Critic Reviews
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Coster-Waldau makes John so alien and distant as to be annoyingly inscrutable. But in Thursday's episode, we begin to learn more particulars about John's history, and how he maintains his secret. And that's when Coster-Waldau becomes more vivid and the show begins to rise above its silly murder-of-the-week plots
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New Amsterdam is smart and far more original than most of the new series this season, which warrants it becoming a Monday habit.
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The debuting metaphysical cop drama comes on like a randy high schooler, dumping too much backstory too fast. [7 Mar 2008, p.88]
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This tale of a lonely cop left behind by everyone--partners, friends, lovers, even the criminals he pursues--has a piercing melancholy that elevates it way above its fantasy trappings.
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What we have in a sense, then, is another boy-girl dance playing off against the tension of lethal crime in New York. But the premise is novel enough that maybe John won't be just tilting at windmills.
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The resulting series features trick photography, murder, romance, and--much like the Fox "Terminator" series--more clever ideas and witty jokes, not to mention cool jazz, than the audience expects or deserves.
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Eight episodes or not, don't count this show dead before it's born.
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New Amsterdam's pilot, directed by Lasse Hallstrom, who's also one of the show's executive producers, is as well-executed as any I've seen this season.
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[New Amsterdam's premise] is not the greatest thing since the invention of the tin can, which came along right in the middle of our hero's life, but it turns out to be much less stupid than it sounds.
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New Amsterdam is worth keeping an eye on as it develops. It could become consistently engaging television.
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The premiere teleplay from Christian Taylor does a capable, if slightly workmanlike, job of setting the stage for what's to follow, while Coster-Waldau paints a beguiling portrait of a brooding, conflicted, undeniably charismatic soul.
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The filmmaker Lasse Hallstrom has directed the pilot with cool, almost metallic tones, as if trying to conceal the show’s distorted bedrock sentimentality. He can’t.
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The procedural stuff is mostly drab, but John's institutional memories of the Big Apple (dating back to when it was still a big jungle) make New Amsterdam more intriguing than it initially appears.
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This relatively entertaining fantasy has one obvious viewership advantage over many of its strike-bound scripted competitors: new episodes, and not bad ones at that.
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The underlying theme here, once the fantastic elements are stripped away, is loneliness. That (plus the interesting face of its star) gives New Amsterdam a true and very tender heart.
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This new drama has bad dialogue to spare, too, which mars an otherwise distinctive, better-than-average police show.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 45 out of 56
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Mixed: 7 out of 56
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Negative: 4 out of 56
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Nov 27, 2018
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Oct 18, 2018
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Sep 30, 2018