Sci-Fi News and Reviews

I thought the premier was respectable, and covered John's past without getting overly maudlin and sentimental - he lives and works and contributes to society until he finds his true love. Sounds interesting. I'm looking forward to checking out the upcoming episodes.

And other than Sci-Fi Fodder, I haven't see anyone comparing New Amsterdam to Angel, only endlessly to Highlander, which makes me question why genre fans can't seem to accept ANY new series without feeling compelled to compare it endlessly and tiresomely to some other genre fare. Cop show fans don't seem to be motivated to shoot-in-the-foot every new procedural that comes down the pike. Apparently genre fans LIKE having only a couple of new offerings to nit-pick into cancellation while leaving the TV-viewing field wide open to the 700th procedural to air unhindered.

After watching the first two, I think they have something to work with here. You could say that it exceeded my expectations!

However, I do think the 'detective' portions of the show need some work. It does seem that John instantly knows the culprit from a cursory look at the crime scene - evidently from his 400 years of experience. It's like he's a Columbo-savant.

As for the Angel comparisons...I think the problem is that when a genre show is good, it's REALLY good. And, those type of shows stay in memory for a long time, which makes it difficult to stop the 'this is like that other show that was so good that this show can't possibly be as good' sentiments. Cops shows are all the same to me - I've never watched one to the point of an 'Angel'-like obsession - and there are a lot more of them, so they don't suffer as much from this issue.

I agree that a great genre shows stay in the memory a long time; i.e. Farscape, Angel. Great cop shows stay in the memory a long time as well, i.e. Hill Street Blues, The Wire. But cop-show fans don't hurt their genre's productions by nit-picking the series into a premature death. Nor do they appear to be lead like sheep-on-a-string into hating a show as easily as genre fans. Maybe that's because there's an awful lot more cop fans, I don't know. But you'd think that this discrepancy in viewership would urge genre fans to give genre offerings more than a cursory look before turning up their collective noses at a show.