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| Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max Goodwin in New Amsterdam.(Francisco Roman/NBC) |
The flood of commercial promos preceding the debut of New Amsterdam a few weeks ago laid bare the apparent subject matter, and allowed critics an opportunity to pre-plan whether or not we wanted to like this show.
Reviews I read immediately following the debut convince me that the earliest critics planned to be cynical and somewhat smug about the cookie cutter appearance of yet another hospital show and another handsome white male hero as the shows lead character.
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| Dr. Eric Manheimer |
The critics are not totally off target. As it relates to the conversation on healthcare, this repetitious white male savior theme does feel disregarding of all the smart and dedicated folks who've been engaged, but buried, by the bureaucratic nonsense that only handsome white guys get to fix on television.
This criticism against the show rings especially true when you discover that the show is inspired by "Twelve Patients", the memoir of an average white man named Dr. Eric Manheimer, journaling his time as the Medical Director of Bellvue Hospital in New York .
The quicker critics are also spot on in their general impression that way too many post work beers could cause you to mistake this show for one you've seen before.
Quick critics missed the fact that Dr. Max Goodwin (played by Ryan Eggold) is a handsome white male but a supremely flawed hero. His bleeding heart desire to help so many has turned him into an awful husband with a pregnant wife whose high-risk pregnancy has her suddenly bed-stricken at- you guessed it- New Amsterdam hospital.
Despite the quick revelation of family issues, Dr. Max has taken on the job at New Amsterdam (the Dam for short) mainly because it is the Mt. Everest of hospitals, as he describes. And who can resist the call of Everest? Again, his words.
If the naked to the world flaws are not redeeming enough to humanize the lead character and to soften critics on the show, Dr. Max appears to be a highly flawed hospital director given his knee jerk nature to agree to changes without researching the problem or the impact of the proposed changes. From a script writing perspective, what better than flawed, good looking, successful white guys to make lots of regular Americans watch and feel better about themselves?
Viewers soon discover Dr. Max to be an awful patient too when he is diagnosed with throat cancer half-way into the fast-paced opening episode. As he races all over the hospital, he repeatedly chooses to ignore his pregnant wife and his own health in his quest to figure out "how he can help" change the world one dramatic story at a time.
Dr. Max serves as the fractured lens this show uses to shine light upon all the good people who currently run hospitals like The Dam. He is the obstacle remover that reveals what smart, caring people could do for healthcare if they only were allowed.
"How can I help?", quickly becomes an oft repeated
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| Dr. Floyd Reynolds, played by Jocko Sims, has deep confrontations with interracial dating and Faith in healing in NBC's New Amsterdam. |
salvo of Dr. Max to all the good people under his direction, but it starts to seem directed at the viewing audience indirectly. It comes off as a recognition mantra of what's needed in every hospital as well as a fantasized mission statement for wellness and servitude in healthcare.
Dr. Max asks this very question of the entire staff right before he proceeds to fire all of the dead weight, including all but one central character in the cardiology department- Dr. Floyd Reynolds, played by Jocko Sims- who he rushes to retain just before he walks out the door after the mass firing.
From creator David Schulner, New Amsterdam is a character and theme driven show rich with opportunities to chase the vast possibilities connected to our current healthcare passions. By the second episode, the shows producers stamp "How can I help?" as a driving concept of the show and of its altruistic leading man.
I'll admit that I pre-planned to appreciate this show just for its audacity and for those aforementioned conversations.
I'll also admit that I was just as jaded as other critics were by the predictable opening scene. It depicts the hospital scrub wearing Medical Director lost in the staff locker room while a group of Hispanic janitorial workers discuss- in Spanish of course- the rumors they've heard about the new Medical Director. In perfect cliché form, Dr. Max stands up from a bench in the locker room and speaks- in Spanish of course- to the unsuspecting group of workers, comforting them that he will be the savior they need.
Did I mention he speaks perfect Spanish?
That opening of this show has the kind of predictability prime time television lovers might reject, but it ends with an unexpected twist when Dr. Max hands a $100 bill to the worker in the group who joked- in Spanish- that he bets the new Director won't last one year. It was a moment of mockery of that cynical employee, as well as a challenge to cynical viewers who might decide to pre-judge this show on the predictability alone. New Amsterdam is actually an old healthcare conversation but in new ways. Dramatic new ways- excluding the handsome white hero of course.
