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'New Amsterdam': Blame the victim
You know what probably sucks the most about living forever? Seeing the same horrible things happen over and over again. We get that on New Amsterdam this week, as a brutal rape case reminds our immortal hero of the evil that men do.
Coachman! Bring me my spoilers!
The Case of the Week involves the rapes in question. The first victim is a young nun, who dies when she gets to the hospital. The second is Amartya, a young Indian woman and a fashion designer. She's not happy to see the police -- no one must know about this! What's more, when her sister, Sharvi, gets to her hospital bed, she tells John and Eva that Amartya will not be pressing charges.
That doesn't stop John and Even from tracking down the perp. He's a cab driver, and his diabetes has given him huge, swollen, painful feet. That comes in hand when he grabs Eva. While John distracts him by admiring his big shiny knife, Eva takes the opportunity so stomp on his foot and evade his grasp. Cue the hand-to-hand fighting, during which John gets sliced, and eventually the perp is subdued.
The detectives find Amartya at work and convince her to come in for a lineup. She identifies the tender-footed perp, and he makes a scary run at the glass (even though no, he can't see her.) So, case closed, right? Not so fast -- apparently there's a problem with the DNA evidence and the perp is out on bail. What's worse -- much, much worse -- is the news brands Amartya as a publicity seeker and splashes her name and face on TV. You're going to have to give me a few moments to fling things at my TV, ok? (Yes, I know it's fiction, but the whole "blame the victim" mentality is way too real.)
John offers Amartya police protection, and while sister Sharvi initially declines for her (it's a family matter, Sharvi insists), she eventually ends up getting escorted to Omar's (Hi, Omar! You're awesome!) until John can find her a more permanent place. She tells John about her family -- she brought them over from a small town near Bangalore, they didn't like modern New York and eventually moved to Little India. Besides Sharvi, she's got her parents, two brothers and a younger sister who died in an "accident." Oh, crap, I can see where this is going...
Alas, John's offer of protection doesn't work -- she leaves Omar's, and her body is found stabbed to death in the park. Everyone is content to blame the original rapist, but John has his doubts -- the blade used is different. He confronts Sharvi in her store in Little India -- I know what happened to your sister in India, and I know what happened here. Eventually, Amartya's father comes down to the police station and John tells him that the perp confessed and is going to jail, but he said he'd raped Amartya again and went into great detail about the crime. That's going to be splashed all over the papers... Impossible! The father says. She wasn't raped again because I killed her! He'd rather murder than live with the Shame of having a "soiled" daughter, and rather confess and go to jail than let the family name be damaged. Both John and I respond by flinging furniture around the room.
John has seen this sort of thing before, and he wasn't always so enlightened. Back in 1813, Ye Olde John was a coachman for a rich drunkard, and he was wooing Fanny, a maid. The drunkard rapes Fanny, and when Ye Olde John finds out, he does not respond well: "He can't take from you what you hadn't given." Ass! Historically correct ass, but ass nonetheless. Ye Olde John eventually realizes the error of his ways when the drunkard paws a 13-year-old servant girl and slurs out threats about how Ye Olde John shouldn't take what a rich man owns.
Ye Olde John goes to the constable, who agrees to hear the charges for enough money. But when the drunkard presents more cash, the charges are dismissed before they're even heard. That prompts Ye Olde John to confront the drunkard during a dinner party and challenge him to a duel. It's probably not so historically correct that he didn't immediately get arrested and flogged for striking a gentleman, but I'll let it go since it was awfully satisfying to see drunkard slapped across the face with gloves. The two meet at dawn with pistols. Drunkard shoots first and wounds Ye Olde. John. Problem is, Ye Olde John just won't stay down. Drunkard tries bribery, but Ye Olde John is more interested in avenging his woman's honor by shooting the drunkard through the heart.
Finally, on the romance front, it seems that potential One Sarah isn't as married as she seems -- she and her hubby are separated, and she soon succumbs to John's winning charms. Can't blame the girl -- rowr. Maybe this whole finding true love thing isn't going to be so hard after all!
Fun facts about John:
- We learn more medical data about John: his blood clots ridiculously quickly, his platelet level is 10 times normal and he has a very low level of factor 8. Neither John nor I have any idea what this means. Any medical folks reading that care to explain?
