New Amsterdam “Honor” Kills the Mood

The spark is missing

In this episode, John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) investigates a rape and murder of a nun, and then later a photographer’s assistant. During this investigation, he recalls events from 1813, when he worked in the Bronx as a coachman for a wealthy landowner. While this is going on, John tries to solidify some sort of serious relationship with Dr. Sara Dillane (Alexie Gilmore).

Everything seems to fall flat in the process and may have killed any mood or momentum the show was trying to build.

This episode seemed to be uninspiring and generally uninteresting. The 1813 flashbacks seemed not only poorly written with stiff and unimaginative dialog, but also weakly acted. After watching this episode, it almost made me think that the heavy concentration of flashbacks may have run its course and needs to become less of a focus for the main character. I found that I liked it better when John and Sara were riding in the carriage that John gave us a snippet of information about the area that used to be stables, which eventually became artist studios, housing the likes of e.e.cummings (that’s no typo, that’s how he writes his legal name). It seemed more interesting to learn that little snippet quickly, and then get back to the focus of the story. I’m not saying they need to get rid of all the flashbacks, I just think that they should devote less screen time to it.

The story itself – a photographer’s assistant Amartya (Yazmin Kazi) being a victim of rape later murdered by her father in an honor killing – was predictable. I think I’ve been watching too much Law & Order but I think that franchise has done that story so many times, and done it better, that for this show it didn’t grab me. John’s flashback to 1813 with his relationship with Fanny (Kristen Connolly) and his subsequent challenge to his employer Mr. Durst (Erik Jensen) was so trite that it bordered on corny. It seemed like I was watching a poorly scripted and acted high school production.

To add insult to injury, it seems Eva (Zuleikha Robinson) is going through the motions, becoming even stiffer with the added trait of now seeming perpetually cranky. She acted more like a petulant child when she saw John and Sara talking on the roof. It wasn’t quite adult jealousy; it was more like a child’s reaction. In addition, Detective Santori (Robert Clohessy) seems to have become the caricature of a stereotypical New York detective. These two had dialog in the morgue that I found odd:

Santori (to the examiner): When you work on a female, do you think of her as a woman?

Eva’s comeback: For the record Santori, when I work with you, I don’t really think of you as a man.

Santori’s comment was not only extremely insensitive, it seemed wildly out of place, poorly written, and poorly delivered. It seemed only there to act as a setup for Eva’s line. In all honesty, if someone asked a question like that about a female victim, my response would have been a little less witty and a lot more direct. You know, something like “That’s a sick question. Oh yeah, and you’re a jerk.”

Now, for my real disappointment. If Sara is supposed to be the one – and I am beginning to think that she can’t possibly be it – they sure cut to the chase with this part of the storyline too fast in the series. There seemed to be little buildup to it. In fact, I think I could have used a few more week of John in the chase, so to speak. Seeing that this show only has six episodes completed now, it seems that they may have been rushing things in case the show got canceled.

While they’re in the park talking, Sara suddenly makes the move and kisses John, and of course he returns the sentiment. Count me as very disappointed with this scene. It seemed like two high school teens both kissing for the first time. I mean really, he’s 400 years old and clearly has some experience; she’s in an unhappy marriage. But there was.no.spark. Nothing. No passion. No desire. There was just nothing. Making matters worse, when they decide to cement the relationship, there wasn’t any thrill in the act there either. They both seemed to be going through the motions, with no buildup and no fire. I wasn’t expecting an R-rated scene mind you, but I’ve seen better love scenes on daytime TV. If this was supposed to be such a momentous relationship, at least in John’s mind, they should have spent a little more time making it look like there was some actual passion involved.

I’m not going to say that I hated this episode, but I really didn’t like it much. If this show was trying to save itself from cancellation, this episode would not help. My hope is that they use viewer feedback and commentary as an opportunity to retool the show and come back with something that has a little more suspense, a little better class of supporting actors, and a little more grown-up scenarios.

That would be the honorable thing to do.


The full episode is available below:



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