[Below is an earlier post. Significantly expanded and updated here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2015/09/blindspot-and-memento.html ]
NBC has announced a new series, “Blindspot”, about an amnesiac whose body is covered with recent tattoos, each of which is a cryptic clue. Those of us who do not ourselves suffer from amnesia, will immediately recognize a ripoff and recycling of the movie “Memento”. However, it’s none the worse for that: the movie was intriguing, and well worth recycling. Moreover, the concern with original plots is quite modern; no-one from Euripedes to Shakespeare ever gave it a thought; rather the contrary.
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2015/09/blindspot-and-memento.html ]
NBC has announced a new series, “Blindspot”, about an amnesiac whose body is covered with recent tattoos, each of which is a cryptic clue. Those of us who do not ourselves suffer from amnesia, will immediately recognize a ripoff and recycling of the movie “Memento”. However, it’s none the worse for that: the movie was intriguing, and well worth recycling. Moreover, the concern with original plots is quite modern; no-one from Euripedes to Shakespeare ever gave it a thought; rather the contrary.
"Look into my eyes ... *Eyes*, I said, dammit!" |
The trailer is promising, though not without TV-typical
doofusness, like the yokel horror of a cop in Times Square quavering “It’s …. alive …. !” NYPD officers are actually considerably cooler than that,
and more composed. The series does
add a very promising premise -- that one of the tattoos names a specific FBI
agent; who, however, has never met
her. “Complications ensue.”
A note on genre:
A movie has to
be tight. A TV series can roll on, and on.
To be trapped in the mindset of an amnesiac is potentially suffocating. “Memento” (as a movie) pulled it off; but “Blindspot” wisely offers us a second center of deixis.
Anyhow, for our essay on the memorable (!) movie, click
here:
http://worldofdrjustice.blogspot.com/2011/01/redismembering-memento.html
]
[Continued here.]
~
The girl, as the viewer will not be surprised to learn (this
being, largely unlike “Memento”, straightforward mainstream entertainment),
turns out to be a superspooky kickass-ninja special ops chick, who retains all
her special superpowers, but who does not consciously remember her training, or
who she is. In this motif, “Blind
Spot” is ripping off, not “Memento”, but “The Bourne Identity”. In each case, when the hero is suddenly
confronted with mortal danger, (s)he reacts instinctively, and with deadly
force.
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