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March 13, 2008
TV : New Amsterdam
There's a new TV show, "New Amsterdam", that I am giving a tentative "thumbs up" to.
The premise is that in 1642 a Dutch soldier serving at Fort Amsterdam on Manhattan Island saves the life of a Native American girl and is nearly killed in the process. Her tribe rewards him with the blessing/curse that he will not age or die until he finds his soul mate. The man then lives through a series of identities until the present day where he is known as "John Amsterdam" a New York City homicide detective with a reputation of being reckless (he doesn't have to worry about being killed). So far we know he has also been a furniture maker (whose creations are now expensive antiques), a Civil War surgeon, a lawyer in the 1930's, and a soldier in WWII. He's been in the Army three times as well as the Coast Guard, Marines, and Navy (but not Air Force – he has a fear of heights).
The only person who knows his real identity is an old bartender who happens to be John's son. It is also established that in the 1930's and early 40's, the person who knew his full story was his secretary who also was his daughter, so there may be a pattern here.
The episodes so far have basically been standard police procedurals where John's 350+ years of experience and knowledge help him solve the case. Each episode also has a flashback thread that relates emotionally to the case (much the same way Lost integrates flashbacks).
One of the reasons I am enjoying the show so far is that John is presented as an interesting and complex character, who has dealt with real issues in his long life. He's an alcoholic who attends AA meetings. He had an interracial relationship in the 1930's. While the TV show "Highlander" covered some of the same ground, I never found the McCloud characters all that interesting in their own right. John Amsterdam however seems to have some real potential.
The show also does a lot of the "little stuff" well. His current dog is named "Thirty Six" (the one back in the 1930's was "Twenty Nine"). I guess after a while he got tired of coming up with new names.
Posted by Steven at March 13, 2008 05:00 AM
Comments
Since our current president calls himself "forty-three," naming the dogs this way is probably a riff on that. 36 would be LBJ. 29 is Harding who was president in the late 20s.
My guess is that they started with the president who was in office and then realized that using 43 or 41 would be bad politically. :-) In fact, in 350 years, he should have had a heck of a lot more than 36 dogs and I don't believe he had only one dog per eleven years since the 30s either. :-)
Posted by: janbergs ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://sighsandmusings.stevenanne.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at March 13, 2008 07:14 AM
