New Amsterdam Review: The Empty Spaces / Don’t Do This For Me (Season 5 Episodes 9 and 10)

New Amsterdam Season 5 Episode 9, “The Empty Spaces,” and New Amsterdam Season 5 Episode 10, “Don’t Do This For Me,” set up the beginning of the end. Some of it works, and a lot of it doesn’t.

The mid-season finale illustrates so many of the issues that this show has faced in its final season, including bizarre character choices.

Let’s begin with what is the strongest element of this episode, which is the character spotlight on Elizabeth and her relationship with Marlee Matlin’s character.

For so much of this season, New Amsterdam has struggled to showcase Elizabeth’s strengths. Her abilities as a clinician have never been a question. What is an odd choice is to show her character consistently ignoring her patient’s wishes and not understanding their perspective.

Finally, Elizabeth really gets a chance in the spotlight, and we are all invited into her world to share her perspective. It’s true, as a deaf surgeon she is so often disregarded, albeit unintentionally, by her colleagues, even those who she is very close to. 

Seeing her call out Max, who really needed to be, for only learning ASL when meeting her is cathartic. He’s the medical director of a major hospital. Why he is he only now learning ASL when he’s into her romantically? It’s suspicious, is what I’m saying. 

New Amsterdam has always needed Marlee Matlin to be the mentor that Elizabeth’s character deserves. The prospect of Elizabeth herself becoming a mentor to the next generation of deaf physicians feels like a culmination of her character arc.

The scenes between Sandra Mae Frank and Marlee Matlin are shot so effectively. The fact that the background noise fades away just makes every scene with them more immersive. It’s captivating, and the only drawback is that there is not more of these two.

It’s clear that there is so much mutual respect between these two characters, as friends and as mentor-mentee. Their perspectives are presented as equally valid. However, Bev is simply trying to share her lived experiences and point out the realities of existing as a deaf person in a hearing space.

It’s a shame that the focus of the episode is not more of the dynamic between Bev and Elizabeth. Of course, because New Amsterdam is what it is, the spotlight immediately has to shift to Elizabeth and Max, and some archival footage of Helen Sharpe that causes chaos. 

It’s also clear that New Amsterdam was never interested in even trying to set these two up as a couple. Not that they ever should have been, but it’s more evident than ever that this was never the endgame.

Seriously, if this old clip of Helen talking on the TV is enough to completely throw Max into a spiral, was he ever that stable? 

It’s true that if he really valued Elizabeth, both as a person and as a potential romantic partner, he would not have waited so long to attempt to become part of her world. Instead, he displays a stunning amount of entitlement.

Max can blame his general feeling of being lost on Helen’s departure. Unfortunately, without Helen around, it’s clear that Max just needs a woman to be his wife and absorb all of his emotional trauma. It’s not a good look. 

This episode also features the most bizarre quest for Max, at least in a while. It’s not even a reflection of the internal chaos that Max is known for. Everything about his latest misguided venture is just sad.

Max’s story does provide a venue to explore the fact that the real villain of the medical system is patient satisfaction scores. There isn’t a healthcare provider that won’t tell you how mostly useless this information is. It’s nice to see Max acknowledge this, and weird to see him try to fix the issue.

Max has to balance this with being an attending, which, honestly, at this point, makes sense. Why wouldn’t he add another role to his portfolio, even when it makes no sense at all?

His guidance to the new doctor, about the importance of separating herself from her work because she can’t save everyone, is sage. Unfortunately, it rings a little bit hollow when he has never been able to recognize this fact himself.  

New Amsterdam also still can’t find a compelling story for Floyd. It just seems fitting that this will not change as the series comes to a close. Perhaps we should just be thankful they got rid of the weird baby storyline.

However, in another example of New Amsterdam as a hospital being very lax with specialties, Floyd is trying his hand at OB. No one asked to hear more of Floyd’s problematic views on pregnancy and childbirth. Yet, this is what the episode gives us.

His patient is so sympathetic. This is a real situation that faces many people about to give birth. The show could have made a commentary on the lack of support for pregnant patients who live with addictions. Instead, we get way more of Floyd and this new potential relationship than anyone needs.  

New Amsterdam seems to have no interest in developing Floyd beyond a single dimension. Maybe the best that fans can hope is that the powers that be don’t take his story too far into strange waters. 

New Amsterdam can never let Lauren know a moment’s peace. It wouldn’t be the series otherwise. Especially in this final season, she has essentially gone back to the beginning of her character arc, lost and faced with unimaginable tragedy.

We know her mother passed away. The choice to not mention this in any meaningful way is deeply bizarre. If the intent of the story here is to compare and contrast Lauren and Vanessa’s reactions, it fails miserably.

With everything that Lauren has been through this year, it just seems like piling on to have her have to treat her sister. At least Lauren gets a chance to set some boundaries, and recognize how she continues to enable her sister in her substance use.

Lauren’s treatment of two children in a devastating situation is also questionable. So much of this medical case reads as Lauren projecting her own issues and having to raise herself from a young age. This case could have been so much more.

The Iggy storyline makes sense in that New Amsterdam is just committed to making sure that this character never shows an ounce of self-awareness. 

Martin has always deserved better than Iggy’s shenanigans. It’s heartbreaking to see him still consistently pulled into Iggy’s toxic orbit. There’s no hope for this relationship if Iggy can’t recognize himself as the core of at least most of his issues.

The one redeeming quality Iggy displays on this episode is that he isn’t afraid to stand up to Max when he’s gone too far. It’s disappointing that Iggy is the one to confront Max, since Iggy repeatedly demonstrates that he lacks the awareness to do so. 

As New Amsterdam approaches its final episodes, there’s a feeling that this story could have been so much for. Instead, each episode approaching the finale seems intent on destroying the legacy of what could have been among the most compelling medical dramas on network TV.

When the show re-convenes in January, there is little hope that there will be any semblance of these beloved characters who spent four seasons making a massive impact. 

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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