Idioms

Unforgettable is a short-lived TV series featuring Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, a woman who can remember everything she's experienced in her life, except the details of her sister's death. Only got one season (2011-2012).

This series provides examples of:

Action Girl: Carrie.
Actor Allusion: Marilu Henner guest stars as Carrie's aunt, and at one point says she wishes she had Carrie's powers of recall. In real life, Marilu Henner is one of the very few people who DOES have a memory like the fictional Carrie does.
All Women Love Shoes: Both Nina and Carrie name-drop (and drool over) Louboutins in "Friended".
Anchored Ship: There are still strong residual feelings between Carrie and Al, but they're both so committed to their jobs and solving the murder of Carrie's sister that nothing will happen. They also remember how their previous relationship went sour, and that they regret things that happened. Even Al's girlfriend is fairly trusting of them.
The Bechdel Test: Passes, being a crime procedural. All Carrie and Nina - the two females in the main cast - really talk about are cases.
Berserk Button: Don't threaten Carrie around Al, or badmouth honest cops.
- Don't hurt children around Carrie.
Beware the Nice Ones: Carrie looks pretty nonthreatening . . . until you try to hurt an innocent person and realize she's a bit of a Cowboy Cop.
- Al as well, with a pinch of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. Just watch "With Honor" and watch him level in badass.
Blessed with Suck: Carrie's Photographic Memory makes her an excellent investigator but also means that she will never be able to forget any details of the grisly crimes she comes across. She also has issues with personal relationships since she cannot really "forgive and forget" when a relationship goes sour on her.
Broken Bird: Carrie. She's cursed to remember every day in its entirety, yet her mother has Alzheimer's and doesn't even recognize her most of the time. The one day she can't remember is the day her sister was murdered and she was there.
By-the-Book Cop: Al, though that kind of goes out the window in "With Honor" when his ex-partner is accused of being dirty.
Cool Old Lady: Dr. Joanne Webster.
Cop Boyfriend: Al was Carrie's and is now Elaine's.
Cowboy Cop: Carrie, due to her ability, and to Al's everlasting irritation.
Custom Uniform of Sexy: Carrie always comes to crime scenes in tank tops and jeans, despite this being New York. The impropriety is discussed by Carrie and Al in the pilot, where Carrie admits that she's useful enough to get away with it.
Deadpan Snarker: Nina and Saunders have a double-act thing going. The real stealth snarker of the gang is Al, though.
- Dr. Webster's getting in on the act, though it's understandable. She's played by Jane Curtin.
Fair Cop: Carrie and Nina, for the guys. Al for the ladies.
Fake American: Poppy Montgomery is in fact Australian.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Thanks to this, it's quite easy to tell she's Australian.
Fiery Redhead: Carrie.
Five-Man Band:
- The Hero - Carrie Wells
- The Lancer - Al Burns
- The Big Guy - Mike Costello
- The Smart Guy - Nina Inara
- The Chick - Saunders (who is a good cop, but not as smart as Nina, or as badass as Al or Mike)
- Sixth Ranger - Dr. Webster (who also doubles as another Smart Guy)
Hot Chick in a Badass Suit: Nina. Carrie has the aforementioned custom uniform, so she never wears suits.
The Missus and the Ex: In a fun subversion, our heroine Carrie is the Ex, and Temporary Love Interest Elaine is the Missus. Luckily for Al, they get along.
Mock Millionaire: One Victim of the Week was an abused West Virginia housewife who fled to New York and successfully passed herself off as the heiress to a fictional Texas oil tycoon. She was murdered by her publicist when she tired of living a lie and wanted to come clean.
New York City Cops: Carrie and Al started out in Syracuse, however.
Nice Guy: Al.
Opening Narration:
Carrie: "My name is Carrie Wells. Only a few people in the world have the ability to remember everything. I'm one of them."
Photographic Memory: The core premise of the show is that Carrie never forgets anything she experiences. A lot of emphasis is placed on the fact that she can go over a memory in her mind multiple times and reexamine it for details she missed originally. The ability is portrayed both as a great gift and a curse since she will always perfectly remember the best moments of her life but will also never forget the grisly details of the crimes she investigates.
- Reality Subtext: Carrie doesn't just have photographic memory, but rather, Hyperthymesia, which is a Word Of God fact. The difference between the hyperthymesia and photographic memory is that hyperthymesia tends to go "one step further": in addition to perfect recalling of images, senses including scents, sounds, taste, and the like, as well as events and conversations, are recalled with ease, whereas photographic memory is more often than not entirely visual. This is demonstrated in several episodes when Carrie can recall odors and muffled gun shots that allowed her to determine where they were shot from at the crime scene. As of now, a mere twenty cases of hyperthymesia are confirmed to exist.
Rewind, Replay, Repeat: This happens Once an Episode, except using Carrie's photographic memory instead of video.
Ripped from the Headlines: The storyline about the hotel maid that killed the businessman who allegedly raped her is similar to the Dominique Strauss-Kahn rape allegations.
Seamless Spontaneous Lie: A murder suspect, while being interrogated by the cops, realizes that they have discovered that the murder scene was staged, so he has to come up with a new story to distract the detectives. He uses the "take names from the bulletin board" technique to tell a believable story and the detectives spend a fair chunk of time chasing this red herring.
Shout Out: To 2 Broke Girls when the Victim of the Week was a very poor girl posing as a very rich girl who was cut off from her family. Unlike the girls on 2BG, the victim's main problem was that she had no friends: her rich boyfriend panicked and fled when she revealed the truth; her real friend had to pose as her enemy and couldn't comfort her; her ex-husband was abusive and blackmailing her; and her manager wouldn't let her leave the "act".
Temporary Love Interest: Al's girlfriend Elaine.
There Are No Therapists: Averted. Elaine is a psychologist on liaison with the NYPD.
Twofer Token Minority: Nina, who is black and female.
Unexplained Accent: Carrie suddenly develops one in "Friended". Five episodes of a standard Midwestern accent, and in this episode, she has a noticeable Southern drawl.
Wham Line:
- At the end of "Friended", which has Carrie's mother saying, "Carrie, why do you have a picture of Jonathan?" The killer that Carrie can't remember finally has a name.
Will They or Won't They?: Will Carrie and Al reignite their old relationship? They acknowledge that's "not who [they] are anymore", but the spark's clearly still there.
- It may be moving in a "they will" direction, now that Elaine has dumped Al saying he's still in love with Carrie.
- As of the season 1 finale, They Did.
Working with the Ex