I think we have all realized as of late that the life that we live can change quickly. What we think is normal, what we think we are meant to live through, often changes, but sometimes it changes before you can do anything to stop it.
Because of the coronavirus, we didn’t get the ending that was expected for New Amsterdam, but was it a bad ending? That depends.
For me – yes.
For most people – no.
Look, I am into this show for one thing and one thing only (besides the whole making me feel good about the health care system thing) – Max and Helen.
We were not given one episode of the show, because it was about a pandemic. And I get it. It would be one of those ill timed things, and I get that they don’t want to show it at this time.
Right now is not the time.
But what we did miss with that one episode was the introduction of a new character. But the show did take the time to pull the new characters scenes from the missed episode, so we could get a feel for who Dr. Shin is.
Dr. Shin is very whatever. He’s a great surgeon, but he’s very focused and thinks one way. But when he focuses, he focuses. He’s a great doctor. But we’ll get to why I don’t like him at the end.
ONE CHANCE ENCOUNTER
Max is always paying attention to the world around him. I don’t think it’s the healthiest thing, because I do think that he is that way to avoid all of the chaos in his life. For him, it is a way to avoid the realities of how hurt he really is.
I get it – Max misses his wife. Max has to at some point deal with his issues, but I am not sure that he will be doing that anytime soon.
When he’s out walking Luna, he notices a boy that falls and has trouble getting back up.
Max is one of those people that wants to save the world and he starts to ask the parents questions.
When asking those questions he asks them to come to New Amsterdam so he can run some tests.
Max takes the time to run some pretty extensive tests to find that the boy has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. That being said, the parents are shocked. They didn’t see this coming. This is a huge thing to take in.
Max is determined to get them help. Which is quintessential Max. He searches out studies and trials to to help the boy, but he has trouble finding one that he can qualify for. Trials are very hard to get into and then all of the sudden he has to tell the parents, that when he does a trial he will develop antibodies and it will be a one shot thing.
For the boys Mom, that is a hard thing to deal with, as she feels that she gave this to her son. For the father, he wants to find the perfect trial and isn’t willing to take their one shot yet.
I think that as parents you have to make hard choices, and I don’t envy having to make them. I admire the fact that they were able to make it through.
And that Max was and always will be there for everyone. I love that about him.
MOMMY ISSUES
Lauren has been working on her relationship with her Mom – which I admire, and I think is great. I know it’s hard to deal with a parent that has not been there for you and doesn’t realize the things that she’s done wrong.
For Lauren, when her Mom shows up at the hospital, she’s like you can’t just be here.
But the thing is Mom isn’t there to see her. Lauren is wondering what the hell is up because she see’s her Mom hugging Casey. Why the fuck would her Mom be hugging Casey?
Like I love Casey, but what is up there? And I don’t blame Lauren for asking all the questions, because I wouldn’t trust anyone in this situation.
Casey successfully avoids the question all day – and at the end of the shift everyone comes in singing Happy Birthday with Lauren’s Mom. She thinks that she’s done this amazing thing, but it’s not even Lauren’s birthday!
The thing is, how you can tell that Lauren has really grown is that she doesn’t react badly. She laughs and goes along with it.
I think what makes me so happy about this is that Lauren has grown and she’s finding her strength. It’s not easy to find the control that you didn’t have when you were going through addiction. Lauren is growing and is focused.
I feel like Lauren is finding her footing in life. And when she continues to grow – well as she continues to grow – it’s going to be a beautiful thing to watch. Why? Because Lauren has spent her entire life not knowing who she can be, but has spent too much time knowing who she is not.
It’s great to watch someone come into their own.
SHIT IS REALLY WRONG
Things are always going wrong in the ER. We know that. I wouldn’t want to be an ER doctor or nurse to save my life. But I do consider them heroes. I mean, in this day and time you can’t ever deny that doctors and nurses are heroes.
In the ER people can’t figure out why everyone keeps crashing. There has been a run in the ER, because of fallen scaffolding, and all these patients are crashing.
It’s scary.
They think that it is something that has to do with the scaffolding, until Helen’s cancer patient crashes also. None of these patients are showing signs that this should be happening.
But then it happens.
Dr. Shin is in with a patient when he crashes. They figure out quickly that the patients are all getting shots of morphine. Is it that they are being overdosed, or is it that something else is in the shot.
Helen is waiting for them to be tested, but there is a patient that will die if they don’t know soon. So Lauren busts open a shot and it is morphine. This freaks me out, because Lauren is a recovering addict.
It is morphine. They quickly find out that they have been measured wrong. Helen is able to save all of the patients.
But as per normal, Helen shows her Max side. She is worried that the husband of her patient – who is acting as her caretaker – is overdoing it and doesn’t take care of himself.
She’s able to talk to them about respite care so that they both can recharge. There is no shame in taking care of yourself, and I think that sometimes we all forget that taking care of ourselves is of the utmost importance.
I love Helen, because she’s always there for people. She has a heart that is bigger than her body. And I love her for it.
OTHER THOUGHTS
- Dr. Kapur getting his ass grabbed and no one believing him was baffling to me. I mean the man is a man, and he’s charming and attractive. But only he would find something medically wrong with a woman hitting on him.
- Dr. Frome – I can’t help but always feel for him. He’s always between a rock and a hard place and he’s in a position where he know that this man shouldn’t have a gun, but strained by laws. I felt for him. I also felt like he got too personally involved.
- Max and Helen. Look Dr. Shin, know your fucking place, and hitting on or even being with Helen is not your fucking place. No joke there. Don’t fuck with my ship.
The thing about New Amsterdam is the show is so human and so caring that you can’t look away from it. You feel for the characters – even the patients that are only in for an episode. I love that it has that power – to draw you in and keep you in.
That’s the power of a good – hell great – television show.
New Amsterdam aired Tuesdays on NBC.
