A Private Investigator, With a Modern Twist
Stop me if you’ve seen this before, the slow pan up the desk to reveal “Guy Jones, Private Investigator” on the name plate. The camera swings around behind the desk, so the silhouette of a female can be seen through the window of the door. The door creaks open, and the camera works from the floor, to face of the room’s new entry, a face that’s always slightly covered by a hat or a shadow, something to give that extra air of mystery. The private investigator leans forward in the chair, because he knows, that he’s the only one who can help out the beautiful damsel in distress.
It’s fairly easy to see why a guy would want to put himself in the shoes of the P.I. in the preceding example. It’s the same reason that guys enjoy watching shows like _Mad Men_: even those that are too young to remember the 60s still dream of the office where the guys sit around, smoke cigars, and have a glass of scotch with the guys after work. Modern shows like _Boston Legal_ continue this trend with their scotch shipping, cigar smoking, balcony end scenes. The time of cigars after work and P.I.s helping the damsel in distress might have passed us by, but television seems to want to bring some of those themes to the forefront, though with a slightly modern twist.
Over the past few years, a number of shows have tried adding “unique” spins to the classic private investigator formula. It started with _Angel_, the vampire with a soul, who opened up _Angel Investigations_ in, appropriately, the “city of Angels_”. The Sci-Fi channel tried their hand at the modern P.I. genre with their adaptation of the Jim Butcher series of books, _The Dresden Files_, a story of a wizard working as P.I. and police consultant in Chicago. Late last year, CBS threw its proverbial hat into the ring with _Moonlight_, a story of a vampire P.I., living in Los Angeles (yes, that does look familiar, however, comparing those to shows is not the purpose of this piece). Having seen every single episode of the three shows just mentioned, it’s time to take a look at FOX’s latest offering to the modern P.I. world, _New Amsterdam_.
To start off with a little bit of a technicality, the lead character of _New Amsterdam_, John Amsterdam, is not technically a P.I., he’s a homicide detective. This doesn’t stop the show from having some classic P.I. hooks, most noticeably the main character giving a slight narration as a story progresses (something that occurred both _The Dresden Files_ and _Moonlight_, but was absent from _Angel_). What separates Amsterdam from your average detective is his immortality. (The rest of this paragraph is going to explain how he acquired his immorality, so move on if you want to have that revealed in the context of the show.) The back story follows the tale of young John Amsterdam when he first crossed over to the New World. During a battle with Indians, Amsterdam prevents one of his fellow soldiers from slaughtering a helpless female, and receives a sword through the chest for his trouble. As a reward for his honor, the Indian female uses some form of magic to grant Amsterdam immortality, including freedom from aging, until he “[finds] the one and [their] souls are wed”. It is explained that he will feel it in his heart when he meets “The One”.
Since an average TV show lasts about 43 minutes when the commercials are stripped out, it’s always a good sign when you pause the show for the first time and find there’s only 5 minutes left. Unfortunately, with _New Amsterdam_, I was checking the time remaining when there was 30 minutes left. The show tries to do a lot: setting up the back story, establishing John’s role in the world, laying out the negatives associated with immortality, and yes, introducing “The One”. Oh, and there’s a semi-straight forward murder mystery involving a real estate developer, the developer’s son (who reveals his sexuality for no compelling plot reason), the developer’s mistress, and the boy who loves the mistress. Looking at that setup, it’s probably not too hard to figure out the mystery. In fact, it seemed rather tacked on to the show, as if the show was moving into and out of that story in sharp, abrupt turns.
The main problem with the pilot, however, wasn’t the plot (though it sure didn’t help), it was that the lead character just was not particularly compelling. Yes, he’s immortal, but its not his immortality that helps him solve the case, it’s just his vast knowledge. Though it’s impressive that he know so much, mostly because he was around for it, the things he knows could have just as easily been known by someone who was well versed in local history. Adding to the problem is that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau does not light up the screen like David Boreanez did in _Angel_ and does in _Bones_. Coster-Waldau isn’t in the same league as the star of NBC’s _Life_, Damien Lewis. And without the ability to suddenly throw out magic (like Harry Dresden in _The Dresden Files_) or go full-on vampire (like Mick St. John in _Moonlight_), Coster-Waldau’s John Amsterdam is pretty much just a walking encyclopedia who has a near death experience when a pretty doctor gets off the subway. Unfortunately, his spouting off with “To be human is to die” and “dying is what makes life worth living” do not help his cause.
Since _Angel_ went off the air, I’ve been hoping for something to come along and takes its place. A show that has a strong lead character who ,when push comes to shove, can throw down with anyone. Someone who isn’t afraid to get into areas of grey, even dark grey, when fighting the proverbial “good fight”. Oh, and that person having cool power like immortality wouldn’t hurt. FOX’s _New Amsterdam_ falls pretty far short of those goals. Instead of waiting to see if _New Amsterdam_ can gain its footing in this strike shortened season, it would be much wiser to catch up on the BBC’s _Torchwood_, with lead actor John Barrowman playing time traveler and former con man Jack Harkness, who nearly fits my 3 point criteria from the opening sentences. At least that way, you’ll have a James Marsters appearance to look forward to.