• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, 5 hours ago

One can imagine the elevator pitch that eventually led to a go-ahead for the new Fox crime series “Memory of a Killer.”

Very generally speaking, it can be boiled down to three words: “Hitman with Alzheimer’s.” It is not an idea that I would have jumped on immediately, but I have no experience in the greenlighting of TV shows.

Upon first hearing about this concept, a TV blogger might roll his eyes and immediately begin composing headlines such as “Alzheimer’s Hitman Drama is Unmemorable” or its more-positive opposite -- “Alzheimer’s Hitman Drama Is Unforgettable.” 

As tempting as they are, it is also true that Alzheimer’s Disease is no laughing matter, even though some might find the idea of a hitman forgetting who he whacked yesterday to be laughable.

In the pilot for the show, which premieres this week on Fox, this did not happen. Evidently, in Episode One, the lead character, Angelo Doyle (Patrick Dempsey, above photo), is only at the beginning of his Alzheimer’s journey.

Dempsey is 60 years old, so it is reasonable to assume that the character is around the same age. 

As it happens, 60 is well within the age range for characterizing his encroaching malady as “early-onset” Alzheimer’s, according to medical websites.

The hitman knows a thing or two about Alzheimer’s because his own brother is in a memory-care facility. 

The tension in the show arises from the fact that Angelo leads a carefully compartmentalized double life that would be thrown into chaos if he began to suffer Alzheimer’s-related memory lapses.

His profession as a hired killer is known only to a few, among them a gangster -- played by Michael Imperioli of “The Sopranos” -- who acts as a kind of handler and agent who books Angelo’s assignments.

By day, Angelo pretends to be a salesman of office copiers in upstate New York, where he lives near his grown daughter and her husband. 

In Episode One, the separation of his two lives is starting to give way, endangering his life and the lives of his family.

“Memory of a Killer” is adapted from a Dutch movie, which was adapted from a Dutch novel -- De Zaak Alzheimer (The Alzheimer Case) by Jef Geeraerts.

The Fox TV show has action and suspense to spare, but at its heart, it is just another TV show about a hitman, of which there have been plenty over the years.

Any resemblance between Angelo Doyle and real-life hitmen is entirely coincidental, and also highly unlikely.