The “director’s take” video, and the full episode for New Amsterdam "Legacy" are now available - exclusively - on Hulu.com. They are embedded here, so catch them while you can. Hulu.com doesn’t always keep them up for long! (You can see them in the full wide screen by going to the Hulu.com site.)
Hulu.com is great - it allows you to get your fix of New Amsterdam, and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, any time you want.
Director’s Take
Full Episode
My New Amsterdam blog home page can be found
here.
Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Legacy. Show all posts
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
New Amsterdam “Legacy” Bequeaths an Interesting Story
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.
Friday, March 28, 2008
New Amsterdam “Legacy ” Episode #6 Cast and Show Information
Here’s the episode and cast information for the sixth installment of New Amsterdam, airing Monday March 31 on Fox:
A MURDER GETS PERSONAL When police find a bullet-ridden body in an apartment in Chinatown, John and Eva are called to investigate. The deceased young man’s striking similarity to Roosevelt, a lost son of John’s from the early 1900s, prompts him to take a personal stance on the case. The search for the killer leads John to the Spoors, a violent crime family headed by Roosevelt’s kin. The discovery makes John question the actions of his past and the reverberating consequences they have on those around him on the “Legacy” episode of NEW AMSTERDAM airing Monday, March 31 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX.
Cast: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as John Amsterdam; Zuleikha Robinson as Eva Marquez, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Omar, Alexie Gilmore as Dr. Sara Dillane.
Guest Cast: Susan Misner as Callie Burnett, Jamie Harrold as Mank, Adam Storke as Nicolas Spoor, Giancarlo Esposito as James Lawson, Kathryn Meisle as Samantha, Zachary Booth as Roosevelt/Alex Spoor, Nestor Serrano as Eddie Marquez, Larry Keith as Theo Spoor, Alyssa Sutherland as Alice Crayborn, Bess Rous as Gina Warner, Andrew Pang as Feng, Matt Caplan as Terry Walters, Randall Duk Kim as Donald Chen, Tina Benko as Amelia, Julie McNiven as Model, Flint Beverage as Brock, Wai Ching Ho as Asian Woman and Shing Ka as Asian ManEpisode Preview
My New Amsterdam blog home page can be found here.
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