Amnesia is So Hot Right Now

I just finished Sophie Kinsella's latest novel, Remember Me? As I was reading about a woman waking up from a coma and not remembering her life, conveniently inflicted with partial retrograde amnesia, I thought to myself, "haven't I heard this one before?" Right. It's basically the premise for Samantha Who? (one of my favorite new TV shows this season). The show and book are so uncannily similar that both titles even end in a question mark. Scary, I know.

The close resemblance of the book to the show really didn't take anything away from Remember Me? but it did leave me with one big conclusion: amnesia is so hot right now. I swear I can't throw a remote around without bumping into someone in a coma who wakes up and can't remember anything about themselves, whether it's a medical drama or rerun of While You Were Sleeping.

For some reason, audiences seem captivated by the idea of someone who forgets everything about her life and gets to "start over" and change who she was. Maybe it's a fantasy that everyone has--at least everyone who carries around any guilt or regret (so, yeah, basically everyone). I enjoy it but I'm not sure it's because I wish I could get a hard bump on the head (darn those car accidents!) and wake up with no memory of anything bad I've ever done.

Plus if I could have Todd from Samantha Who? or Jon from Remember Me? waiting anxiously for me to wake up, that would be just lovely.