- John served with Witcomb's Rangers -- a quick Google search tells me they fought the Battles of Hubbardton, Bennington and Saratoga during the American revolutionary war.
- This is the first time we've seen Ye Olde John with a less-than-prestigious profession. Does he decide to go blue-collar every few lifetimes?
- At the beginning of the episode, John seems to be dreaming of the nun's rape as it occurs. I really hope that was just a fluke -- the character is interesting enough without being some kind of psychic.
Quote of the week:
Sarah asks John about his scars:
Sarah: The one above your heart?
John: I ran into a sword
Sarah: A sword. What about your shoulder?
John: Bullet hole.
Sarah: Stomach?
John: Shotgun blast
Sarah: Arm?
John: Gardening accident... Nah, I didn't want to bore you. Another sword. Or more like a dagger, really.
I thought that was a rather sharp turn from Sara being married to suddenly being separated to ending up with John so very quickly. I can't believe that they didn't slow play them getting together. Let's see if that hurts or helps the show next week.
Rishi | Mar 17, 2008 9:54:36 PM | #Factor VIII is a clotting factor, and a low level causes hemophilia (easy bleeding). So that doesn't really fit with John's clotting tendency, although increased platelets would.
Allison | Mar 18, 2008 5:49:48 AM | #This was a very offensive episode. Honor killings are rare in India (and they are mostly dowry deaths), and certainly not the way of life in a place as developed as Bangalore. I couldn't tell what religion they were supposed to be (Amartya is a man's name, whereas Sharvi is a name I have never heard of), but assuming they were Hindus, this is a seriously unfair portrayal.
AC | Mar 18, 2008 7:42:28 AM | #Fairly good episode. I thought the case of the week was better this time, but they still don't seem as good as the flashback stories. (Hey, was that one of Jericho's rangers playing the rich drunkard?)
I also think the love story between John and the Doc is being rushed. It seems awfully convenient that she is seperated from her husband, and hooks up with John so fast.
Next week looks good. It appears that John may tell the Doc about his past.
The more I think about it this show shares some elements from 2 other new shows this year. Life and Moonlight. I like all 3 shows, but somehow I don't they will all get renewed. Does anyone know how many more episodes of 'New Amsterdam' were completed?
Thought this episode moved too quickly and ended too neat. A serial murderer/rapist, an honor-bound father talking about a previous engaged marriage, the red herring boyfriend, the romantic sub-plot, PLUS the flashbacks?
Methinks the hour doth be crammed too much. Which also lead to a lot of the subject matter getting gleamed over and thus mauled instead of being elaborated on and flowing smoothly.
pakopako | Mar 18, 2008 8:33:41 AM | #Thought this episode moved too quickly and ended too neat. A serial murderer/rapist, an honor-bound father talking about a previous engaged marriage, the red herring boyfriend, the romantic sub-plot, PLUS the flashbacks?
Methinks the hour doth be crammed too much. Which also lead to a lot of the subject matter getting gleamed over and thus mauled instead of being elaborated on and flowing smoothly.
Still, I have hope for this show. It is still a "quirky detective show" (such as with "Life" or "Raines" -- but as Bud Bundy once quipped, those were NBC shows so one paid attention)
pakopako | Mar 18, 2008 8:34:35 AM | #What's even worse about the drunkard perving on the little girl is that it was STRONGLY implied by the maid (the girl's mother) that the drunkard FATHERED that child. So not only was the drunkard a pedophile, he was perving after his own kid! He definitely deserved to die.
About the honor killing thing - some may take it as a stab at Indians, but the show made a strong effort to make up personal, country and newspaper names to make the problem a universal one - when women are treated like property, they will be abused, murdered and otherwise treated horribly. Doesn't matter if it's an American rich drunkard, an Indian father, or a man from a country in the Middle East somewhere -- if women are treated like chattel, horrible things are done to them in the name of honor, and it's WRONG. Taking offense at one portrayal in a show that made a point of mirroring that situation in an AMERICAN family setting is missing the point completely - but I guess it's easier to get angry about possibly insulting a religion than get angry at showing the results of what happens when a patriarchal religion is used to abuse women.
