New Amsterdam: “Golden Boy” Shines

After a somewhat muddled pilot episode, this second episode was a great improvement. It handled both the back story and the current story line with better balance and flow.

In this episode, we get a glimpse into John’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) life in the 1940s, plus a little, well make that big, surprise about his current secret keeper and “friend” Omar (Stephen McKinley Henderson). We hear it early on, in this exchange between John and Omar, at the gravesite of Lily Rae York (Yolanda Ross):

Omar: Just seems like the only thing you care about these day is finding the girl.

John: Hey, I’ve been looking for her for 400…

Omar: 400 years, I know. The woman who’ll turn your hair gray. The one. So, so what does that make my mother? The fifth? The twenty-fifth? Does she get a number like your dogs?

John: Watch your step, Omar.

Omar: Or what? You’re gonna ground me? Take me to the woodshed? I’m a 65-year-old man.

John: You’re my son.

Omar: My mother loved you, and that was a hard thing for her to do. So if she wasn’t the one, what the hell was she? (Omar walks off.)

John is investigating a case of apparent autoerotic asphyxiation, which they later find was a case of a staged murder. The case itself was a little trite and dull, but it was saved by a few moments. For example, when John is in the morgue, one of the morgue guys tries to tell John numerous jokes, to which John knows the punch line only after the guy recites the first few words of the joke. I would imagine he’s heard then all. I couldn’t figure out, though, why John felt the need to chase down and stop the ambulance that he thought took him to the hospital during his heart attack. He couldn’t wait until the ambulance got to the hospital? For someone who’s lived 400 years, his impatience, and judgment, seemed out of place.

Also during the investigation, John cuts a discussion short with Peter Huygens (Casey Siemaszko) at the school. Eva (Zuleikha Robinson) is miffed and gives John a dressing down – of course he pulls the fire alarm and gets the distraction he needs. But frankly, I felt her outrage here was a little forced. Her upset just didn’t come through as real, it came through as acting. After watching the first two episodes, I think she is the weak link here in the cast.

While John investigating this murder, we see many flashbacks to the 1940s, where John was apparently the prestigious attorney John York in an office in the Chrysler Building, We also find that his secretary is also his daughter. She knows John’s secret, seeing that, she says, he looks as good as he did when she married her mother 50 years ago. I am sure John has kids, grandkids, and great, great grandkids (you get the idea) kids everywhere. This gives the show an awful lot to work with.

John again uses his talent – this time it appears to be forgery – to trick the suspect and solve the case. I thought the case itself was predictable and I have to admit I was a lot more intrigued in the back story. Did I hear correctly that he was born Johann van der Zee on June 1, 1607?

The flashbacks in this episode were very interesting and I thought really brought needed depth to John’s relationship with Omar. This includes how Omar probably got his name: from a gift John gave to his mother the day he was born, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. When John gives Omar the book, Omar returns the favor with the correct information on the ambulance number that carried John to the hospital, to help him find “The One.”

I found it interesting when the episode closed with a line and song I remember from the movie Moulin Rouge, “The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return.” It was originally performed by Nat King Cole, and is called "Nature Boy." Still, when it was used in Moulin Rouge, it became one of my favorite movie lines and thought it made a fitting end to this episode.

Again, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau shined in this episode, whether he was in the past or the present. I don’t think the could have found anyone better. He’s the real Golden Boy of this show.

My New Amsterdam blog home page can be found
here.