I don't know why this show is the way it is now. Used to love it, I mean really love it. Now I'm done making excuses and being nice about it. Ever see the amazing Yvette Nicole Brown on Talking Dead with her notebooks about TWD and her unbridled enthusiasm for that show? That was me for New Amsterdam. I may not have sat on social media and talked about it 24/7, but I was super invested. I read everything I could about the show, I watched episodes repeatedly during hiatuses. I bought the seasons on digital every year. I was a New Amsterdam encyclopedia. I'm not trying to say I'm anything special, just paint a picture of how passionate a fan I was. After the last episode, I took nearly a 6 month break from watching simply because the idea of watching something I once loved be twisted into a badly written romance novel featuring medical side plots, well it ticked me off. For the record, I enjoy well written romance novels, but that's not what most of us signed up for with this show. The writing isn't good enough to make the toxic and insipid plots enjoyable.
It's especially frustrating because I don't find the episodes themselves to be too bad, but the direction they've taken the characters and makes me want to scream. It taints the whole thing for me. It's not character development when characters have to change personalities in order for plots to work, and these plots aren't even working. The London plot is absolutely terrible. They have made Sharpe into a different person and they've made Max into a spineless dope for her. Reynolds/Malvo/Baptiste are ridiculous. Reynolds has been morphed into someone else for this story. Malvo has no chemistry with either man. No one wanted to see a baby thrown in this mess. Iggy and Bloom aren't horrible yet, but I guess it's harder to wreck them given Iggy's sometimes weird judgement and Bloom having always been oblivious and entitled. Not digging the holistic medicine woman at all. I tried with her, but the whole thing rubs me the wrong way. Hope she goes away with Fuentes.
Wilder is a bright spot, as well as the what, two minutes of screen time where Max tries to accomplish something with patients. Was Ryan Eggold filming something else at this point? I kind of hope so, I'd happily watch it. It seems he's barely on the show some weeks. As much as I adore the main & supporting cast, he's the only reason I haven't completely walked away from the show now. I think I'd have more fun rewatching him old Blacklist at this point even though I know nothing on that show led anywhere (if someone's reading this who hasn't seen it, boy did that show thoroughly defecate the bed in season eight).
I hate seeing Max turned into Sharpe's trophy boyfriend. The writers put no substance into their romantic relationship, they clearly don't know how to write an engaging, healthy relationship between two adults who respect each other and want what's best for each other. The two were really great when they were written as unexpected BFFs, but I guess the shippers have blackmail and the writers gave in without giving the relationship enough care. We were rewarded with a hollow, unbalanced coupling. It's honestly baffling to me how badly they have screwed up "Sharpwin" as the season goes on and made them unpleasant to watch together. The chemistry WAS great, the build-up was there, the execution has lacked any meaning. Max may as well have started dating a brand new character because none of the history or chemistry shines through with them together. I just don't get why they went this way. It's not the actor's faults, not in the least. It feels like I'm watching something written by teens who don't know what a healthy relationship looks like.
Veronica Fuentes isn't the villain of the show, it's the writers. I think they underestimated the demographics of their viewers. We're not all obsessive shippers, and the drop in overall show quality is reflected in the drop in ratings. Yes, NBC seems to have stopped promoting the show. NBC also killed the Twitter, and the scheduling has been absolutely horrid. All of that is awful and I hate NBC for it, but I think it's more the change in the style of the show itself that was the final nail in the coffin. The turn they took is depressing, and I can't believe this is the same team that brought us the first two seasons. This season could have been a fresh start, could have won back a good deal of the audience that they scared off with all of their lectures last season. You know, the lectures they favored instead of actual character development? But I guess pandering to what turned out to be a much smaller percentage of their audience than they anticipated seemed like the way to go. Kissing and love scenes do not make a show or a relationship good. It just gives people something to gif and gush over while making those of us who see there's no substance here roll our eyes and want to tune out. I'll stick with the show to the end, but I'm a little relieved that it's going to end sooner than later. Sad, because things should have been better. Scared at how badly the last season might end up, the writers may just keep pandering to the shipping crowd since they might think they're the only ones left. Relieved that it won't be on as long as the once watchable Chicago PD which is also bogged down by badly written, hollow relationships.
Hey writers, you turned a superfan into a reluctant disappointed viewer. Turn things around for season 5 and maybe you can salvage your show enough that it won't ruin your reputation with viewers who pay attention to writing credits. Because as of right now, I wouldn't want to watch anything these writers worked on in the future. Except for Shaun Cassidy, I like the shows he creates even though they never last. Anyway, New Amsterdam isn't the show it used to be. I guess shame on me for expecting better. I can roll with almost anything except character assassinations. All these character changes and dopey plots about London, a throuple, and a woman who can't understand why her girlfriend is upset that her career was being built on a bribe, it kind of kills my enthusiasm for the show. It's a shame because this episode wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't tainted with stupid character direction. I thought networks had to approve scripts and overall stories. I honestly don't think NBC has paid any attention to this show since season 2. They didn't notice anything until the ratings sunk so bad that they decided to pull the plug. It's like a parent paying no attention to their kid all school year, letting them do whatever they want and then being shocked when the report card is all C's, D's and F's. So shame on NBC too.
Join me next time as I rant into the void about a show I once thought was capable of peak ER quality devolving into what it would look like if the CW had a medical drama ten years ago.
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