New Amsterdam: Honor
By fred | March 18, 2008
(S01E04) I know that Canterbury’s Law aired first, but I did watch this show first. Not because I had seen the CBS comedy first, but because I have to admit that while both shows are flawed, this one actually kinda interest me more. It’s something weird, because every episode came with its problems, and I’ve had a few issues with the show and what happened on every single episode, yet I keep coming back to this show.
I do, because despite it all I still like it, for some reason I can’t really explain. Many things aren’t right, but there’s a charm to it that is just hard to resist. Or I imagine it would be, I don’t know, I never tried, cause I actually enjoy the show.
This show might look like just another cop drama with a twist, and maybe deep down it is nothing but exactly that, but for now I don’t think it is. It is not, and that’s not really a good thing, not when the reason for it, is that the show doesn’t really know what it is, what it wants to be. Because at some point during this episode, I wondered if this show was really about the whole cop thing in the first place.
Is it really about Amsterdam doing his investigation work and resolving crimes, is it really about the fact that he’s a detective, or does he just happen to be one, but it is really about the romance, about his relationship with Sarah, who may be “the one” he’s been looking for for ages. At one point it felt like the later, when talking with the victim only drove her to the cute doctor, you could wonder : what is this show really about ?
But there’s no doubt that the main plot is the crime and the related investigation. In essence, New Amsterdam is a cop drama, maybe a romantic cop-drama, but first and foremost it is about him being a cop, and investigating crimes. Which is a really huge problem, because that part is the main flaw of this show. From the very start, the investigations have been the weak part, and this week was no exception.
One again it was highly predictable, and quite boring. How many times have we seen this already : a first victim who dies, but she wasn’t the first. Then a second victim shows up, but she doesn’t want to testify. She won’t have to, though, because soon other evidences show up and the guy is arrested. Then she identify him, but still has no will to ever testify. But again, she won’t have to, or will she ? Cause it turns out the evidences, well, there was “something wrong” with them, so the guy walks free. And she dies.
None of that is new, and the whole “it was her father” twist really wasn’t one, and not just because we’ve seen it so many times before. It’s all very boring because we know what’s going to happen (long) before it actually does, and that even if you don’t watch Law & Order: SVU. Though if you do, even the whole “crime of honor” bit must have sounded so incredibly old to you.
This show is about a detective investigating a crime, yet said investigation is actually the weakest part of the show, its main flaw ! Don’t you see a problem here ? And it’s not just how predictable or cliché it may be, but also, what the fuck was that : they arrest a guy, then the DNA evidence gets rejected, so he walks free !! The guy had a record, he run away and then took a cop hostage - basically right there that was assault and attempt to murder, and on cops no less - and was identified by one of his victim, yet he can just walk out. In what universe are we living here exactly ? I mean, the guy was a taxi driver, not a multi-billionaire, and I’m not even sure the later could have pulled something like that. (Who are we kidding, sure he could have…)
This made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but that’s not really a surprise, that’s how this show works : poor writing, unbelievable plots, absurd situations… If you’re not surprised that when a cop dies on an hospital, with his paper, wallet, NYPD badge & gun on himself, not only does the hospital not call anyone, but they can’t figure out the guy’s name, why would this be any shock.
Posted in Reviews
Shows: New Amsterdam