I thought it was an excellent episode.
bren | Mar 18, 2008 9:47:27 AM | #I have to say that I like last night's episode, thought the main plotline was tough to swallow at times.
First, it was interesting to see John being less a good guy in his flashback. I want to see more of his growth (and it looks like next week is about his drinking, so yay!)
Second, what about the rapist? Great, you caught the dad who kills his daughters. I'd be more worried about the rapist that is apparently still out there, driving cabs.
Third, the Doc being the "one". I thought it was pretty clear last week that the Doc and husband were separated. They didn't walk together on the street and had different last names (which is not great evidence, but was a suggestion to me). I LOVED that they got them together already. I don't believe their "souls have been wed", so we'll now get to see how they get from a blossoming relationship to soulmates. There's so much material to be mined in that arena, that I'm glad they didn't just keep them apart and make this a standard boy courts girl story.
Dwight | Mar 18, 2008 9:50:00 AM | #John and the Doc this quick? Either she's not it or she's not long for the series....or both. Season finale she's a goner...at the latest.
| Mar 18, 2008 1:09:23 PM | #Ok Ladies, I loved the fact that they got John and the Doc together, as we all know she is not the one or the season would be over. Also wouldnt he react each time he sees her. Anyway does it not intrege you ladies out there that this is a 435 year old man and has had over 400 years to perfect his craft in bed. (think about it) I cant be the only one out there that thought that during the love scene.
I love the relationship between Omar and John. Omar is so protective of 'his dad' it is sweet.
Keeping my fingers crossed for renewal.
darrpub | Mar 18, 2008 1:51:36 PM | #
eh. i'm starting to think that perhaps the doc isn't "the one"; if she were, the show'd be going too quickly, in my humble opinion. perhaps it was someone else who made his heart...explode on the train platform and he just mistook the person for the doc.
also, more funny-face-makings-when-running. das ist gut. other than that, i can pretty muck take or leave this show. i'm still waiting to be wowed.
washington | Mar 18, 2008 2:04:11 PM | #Offensive, AC? Not hardly offensive enough, if you ask me. Any form of honor killing, be it done once or a million times, is a useless, stupid, backwards, archaic, medieval, pathetic form of control that needs to be completely abolished, in every country, in every religion and in all its forms. I really don't give a damn who might've found that part of the episode hard to swallow; it happens, and it needs to stop. Also, it's not like the honor killing plotline is being shown all day, every day on every police procedural that's out there. In fact, the last time I can recall this kind of heinous crime being portrayed on network TV was on a Law & Order SVU episode about five or six years ago. What really and thoroughly pissed me off is the fact that people think that they can bring the more evil parts of their cultures to other parts of the world and expect to get away with what are crimes in most forward-thinking cultures. Hinduism and Indian culture is fascinating, as most Eastern cultures and religions are, but like any other place on the planet, they also have their dark sides. If those evil parts of a culture are not brought out into the sunlight from time-to-time, they'll continue. The same is true for the historical part of the episode, where John was coachman to a worthless, obnoxious waste of human flesh who just happened to be both wealthy and a pedophile. John could've easily taken him out into the woods somewhere during one of the bastard's regular drinking sessions, beaten him to death and nobody would've been the wiser. The fact that John used the perv's own twisted sense of honor against him was mirrored when the modern criminal was brought in and charged with two of his daughters' murders. Honor is only honor if it honors everyone. For us to live in the 21st century and still have to put up with even one person killing a child for no reason other than they tweaked their testicles a bit shows how far we have to go as a species. As for the John-Sarah romance, I'm with others who've already written here: meh. Also, and this might be happening because this is a midseason replacement, a lot of things are going pretty quickly in terms of revelations. Learning that Omar was John's son in the second episode would normally not have happened on other shows until well into the season. There are flaws aplenty in New Amsterdam, but I'm glad they have the spine to handle more sensitive topics that resonate both in the past and the present. Ignoring a problem, or pretending it doesn't exist at all won't make it go away. Honor killings infuriate me, and so I tend to speak against them more passionately than I do about, say, somebody feeling offended because they don't like to admit things like this happen, and more than once a century or so. Unless people choose to do something about them, they'll continue. So, decent episode, glad Fox is giving the show a chance to develop. NBC should take lessons.
