New Amsterdam was her name...
Mar. 13th, 2008 01:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
libertango...before she was New York.
Anyway. So I've been watching Hulu, and stumbled on New Amsterdam.
Hulu has three eps up, with stated original air dates of 3/4, 3/6, and 3/10... so this is a very new show, and that's probably a full run to date, starting with the pilot.
Here's the description they have:
"In 1642, John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster Waldau), then a Dutch soldier in the colony of New Amsterdam - later to become New York - stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her tribe. The girl in turn rescued Amsterdam, weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him. Amsterdam will not age until he finds his one true love. But Amsterdam has found this to be a mixed blessing. Over the course of three centuries, he has experienced endless adventure and honed his many talents. But everyone Amsterdam meets must leave him in time. Lovers and children die while he remains young. As the exhilaration of eternal life has given way to emotional isolation, Amsterdam discovers that the blessing has become a curse."
SF readers will see Lazarus Long in there, but the series adds in a murder mystery angle through making Amsterdam an NYPD Homicide detective. There's a sardonic grizzled nightclub owner named Omar who Amsterdam hangs out with -- and turns out to be his son. Amsterdam has a near encyclopedic knowledge of the city (as its longest-standing resident), and there are flashbacks to colonial days, WWII, the Civil War, and more besides.
I wouldn't say it fully lives up to its premise. But it's definitely tickling many of the complex bones one can think of.
The team is something else, too, in a multinational way. Swede Lasse Hallstrom is one of the producers. Waldau is Danish, and has a vague physical resemblance to Denis Leary. Amsterdam's police partner, Eva Marquez, is played by Zuleikha Robinson, a Brit of Persian heritage (and who was in HBO's Rome, though I haven't seen that).
The real trick in writing this has been to give a fully rounded description without giving away too many of the grace touches throughout.
Recommended.
Anyway. So I've been watching Hulu, and stumbled on New Amsterdam.
Hulu has three eps up, with stated original air dates of 3/4, 3/6, and 3/10... so this is a very new show, and that's probably a full run to date, starting with the pilot.
Here's the description they have:
"In 1642, John Amsterdam (Nikolaj Coster Waldau), then a Dutch soldier in the colony of New Amsterdam - later to become New York - stepped in front of a sword to save the life of a Native American girl during a massacre of her tribe. The girl in turn rescued Amsterdam, weaving an ancient spell that conferred immortality upon him. Amsterdam will not age until he finds his one true love. But Amsterdam has found this to be a mixed blessing. Over the course of three centuries, he has experienced endless adventure and honed his many talents. But everyone Amsterdam meets must leave him in time. Lovers and children die while he remains young. As the exhilaration of eternal life has given way to emotional isolation, Amsterdam discovers that the blessing has become a curse."
SF readers will see Lazarus Long in there, but the series adds in a murder mystery angle through making Amsterdam an NYPD Homicide detective. There's a sardonic grizzled nightclub owner named Omar who Amsterdam hangs out with -- and turns out to be his son. Amsterdam has a near encyclopedic knowledge of the city (as its longest-standing resident), and there are flashbacks to colonial days, WWII, the Civil War, and more besides.
I wouldn't say it fully lives up to its premise. But it's definitely tickling many of the complex bones one can think of.
The team is something else, too, in a multinational way. Swede Lasse Hallstrom is one of the producers. Waldau is Danish, and has a vague physical resemblance to Denis Leary. Amsterdam's police partner, Eva Marquez, is played by Zuleikha Robinson, a Brit of Persian heritage (and who was in HBO's Rome, though I haven't seen that).
The real trick in writing this has been to give a fully rounded description without giving away too many of the grace touches throughout.
Recommended.
