New Amsterdam

March 4th, 2008

Filed under: Medicine, TV

New AmsterdamSo far it’s an interesting show about an immortal New York detective and I’d say it has definitely has the potential to be a good show

I did have a couple of medical nitpicks, though. The first one I’ve mentioned multiple times.

AmsterdamYou don’t shock asystole (a flatline) — not only does it not work, but it’s actually counterproductive. Giving epinephrine or atropine is fine. CPR is good. Transvenous pacing is better. Defibrillation — not a good idea.

AmsterdamIf Amsterdam has such a rare blood type that everyone who has it died out, why are they testing for it?

AmsterdamFinally, on a non-medical note, in the last flashback it was rather disconcerting to see the New York area tribes of Native Americans living in tipis — which were used by the tribes of the Great Plains, not the northeast.

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8 Responses to “ New Amsterdam ”

  1. Keith
    March 5th, 2008 at 7:28 am

    In a normal (non-writer’s strike) universe, New Amsterdam would be on tv at 2 am Sunday morning, sandwiched between reruns of ‘Space Precinct’ and ‘Forever Knight.’ I wouldn’t worry too much about it’s scientific veracity.

    Immortality, like crime-fighting vampires (why do they always have to fight crime?), is a plot device whose shelf-life has long expired.

  2. Aler
    March 5th, 2008 at 8:19 am

    With respect to tipi’s:

    I grew up in Nova Scotia, which was originally populated by the Mik’maq (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikmaq), who are affiliated with the Algonquins. When we studied them in elementary school, and visited the celebrations for treaty day, their buildings were called wigwams, but were definitely conical like the sterotypical tipi (http://museum.gov.ns.ca/arch/infos/mikmaq1.htm http://www.muiniskw.org/pgCulture1d.htm). I think the distinction between the two types of buildings is a little blurry. I don’t know much about the native groups of New York, but tipi-looking buildings did exist in the north-east.

    I’d still place my bets on this being an art-direction error on the show, but it may not be as clear-cut as it seems.

  3. fluffy
    March 5th, 2008 at 11:46 am

    You’d think that John Amsterdam would have a note in his medical records by now, “Note: Has a habit of dying and coming back to life.”

    I think the best thing about this show is that only 7 episodes have been produced and Fox won’t greenlight any further production until they have a better idea of how the show will do. Which means they’ll probably broadcast the first three episodes, then suddenly stop showing it at all until they have some free chunk of time in the summer when they show the last four episodes, and then a small but vocal contingent of TV fans will start up a million e-petitions to bring it back and it will be otherwise forgotten.

    (Obviously, I didn’t like it. It was like a boring version of The Highlander TV series, without any reason to even care about the protagonist or worry about his situation.)

  4. Rob
    March 5th, 2008 at 4:48 pm

    I was happy to see an immortal who isn’t all-consumed by angst. Sure, he’s got the “one true love” thing going (OK, that was pretty damn stupid), but he’s also clearly got a sense of humor, hobbies, a craft he pursues and enjoys, friends, and lovers. You’d think all Angel, Nick Knight, the Macleods, and the Moonlight guy ever did was brood for days on end until somebody tried to kill them or destroy the world or whatever.

    Regarding Tipis – I am pretty sure the Algonquin people who lived on Manhattan island built longhouses. Positive, in fact. They probably built wigwams during the summer, but I think I remember the homes in the show being skin tents, which is a plains Indian structure.

    Anyway, this show is definitely destined for obscurity, so I’m pretty glad I have no reason to care about the protagonist. It’ll make it easier to stop watching and completely forget about when the last four episodes get aired out of order on a different night each week, and my DVR only gets half of two of them because they were preempted by women’s shuffleboard. Or does Fox only do that to good shows?

  5. Marc
    March 6th, 2008 at 12:30 am

    A GREAT medical series that just started up again is Canada’s “ReGenesis”. I would LOVE to see your take on this series; it features a very “House”-esque protagonist as a biological researcher tasked to investigate biological threats to the American continent (CA/US/Mexico).

    First ep. involves antibiotic-resistant TB and pain immunity cases. You may need to download it,though.

  6. Graeme
    March 6th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

    Was it ever said that the natives were Algonquins? It may have just been a random, quickly killed off native tribe who’s traditions (making people immortal) were lost to the ages.

  7. Rob
    March 6th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Well all of Manhattan island belonged to loosely affiliated Algonquin speaking tribes (Wikipedia says Lenape, which is not a name I remember). It would be pretty odd, I would think, for an unrelated tribe with the traditions of Indians from another region of the U.S. to set up camp in Times Square just long enough to get raided by the Dutch. Seems safer to just assume they were part of the group we know were there.

  8. fluffy
    March 6th, 2008 at 3:39 pm

    Marc: I’ve been watching ReGenesis for a while, and recently turned my parents onto it. Unfortunately, it’s only shown in some parts of the US (such as here in San Francsico, where we’re still just on the second season), and doesn’t appear to be available on DVD except in Germany. So it kind of sucks to be my parents, I guess.

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