Well, it was bound to happen.
John Amsterdam is a cad.
This episode – “Legacy” seemed to show that every action could have some sort of reaction, even years later. One branch of John Amsterdam’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) family tree turns out to be shady, and John discovers this possibility while investigating a murder of Alex Spoor, who looks strikingly like one of his previous children, Roosevelt (both parts played by Zachary Booth). Maybe his family turned to the shady side when John was discovered cheating on his wife?
John has quite an elaborate record of his family tree, so it’s a little bit of a surprise that somehow he let this segment of his family fade into oblivion. Maybe he used their excuse of leaving him as the perfect opportunity to move on, and possibly it just becomes just too complicated to keep track of everyone. Still, one would think the name of a prominent crime family might have come up in his work as a detective.
This episode did a very good job of interlacing his past with the present story. We learn in the past that John – then known as “Dutch” – was a painter who seems to have lost his inspiration. It seems somewhat obvious when Dutch gets a young subject to paint that the sparks will fly, and they do. Still, it was a sad scene to see his clearly older and aging wife come to the realization of what would inevitably occur. And it was also sad to see that John has a bit of a dark side when it comes to his relationships. I found it interesting that Dr. Sara Dillane (Alexie Gilmore) seems to have her “spider senses” out when it comes to John, by asking him personal questions that indicate she may have a feeling about John’s ways.
The crime story was somewhat trite. After all, how many times can an organized crime-type story be told without the obligatory FBI person (in this case, played by Giancarlo Esposito) who has his own agenda? During the process, we get to see Eva’s father, Eddie Marquez (played by frequent TV bad guy Nestor Serrano). Somehow I felt his character was just dropped into the show for little reason. I’ve said this before about this series and I’ll repeat it because I think it’s a weak spot, and that is that it doesn’t always do well with transitions. Somehow, I think that they should have waited for a story where it just made more sense for him to appear and be involved in the story to have it be a more meaningful appearance. This appearance was just wasted.
The character of Eva (Zuleikha Robinson) still seems flat to me. She hasn’t learned the fine art of how to question suspects or anybody who can offer her information, consistently blurting out blunt and pointed questions. I think the only way that her character will have any depth and believability is if they can somehow teach her the fine art of finesse. Other television female detectives – such as Olivia Benson and Alex Eames of the Law & Order franchise – are perfect examples of how a woman doesn’t have to be tactless in order to get the job done.
Along that line, John and Eva’s boss, Callie Burnett (Susan Misner) seems to add a spark to the show. My only concern is that something just seems to be a little off with the portrayal of women in this series. Both Eva and Callie seem to have caustic attitudes, and Sara seems to be the stereotypical woman who seems too suspicious of her man. I was glad when she came to her senses and asked John a few questions important to her – and then seemingly just decided to let everything else go and roll with the relationship. Sadly, there isn’t one woman on the show to which I feel that I can relate or empathize with, and this could be a problem for the show down the road if it continues.
Omar (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is probably the most solid and believable character on each episode. He brings a level head and probably the best perspective on life than any of the characters on the show.
Still, for some reason I liked this episode. It was interesting to see a bit of a dark side for John. It is bound to happen to a guy who’s lived 400 years.
Here’s the video of the director’s take for “Legacy”, view while it’s available:
My New Amsterdam blog home page can be found
here.
John Amsterdam is a cad.
This episode – “Legacy” seemed to show that every action could have some sort of reaction, even years later. One branch of John Amsterdam’s (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) family tree turns out to be shady, and John discovers this possibility while investigating a murder of Alex Spoor, who looks strikingly like one of his previous children, Roosevelt (both parts played by Zachary Booth). Maybe his family turned to the shady side when John was discovered cheating on his wife?
John has quite an elaborate record of his family tree, so it’s a little bit of a surprise that somehow he let this segment of his family fade into oblivion. Maybe he used their excuse of leaving him as the perfect opportunity to move on, and possibly it just becomes just too complicated to keep track of everyone. Still, one would think the name of a prominent crime family might have come up in his work as a detective.This episode did a very good job of interlacing his past with the present story. We learn in the past that John – then known as “Dutch” – was a painter who seems to have lost his inspiration. It seems somewhat obvious when Dutch gets a young subject to paint that the sparks will fly, and they do. Still, it was a sad scene to see his clearly older and aging wife come to the realization of what would inevitably occur. And it was also sad to see that John has a bit of a dark side when it comes to his relationships. I found it interesting that Dr. Sara Dillane (Alexie Gilmore) seems to have her “spider senses” out when it comes to John, by asking him personal questions that indicate she may have a feeling about John’s ways.
The crime story was somewhat trite. After all, how many times can an organized crime-type story be told without the obligatory FBI person (in this case, played by Giancarlo Esposito) who has his own agenda? During the process, we get to see Eva’s father, Eddie Marquez (played by frequent TV bad guy Nestor Serrano). Somehow I felt his character was just dropped into the show for little reason. I’ve said this before about this series and I’ll repeat it because I think it’s a weak spot, and that is that it doesn’t always do well with transitions. Somehow, I think that they should have waited for a story where it just made more sense for him to appear and be involved in the story to have it be a more meaningful appearance. This appearance was just wasted.
The character of Eva (Zuleikha Robinson) still seems flat to me. She hasn’t learned the fine art of how to question suspects or anybody who can offer her information, consistently blurting out blunt and pointed questions. I think the only way that her character will have any depth and believability is if they can somehow teach her the fine art of finesse. Other television female detectives – such as Olivia Benson and Alex Eames of the Law & Order franchise – are perfect examples of how a woman doesn’t have to be tactless in order to get the job done.
Along that line, John and Eva’s boss, Callie Burnett (Susan Misner) seems to add a spark to the show. My only concern is that something just seems to be a little off with the portrayal of women in this series. Both Eva and Callie seem to have caustic attitudes, and Sara seems to be the stereotypical woman who seems too suspicious of her man. I was glad when she came to her senses and asked John a few questions important to her – and then seemingly just decided to let everything else go and roll with the relationship. Sadly, there isn’t one woman on the show to which I feel that I can relate or empathize with, and this could be a problem for the show down the road if it continues.
Omar (Stephen McKinley Henderson) is probably the most solid and believable character on each episode. He brings a level head and probably the best perspective on life than any of the characters on the show.
Still, for some reason I liked this episode. It was interesting to see a bit of a dark side for John. It is bound to happen to a guy who’s lived 400 years.
Here’s the video of the director’s take for “Legacy”, view while it’s available:
My New Amsterdam blog home page can be found
here.
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