Cynical viewers will have to survive the first scene to get a quick sense of where the shows value lies. From a cynical, "show me something I've never seen" perspective, don't bother watching this show. It is another "fall in love with the characters" prime time drama, much like the rest.
The acting and dramatic, near fantasy situations are highly infectious, but there are only so many hours of love and devotion any of us can give to our television viewing addictions. For reasons of short attention span and repetitious modeling, this show may not find enough prime-time oxygen to be removed from the life support stage every new show endures.
As a hopeful believer in the sheer audacity of the show's name, much less the show itself, I am willing to bet alongside Dr. Max that New Amsterdam will be around simply because so many of US currently have a chronic illness, or WE take care of someone with an illness. For people who have health insurance coverage and are forced to use it a lot, this show dares to chase after our greatest, most proactive dreams for ourselves and the people we love.
Like John McCain did during that late night ObamaCare vote, New Amsterdam acknowledges the genuine importance and growing acceptance for universal healthcare in America. The timely creation of a show like this is a recognition that people who need tumor removal surgery on their eye socket still don't care what political party their doctor belongs to even if doctors are still forced to care how some of US intend to pay.
Senator John McCain made a conscious choice to save universal healthcare as WE know it while he was personally in the middle of receiving the best cancer treatment and medical attention America's universal healthcare could afford him and his family. Unafraid of the politics of this moment, New Amsterdam imagines the socialized dream that McCain heroically saved for US all as he was humbled into appreciating it more himself.
I'll admit that I consider most things to be politics, however, if New Amsterdam were my show, I would explore this fantasy ride by reenacting the John McCain healthcare story as one of the upcoming episodes. You could air that show in roughly a month when politics will drown out every television show that isn't smart enough to get on top of the impending wave.
If you think about it, bipartisan America finally embraced a near decade old program- the driving concept behind this show- on one thumb blessed night. In my mind, our recent amazing embrace of Obama's 2009 healthcare law is as crazy and drama filled as New Amsterdam. This new show. and our slow embrace of ObamaCare, begs a really important question.
Did ObamaCare need a handsome white guy to be it's lead advocate for it to succeed faster? Would the right white man have helped to avoid the tumultuous start, or were white guys afraid or unable to get it done, try as they might?
Our current premium focused healthcare law worked fairly well back when Governor Mitt Romney was the leading white guy representing the universal healthcare pathway forward in Massachusetts, although Massachusetts, and America, are starting to wonder if single payer healthcare for all will make more sense in the end.
Would the Affordable Care Act have grown in acceptance more quickly if it wasn't black listed (so to speak) and re-branded as ObamaCare, and if a handsome white guy assumed the original leading role? Were health insurance providers fighting like hell to make the ACA fall apart simply because of the color of the man who dared to get it done? In some ways, John McCain- a white man- assumed the leading role over ObamaCare that night he saved our healthcare fantasies before they were dismantled forever. If this show takes off, the creators of New Amsterdam owe McCain a huge thanks.
I wish I wasn't hard wired to care about the bigger picture of a television show willing to have this conversation at this moment. I wish I was blessed enough to watch this show strictly as a critic and not as a transformed champion for wellness and a caregiver for someone with a chronic illness. Sadly, I no longer get to paint myself as impartial because I have spent far too many days sitting in hospital rooms listening to doctors function like money driven robots, and not caregivers.
As it relates to medical procedure pricing, 45 states in America fail when it comes to medical procedure price transparency. And only one, New Hampshire, received an A grade. In between repeated stories full of happy endings in healthcare, New Amsterdam has the courage to talk about issues like this and to tell the truth about intractable political problems hurting healthcare.
As much as I am rooting for the underlying cause of this show, fair criticisms are why I waited for a second episode to season and share my own views, hopeful it would give me a deeper perspective from which to assess.
It did not.
The show is fully formed in today's television mold- sappy and hope driven. It would teeter on the edge of being insulting to the status quo if the status quo in healthcare wasn't so worthy of whatever insults they get. It's fast-paced if you make yourself watch, but if you a looking for a show that makes you pay attention, this show may not have enough sex or murder to get it done.
People who are totally paying attention and interested in a water cooler conversation show- especially on the vital topic of healthcare generally and the future of universal healthcare specifically- should watch this show. Anyone who understands sickness, the tenuous nature of American healthcare, and dares to imagine what might be when wellness is truly OUR mission, will likely enjoy the journey this show intends to take.
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