New Amsterdam Review: Things Fall Apart (Season 3 Episode 12)

A chemical spill threatens Max and Lauren’s lives on New Amsterdam Season 3 Episode 12, “Things Fall Apart,” but it’s not very suspenseful or engaging. 

It is still a quality episode. New Amsterdam holds to high standards. But we wait until the second half of the episode for any of the real action to happen.

When it finally does, it’s not very gripping. 

Max is the lead of New Amsterdam and it is not the season finale — he’s not going to die on “Things Fall Apart” and I never fear he will.

I also don’t feel any chemistry between Max and Helen, so the most intimate scene of the hour has no effect on me. 

Any scene can seem romantic if it is slowed down with dramatic music behind it, especially when one party is fighting for their life. Chemistry does not lie, though, and Max and Helen work better as friends than lovers. 

The phone call ringing right before they kiss is a cheap device that is unnecessary at this point. If Max and Helen are going to get together, it needs to happen at this point. Enough baiting us with weak chemistry. 

Lauren’s pivotal scene is more authentic than Max’s. Innovative cinematography allows us to see what Lauren sees as she’s losing her vision and trying to save her patient’s life. 

Less determined people might have given up sooner than she does, but it’s totally in character that she would collapse only after she is sure his airway is clear.  

Lauren’s struggle aside, it is disappointing that the chemical spill is much ado about nothing.

I don’t wish anyone dead. But everyone who comes in contact with the chemicals is perfectly fine eventually thanks to a quick fix at the midnight hour. The whole plot acts like a device to lead up to Gwen and Calvin’s custody bombshell. 

It has been foreshadowed all season, so it’s not exactly a surprise. It is startling that New Amsterdam would decide to go down this road, though. 

Perhaps someone watching is going through a nasty battle for custody of their child with their in-laws. But New Amsterdam is working hard to paint Max as an incompetent parent. 

Yes, he works a lot and his hours are erratic. But it makes no sense that he would not be able to pay for reliable childcare.

We see enough custody battles between bitter couples on TV. Creating a grandparents versus parent situation does not automatically make the story innovative and compelling. But I respect New Amsterdam enough to see where it goes. 

I also respect the parent of Iggy’s patient who forces him to really look at himself in the mirror. 

He makes some valid points to Martin about Chance, and legal action will probably put him in danger now because this is a fictional drama and New Amsterdam has been divisive lately.

But just like his sunny disposition and excess positivity does not help the parents of his patients, ignoring the reality of what is going on with Chance is just going to put his kids in more danger. 

His husband could not get this point across to him. So, if a metaphorical slap in the face from clients does the trick, it is what it is. 

It’s actually quite alarming how much Iggy’s personal issues have been seeping into his professional life all season. Something bad is coming. I can feel it. 

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New Amsterdam airs Tuesday at 10/9c on NBC.

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