I studied memory at university. I loved studying it. I have a pretty good understanding of how it works, and how it doesn’t work like we think it works. (That’s a collective society-type we.)
Last night, before watching the new Angel episode on Sky One, I watched its runup – Tru Calling, a “Buffy-esque” show starring buffy alumni Eliza Dushku. It was crappy. So, so very crappy. But amongst all the crappiness, the bit that stuck out at me and said “morgue! i’m a special shiny bit of crap intended just for you!” was how it handled memory.
Basically, it was about a bunch of med students flatlining themselves to recover their repressed memories of child abuse because, just before you die, your life flashes before your eyes.
Urg. Yuk. Bleh.
So, still no other show to add to Angel as sacred TV time. It really is the only time I watch TV – Angel. I look forward to it all week. Right now I’m looking forward to next week’s one!
Angel, by coincidence, was also all about recovered/lost memory – due to weird supernatural shenanigans, a bunch of characters had a bunch of memories removed, but in this ep it all came back. The bit that caught my attention (“morgue! i’m a special shiny bit of GOODNESS intended just for you!”) was when the architect of the memory-wiping talked about how he had replaced the true memories with false ones…
from a transcript of Angel, series 5, episode 18, broadcast in the US 21 April 04:
VAIL
When Connor was 5, he got lost in a department store. He wandered off while his family was shopping. It scared the poor child nearly half to death.
ANGEL
(leans in, angrily)
That never happened!
VAIL
Yes… but he remembers it happening.
This is a deliberate reference to Elizabeth Loftus’ pioneering study on implanting false memories, which involved convincing children they’d been lost in a shopping mall. It has been at the centre of massive controversy because it stands in direct opposition to Freud-based recovered memories of child abuse.
It really makes me happy to see some of this stuff in the pop media. Freud’s theories make for great narrative, and they keep turning up – recovered memories of child abuse being a mainstay of fiction as they provide a ready-made character arc, complete with shocking mid-arc revelation of hidden truth.
The real facts of how memory work don’t fit the needs of narrative framework too well, and as a result, they don’t turn up much. So I’m glad they turned up this one time – and in one of the best damn TV shows around, to boot.
Thus is it proved: Angel is Good. Tru Calling sucks.