New Amsterdam Review: Rituals (Season 1 Episode 2)
On New Amsterdam Season 1 Episode 2, “Rituals,” Max is forced to balance problems coming at him from every direction. His personal and professional lives are both crumbling as he desperately tries to succeed in both arenas.
Max Goodwin might just be the most naive, idealistic character I’ve ever seen on television. I absolutely love the concept of a medical drama about doctors fighting to fix our broken healthcare system. However, I’m tremendously let down by the way New Amsterdam is going about it.
Healthcare is complicated. There are very few problems that can be solved simply by saying “done” when someone asks for something.
I’m baffled by the notion that the ER could just do away with the waiting room. What happens when they run out of beds in the back? Where is the money coming from to hire all these new nurses that Dr. Bloom now needs? Come on, Max — you have to think these things through!
I worry that this is sending a false message to the American public about how healthcare actually works. I mean, our own president claims he was shocked to discover how complex the system is. If it was as easy as Max is making it look, I’m confident our system wouldn’t be the way it is today.
New Amsterdam makes important note of the small issues as well as the large ones. I know a medical director couldn’t actually remove an ER waiting room, but I hope he could do something like remove vending machines from the pediatrics floors. Just because we can’t instantly fix large problems doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fix what we can when we can.
Max: Does it start with a C and end with childhood obesity?
One of my favorite moments of “Ritual” is when Max takes the time to support the janitorial staff. Those people are the unsung heroes of the hospital. Max empowers them and includes them in his mission to reduce infection rates.
Max is trying his best to make multiple changes in the hospital all at once. He is totally swamped with work, and his pregnant wife is paying the price.
I’m actually having trouble believing Max’s ambition to the point of neglecting his wife — especially with his cancer diagnosis hanging over his head. Max seems to have such a big heart and so much compassion, but he has none of it left over for his family.
It’s a common trope on medical dramas. The doctor cares so deeply for his patients but totally ignores his own family. I guess it works well for creating conflict while not making you think the character is a heartless robot.
Max really needs to tell his wife about his diagnosis, but he’s between a rock and a hard place. He can’t stress her out with the news, although keeping secrets from her is definitely making her anxious.
Max has to accept his diagnosis. It’s going to be a rough road, but waiting is only making it worse for his health and for his wife. He has already wasted so much valuable time.
In other business, Drs. Frome and Kapoor work to help a young boy who is being ridiculously over-medicated for an unknown psychological condition.
While New Amsterdam may not be doing the best job of presenting solutions to healthcare problems, it is doing an excellent job of making people aware of the existence of those problems. There is a serious shortage of mental health professionals in schools.
At the end of the day, it is so much easier to just give a child a pill to make them behave and be quiet than to figure out what the problem actually is and fix it. It’s a sad truth, and Dr. Frome presents it well. He does an excellent job of not blaming the school psychiatrist and highlighting the real issue.
He is doing his best to simply help one patient at a time. He isn’t trying to fix the entire public school system or the state of the mental health department; he just focuses on helping the patient in front of him.
It presents an interesting contrast to Max’s work. I hope we see all the doctors band together instead of everyone working on their own projects in their own way.
That’s how actual change can be made at New Amsterdam.
What did you think of this episode of New Amsterdam? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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New Amsterdam airs Tuesdays at 10/9c on NBC.
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Meagan McNicholas
Meagan is a medical student by day and TV obsessive by night. While Lorelai Gilmore and Kate Beckett stole her heart, she has Jake Peralta and Leslie Knope to thank for keeping her laughing through the stressful times. Her knowledge of TV is unmatched, and she takes great pride in knowing her shows better than anyone else. Meagan has one year of school left before she attempts to be a better intern than Meredith Grey.