Forget Me Not

There is a new television show on CBS this fall called "Unforgettable." The show is about a woman named Carrie Wells who has a genetic defect, allowing her to remember everything she sees. She can literally go back into a memory and walk around in it in order to pick up something from a scene that she didn't catch the first time. When Carrie was twelve years old, her older sister was murdered when the two girls were playing in the woods. It was at that moment, at a mere age 12, that Carrie decides she will use her power to help people for the rest of her life. She grows up to work for the police department in homicide, using her power to solve murder cases.

This video shows the intro of the show and gives you a glimpse into Carrie's life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QgRL9Ww2b0

Carrie may not be the traditional superheroine with X-ray vision and super strength, but she possesses all of the characteristics that a normal superheroine would. First of all, she has the defining moment where she decides to use her powers for the popular good. She explains in one of the episodes that before her sister's murder, she didn't pay much attention to her extraordinary memory; it was just sort of something she lived with. Afterwards, she made a promise to herself that she would never forget anything ever again. Secondly, she uses her superpowers to fight the bad guys. She is not physically abusing them, but she is using her skill to track down murderers and put affected families at ease.

Carrie covets the same awe and respect of her peers in the office that a superhero would hold from the townspeople. What's incredible is that this genetic defect is real. It is extremely rare, but it does exist, which means that if used for the greater good, we really do have superheroes/heroines living among us in the real world. There are so many ways to define a superhero/heroine, but Carrie Wells is absolutely a superheroine to those she helps in every case.