Have you guys been watching the CBS crime drama Unforgettable?

On an unseasonably frigid morning last month, I had the chance to see Poppy Montgomery and Marilu Henner film a scene together on the waterfront set in Long Island City.

The series stars Poppy Montgomery as Carrie Wells, a former police detective who has hyperthymesia, a rare medical condition that gives her the ability to remember everything. It’s not just that she doesn’t forget anything – she can’t forget anything, except for one thing: details from the day her sister was murdered years ago.  Since then, Carrie has tried to put her past behind her, but she’s unexpectedly reunited with her ex-boyfriend and partner, NYPD Detective Al Burns (Dylan Walsh), when she consults on a homicide case.  Despite her conflicted feelings for Al, she decides to permanently join his unit as a detective solving homicides – most notably, the unsolved murder of her sister.  All she needs to do is remember.

Marilu Henner plays Carrie’s estranged Aunt Edie, with memory issues of her own.  Henner actually has the gift of hyperthymesia in real life!  There is nothing she doesn’t remember.

Here’s the final cut of the scene we got to see and a sneak peek at tomorrow’s episode. Montgomery and Henner are such professionals.  Can you even tell it was freezing and that they’d been standing outside all morning?

In between takes, we defrosted in their trailer and chatted with Henner and Montgomery about motherhood.  Montgomery travels back and forth from New York City to Los Angeles, where her husband and 4-year old son reside and admits she has difficulty creating a balance and often feels guilty as a working mom.  She also mentioned that she gained 65 pounds while pregnant!  A girl after my own heart.  Although, you’d never know it with how amazingly fit she is now.  Henner has 2 teenage sons and swears they’re not spoiled.  Her advice?  A guilty parent is a bad parent! 

On a follow-up call, when asked about hyperthymesia and whether she considers it a gift or liability, Henner responded:

I’ve always been thrilled to have it. I consider it a total gift. You know, I’m writing a book that’ll be out in the spring and it’s called, “Total Memory Makeover, uncover your past, take charge of your future.” And it’s all about helping other people tap into their autobiographical memories. And some of the things that I’ve done over the years to really kind of refresh and preserve and, you know, things that I – different little things that I used to do with the kid and as a result, I know that a lot of, you know, a lot of my memory is a question of nature and nurture. So I’m excited to share some of these things with people in my book. But I have never ever, ever thought of it as a liability. I’ve only thought of it as this wonderful thing that I didn’t even realize other people couldn’t do. You know, it was always surprising to me that I would say, “Oh, don’t you remember the time we blah, blah, blah,” and then go into specific details. And people would say, “What? How did you remember that?” And I’d say, “Well, how could you not? We went through it,” you know. So I’ve never considered it anything but a tremendous gift and just the way it its. You know, not – never a liability.

So what do you think?  If you could chose to remember every detail of every experience you’ve ever had, would you?

{Unforgettable airs Tuesday nights on CBS. Special thanks to Selfish Mom and the One2One Network for including me in this opportunity. I was not compensated for writing this post. I received a Visa gift card to cover my travel expenses. Final photo courtesy of Mama Goes Natural.}