TV Show
Carrie Wells has a rare condition, hyperthymesia, this means she can visually remember anything she's encountered. Her ex-partner and ex-boyfriend, Al Burns, asks for her help on a case and she joins the NYPD's homicide division. Her long term goal is to discover the truth about a part of her life she doesn't remember, the death of her sister. After season one, Carrie and Al are recruited to major crimes, a separate and highly funded section of the NYPD.
Fun Fact Marilu Henner was a consultant on the show and she has hyperthymesia in real life. She also stars as Carrie's aunt in the episode Golden Bird (S01E09).
Unforgettable is a fun cop show starring Poppy Montgomery, it didn't take off as well as other series though and was cancelled three times, sadly third time was the charm and the series came to an end with season 4.
Short Story
Graduating from college with top marks in criminology she's recruited in the FBI where she becomes a superstar agent. When a colleague uses her as a scapegoat for his own problems she resigns in anger when her superiors don't do anything with her complaint. Her anger leads her to consider other options for her skills and they could be turned quite easily to blackmail and becoming a criminal mastermind. With no need for money and no desire to hurt anyone, she discards the idea fairly quickly.
She ends up turning her talents to good and visiting nursing homes to interview the elderly. She passes their stories on in perfect detail to their relatives. The toll it takes on her eventually proves to be too much for her body and she returns home one last time.
The Rememberer is an 8-page story featured in the book, Who Can Save Us Now?
Comparison
The Rememberer is rather dark and listless compared to what they went for with Unforgettable, and I think that's fairly obvious from the brief descriptions above. Had I read the story without knowing that the two were connected I don't think I'd have linked them together.
In The Rememberer the character is only called "The Rememberer" and it says that she was "given a name" but it's never mentioned. For ease, I'm going to refer to her as Carrie, her name from the series, for consistency.
Carrie's Childhood
In the short story Carrie has her abilities from the very beginning and they start to show in her development, though the extent of them is not realised until later. In the series her abilities develop off the back of her sister's death as she doesn't want to forget anything about her.
Carrie & Law Enforcement
In the story she goes into the FBI and we don't really see anything about what she does there other than the fact she's a good agent and she isn't close with any of her colleagues. There are several differences in the series, Carrie is part of the NYPD rather than the FBI and she has a relationship with her partner and several friendships with her team.
Carrie & Relationships
The story paints her as a loner and her only relationships after high school are short-lived or one time hookups because she's afraid of the potential break-ups. In the series Carrie and Al's relationship is a key feature, they were previously an item and after they're thrown together by the events of the pilot we get a will they/won't they back and forth throughout. We do see other relationships, but nothing is ever really shown as very serious.
Carrie's Character
Here is where we get the biggest diversion. The story mainly shows Carrie as a very emotionally controlled person who only breaks under extreme pressure, she even represses her feelings in her youth to avoid therapy. There's nothing in the story that really shows her as being able to connect with people outside of a small mention of one serious relationship. Carrie in the TV show is very much a polar opposite, she is outgoing, funny, emotional and impulsive, and all this makes sense for the medium. Story Carrie wouldn't make for a great lead character, she's too real in some aspects, and there would be little brevity to be had. Some characters like that can work, Temperance Brennan in Bones has some of the same characteristics, but Story Carrie either cares or doesn't care, there's no in-between.
They do keep another small aspect of her from the story, though not in the same way. During both she ends up visiting in a nursing home, while the story has Carrie finding some sort of peace of mind by protecting the legacy of the elderly residents the series has her visiting her mother or mingling with residents.
Conclusion
There's little from the individual items that would leave you able to link them up together, you can see the pieces in the story reflected in the show but they're very different experiences.
I'd congratulate the person who came up with the concept for this from the original story. The idea of someone with this "affliction" is a great one, and to come up with it from The Rememberer is impressive. I'm glad that they also went with Unforgettable over The Rememberer as the latter doesn't roll off the tongue at all.
Had I read the story and then heard someone had made a show based on it I absolutely wouldn't have watched it. The very basic idea behind it is a good one, but the story isn't easy to read and culminates in something rather bleak. The show that was created has a much needed fun side and Carrie has fun with her ability. I also liked that they sprinkled a little of the criminal activity in there too.
I'm actually not sure how much of the 4 seasons I've seen. It appears on Alibi fairly often but they seem to play seasons 1 and 2, but not 3 and 4. This is probably down to the fact that two different companies did those groupings. If you don't have Alibi you can catch the first two seasons on Prime Video, DVDs are a little scarce at a reasonable price sadly.
What you should do
If you like things like Castle and Body Of Proof then you'll enjoy Unforgettable. It's worth checking this out.
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