I love me those immortal-crimefighter shows, and this is an understated, smart and amusing update. Sure, the pilot looked like CSI Highlander (or Forever Knight, or Angel...), but the next couple episodes show that, while some programs(cough*Moonlight*) just lower the common denominator of this mini-genre, New Amsterdam gives it a fresh, understated twist.
For instance, instead of being a tortured loner or part of a tragically hip crypto-elite, Amsterdam has scores of descendants running around, at least one of whom knows all about the immortality thing. Instead of having a whole elaborate vampirism-as-addiction plot like Forever Knight/Buffy/Angel/Moonlight, this has (so far) one throwaway scene where Amsterdam goes to an AA meeting and reports he's been sober for several decades. Instead of being "enigmatic" (as the Fox website folk claim, for reasons best known to themselves), he blithely reminisces about his history to everyone in sight, secure in the knowledge they won't believe him.
Oh, and he can't hook up with the love of his life not because of some elaborate supernatural sex curse or immortal war, but because she's garden-variety married.
On the downside, the hero is a bit smug, although fortunately, Fox is also wrong about him being "brilliant" (he is very well-informed, though).
P.S. The only thing this show has in common with its ultra-lowbrow cousin Moonlight is that the hero is sometimes gratuitously naked for brief periods. I guess beefcake is the official flavor of the new millennium.
For instance, instead of being a tortured loner or part of a tragically hip crypto-elite, Amsterdam has scores of descendants running around, at least one of whom knows all about the immortality thing. Instead of having a whole elaborate vampirism-as-addiction plot like Forever Knight/Buffy/Angel/Moonlight, this has (so far) one throwaway scene where Amsterdam goes to an AA meeting and reports he's been sober for several decades. Instead of being "enigmatic" (as the Fox website folk claim, for reasons best known to themselves), he blithely reminisces about his history to everyone in sight, secure in the knowledge they won't believe him.
Oh, and he can't hook up with the love of his life not because of some elaborate supernatural sex curse or immortal war, but because she's garden-variety married.
On the downside, the hero is a bit smug, although fortunately, Fox is also wrong about him being "brilliant" (he is very well-informed, though).
P.S. The only thing this show has in common with its ultra-lowbrow cousin Moonlight is that the hero is sometimes gratuitously naked for brief periods. I guess beefcake is the official flavor of the new millennium.