Premiering Tonight: "New Amsterdam"
Fox’s New Amsterdam has an intriguing premise, one that blends sci-fi with procedural. John Amsterdam, the show’s protagonist, is a New York City police detective. It’s the latest in a series of jobs that stretch back 350 years.
See, Amsterdam’s been made immortal, almost. Saving a Native American girl has granted him immortality until he meets his soul mate, at which point he’ll begin to age normally again. (Yes, in the pilot he meets her. And promptly has a heart attack.)
It’s your usual dark, gothic feel, the kind you got from Angel and (I suppose) you get from Moonlight, if you like that sort of thing. I could go either way, but New Amsterdam does it well, using Amsterdam’s four centuries of history as a way to make him a savant. He knows New York, trivia, various arcane professions, the way Dr. House knows medicine — because he’s been alive so long that he’s been really bored, and has drifted from job to job while living in New York, formerly known as… wait for it… New Amsterdam.
Fun stuff. Here’s the problem: this is a crime drama. And New Amsterdam has to live and die based on the crime stories it tells each week. And this is where the show fails. The crimes are boring and obvious. And it wastes the unique, clever approach of the show’s premise.
So, should you watch New Amsterdam? If you’re a fan of that dark, broody stuff, like Angel or Moonlight, you should give it a whirl. But be warned: you may not see crime plots this dull again, no matter how long you live.
I kind of liked the way that he didn't make a big deal about not keeping his immortality. It's like if you sat him down and asked, "John are you an immortal who has been living for the last 400 years?" He say, "Yep, how'd you guess." It was kind of refreshing.