Dark Disciple | Mar 18, 2008 2:36:18 PM | #The doctor doesn't seem like "The One" to me either. There were other women getting off the subway and that were walking by John when his heart exploded. This woman seems like she appeared far too quickly if they expected "New Amsterdam" to last for more than a few episodes.
lem | Mar 18, 2008 2:40:13 PM | #very surprised that they had sarah and john get together so soon. i was sort of expecting the standard season long or multiple season long arc of when-will-they or will-they get together. i'll admit, i'm intrigued to see where they will go from here now as they pretty much had the two characters be together and this is only the fourth episode. will sarah find out john's secret and put the show on a new direction or will it do the superman-lois thing and not have her find out until way later? i hope we get a chance to find out.
joits | Mar 18, 2008 3:13:04 PM | #Dwight- Just before John went in to interrogate the father, one of the other detectives mentioned that they'd found a new witness in the rape/murder of the nun and that they'd picked up the rapist, so that plot line was tied up, just not with much fanfare.
KWH | Mar 18, 2008 4:31:16 PM | #In answer to Shaggysteve's question, there should be 4 more episodes left for New Amsterdam
krzama | Mar 18, 2008 4:42:36 PM | #krzama-
thank you. I wasn't sure how much longer they had to wrap up the season.
Dark Disciple-
Is there any show out there you don't watch? I've seen your comments on almost every post I visit. Your comments may be long, but you usually make some good points. Keep it up. We do listen.
Shaggysteve | Mar 18, 2008 4:58:22 PM | #I have really been enjoying this show, even though there have been weak points in the storylines each week (sometimes the murder cases, sometimes something else). I do tend to give an otherwise well-done show some leeway on that sort of thing, and I definitely do on this one too.
I also think John and Sarah have gotten together way too quickly, which to me does indicate that she isn't the "one" that he is looking for. Has he already met her? I'll just throw out a random thought that crossed my mind during the first episode - what if the "one" who affected him so much then was Eva, his new partner? He's focusing so much on Sarah right now that he isn't even considering that another woman entered his life that same day.
Melody | Mar 18, 2008 11:14:26 PM | #I was so worried that they were going to throw a crazy twist in there, like the drunkard was another one of his sons.
All in all, solid episode. The pacing has improved a bit from the early stages. The character developments are going well.
The one thing that I would ask is that, at some point, they stop the whole "John has an epiphany and solves it" thing. Sure, he's great, but everyone's fallible. Life started out the same way. Doesn't mean that he doesn't solve all the cases, but like Damian Lewis, they need to stop having those "moments" and let things come more naturally.
Barring a surprise, I don't think the one is Eva. I doubt she was at the subway station, unless they want to go back and explain it as some sort of delayed reaction.
That said, I don't think it's the Sara Dillane character either. I can see this as building up companions for John, because otherwise it's John, Omar and 36 (or 39?), and while intriguing, not that dynamic.
If the show makes it to a 2nd season (and while I like it, it does seem iffy), I imagine they'll slowly have him realize that she's not the one, but that he cares for her. But instead of her being a stopgap, he'll perhaps have to face a tough decision on what to do, and I can see the two characters becoming good friends. It would work for me mentally.
Tony | Mar 19, 2008 12:59:30 AM | #We don't hear about honor killings in India so much, but I kind of think the writers wanted to focus on the whole concept of honor killings rather than pick on a particular country or religion.
I liked it that John wasn't entirely enlightened in the flashback sequences. After all, he started out as a 17th century man. He would have had most of the biases and beliefs of that time period, and it would have taken time for him to "grow" out of that. (Fortunately, he's had a lot of time.)
As soon as Sarah's husband was introduced, my husband said, "But they're not living together. John never spotted him while he had her under surveillance."
As for John and Sarah getting together already, that was a surprise. It could mean that 1) Sarah is NOT the One, or 2) this whole wedded souls thing is a lot more complex than romance/sex/love.
meggins | Mar 21, 2008 8:45:28 PM | #
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