I watched the audience acclaimed series New Amsterdam on Netflix. The main reason I did so is the character Max presents an echo of myself as a young man. He is thrilled to be at work because he is on a "one man mission" which is to right wrongs. The only way he knows how to achieve this outcome is to create "the world of Max". Inside this world live a crew of characters who put flesh on the bones of a story. These characters form a tribe and their talisman is the simple phrase "how can I help?"
Max is unrelenting, charismatic, imaginative, and determined. He gets things done within a space and time that is stagnant due to established protocols, processes, and procedures. Because Max is a thinker not a doer he has assembled a core team of assistants who do his bidding in haste rather than slough. This means the deficiencies of Max and his crew go unnoticed or are largely ignored. For instance, his head of emergency services is a drug addict. His psychologist has deep-seated personal issues. His oncologist is blindly in love with him. His key surgeon is a plumber [see photo]. Nonetheless each character is a precious part of the jigsaw of human tragedies that is New Amsterdam.
So what is New Amsterdam?
New Amsterdam is a metaphor for life. We are all frail. We are all overwhelmed by a system which does bad things and covers them up. We are all strong until we are not. We are all propped up by unsung heroes who give us all they have got. We are all delusional about what we can achieve in one lifetime. We are all plumbers doing the best we can. We are all lovers who cheat on those we cherish the most. We are all less than we think we can be or more than we thought we could be. We are all searching for something that we might have already found but now overlook. We are all flawed humans
Richard
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