New Amsterdam’s latest two episodes are fantastic, as one brings us back into the medical aspect of the show, and “Harmony” shows us where we’d end up if we kept going in only that direction: death and lack of caring.
As shown in “Hope and Laughter and a Sock in the Eye”, Max and Helen still have quite a bit to learn about each other.
The discussions they have, though, are so genuine and earnest. Nobody is ever trying to one-up the other one. They’re just talking, explaining, listening to each other constantly.
The two care for each other in a way that won’t be halted by exes. It may, however, make them pause to learn this new thing about each other. That’s why their partnership is so beautiful.
In “Harmony”, we’re introduced to Helen as a stepmother. She puts her all out there for Luna, telling Max she’s not going to, doesn’t want to, replace Georgia.
They’re supposed to be moving in two weeks and, y’all, come on now. When will they end this charade? We know it’s not going to happen.
Lauren and Leyla are sweet, they always have been, but they’re becoming incredibly, well, boring. Leyla is great, and she’s great to Lauren, but Lauren clearly has an Achilles heel in Leyla herself, and that’s making them worse for it.
Floyd and Lyn are stuck in this same pattern I mentioned a few weeks back. They were happy together, took a breath and welcomed the outside world, and then realized they’re never going to work.
Here, we’re seeing the endpoint of that. Floyd, Lyn, and Baptiste are all lost in terms of how to move on together.
My suggestion? Don’t.
This storyline has been way too stretched to still be good, especially considering it wasn’t great to start with.
We always knew Floyd would end up heartbroken. The writers need to cut his ties and end this plot already. He deserves better.
On the other side of things, poor Iggy is really struggling, and nobody seems to be trying to help him except for his husband. Which, duh, but also, someone please notice Iggy!
Everyone is too busy. With Floyd figuring out his relationship, Lauren trying to manage hers, and Max and Helen adjusting in theirs, Iggy is being overlooked.
It’s upsetting because as we saw earlier this season, Iggy was immediately willing to help and talk to his friends when they needed it. When they were going through something.
But now Iggy must face essentially losing his career on his own. Because everyone else is too preoccupied.
Amongst our group of caring doctors, Max coming up with outrageous plots to forward health in this country, Helen going to battle for her patients, Veronica Fuentes seems cartoonishly evil.
Her decisions are frustrating the people working with her, and now they’ve hit a new low, which is that someone has died under her watch and she wasn’t able to think of a suitable solution to this problem.
Max does, though. Because Max is constantly thinking about what’s best for the public and not just who’s in the board room. He’s thinking about the hospital as a whole, and he’s not seeing each department as a weakness.
Veronica is spending the weeks we’re getting to know her becoming a very unlikeable character.
Though this is the point, it’s still rare for New Amsterdam to keep around a character that’s so largely disliked. Depending on what happens in two weeks when Max and Helen are set to go to England, she may be here to stay.
It’s all up in the air right now, because unless they’re really going to spend the show going from New Amsterdam to London with Max and Helen, I don’t see it actually happening.
But we’re stuck in this limbo of having the first half of the season surround Max and Helen moving, almost wasting time we’ll never get back with these characters.
Overall, the first half of the season is becoming a setup that’s going to surround one, maybe two episodes, and they’re taking a ton of time doing it.
The episodes on their own are strong, but when you place them in a full season, they lose some credibility.
What did you think of “Hope and Laughter and a Sock in the Eye” and “Harmony”? Do you like Fuentes? Are you happy Max and Helen are together? Are you excited for Dr. Wilder to join the hospital soon?
