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I never thought of myself as a detail person.  I always thought I wallowed in the big picture and let others tend to the small stuff.  I should stop defining myself by who I was in high school.  College taught me to edit.  Then I married an engineer.  Experiences like this leave me always noticing the smallest details.  The new outlook makes television hard to endure at times.

For instance, I have been reviewing Jericho this season as well and watched the DVD set of last season.  The concept for the show intrigued me, but the director and crew’s inability to execute the details of production ruined the show for me.  (My brother-in-law Phil will never let me live it down that I don’t like such a great show.)

But here it is:  the details.  Remember when the school burned down during season one and Eric was trapped with Heather?  Heather picks up a stuffed snake which preschools often use as lap pads to calm children during storytime.  She picked it up from a whole pile of stuffed snakes.  They soak it with water and tuck it down at the bottom of the door to stop the smoke from entering the room.  But there’s another door and smoke is coming in.  Eric yells, “We need another snake,” and Heather replies that they don’t have any, even though there is a whole pile at her feet.  No doubt the
actors stuck to the script, but set design should have caught that mistake.  Those types of mistakes fill Jericho and distract people like me from getting caught up in the story.

So why am I saying all of this right now?  Because on New Amsterdam, the crew is getting it right, from the original Leaves of Grass cover page without the name of Walt Whitman to the winter sleighs resting in the coachman’s stables as John says goodbye to Fanny.  I love a show I can watch more than once and notice how layered the set appears as well as the dialogue and the history.  The careful attention to detail may be attributed to the amount of time the producers had during the writer’s strike, but their efforts may be worthwhile if they get the funding and audience to
continue with the same quality of episodes.

Since I loaded up the computer to watch the last episode, my husband watched the others over again to catch up. I did the same and noticed even more details that impressed me.  I finally understand the confusion they are building up with Eva appearing just before the heart attack. I can’t believe I actually missed the big picture because I was reveling in the details.  (By the way, her character’s last name is misspelled on the website, appearing with two different spellings on the bio page – again the details)

John’s relationship with Eva simmered down after the initial phase of spunky cop sparring when he found and re-offered her application for narcotics.  This wasn’t a moment of love, but it did end the petty bickering.  Now their relationship is settling into a friendship and she appears more like the girl next door.  If John ever notices, he might find she’s already falling for him.  Actress Zuleihka Robinson pulls us to Eva’s cheer squad, rooting for her to stay in the game.

So who is “The One”?  That’s what everyone is asking now.

With this episode throwing rays of heat between John and Sara, I thought it actually worked against Sara.  Sara doesn’t believe in “one true love.” Yes, she threw herself at John, but not with an attitude of love.  She just wants a fling with a medical anomaly.  What doctor wouldn’t?  In light of the fact that they have nothing in common outside of coffee and chemistry – and maybe they’ve both amputated a limb – you don’t have something that will last past the novelty, unlike this show.  This show will last past the novelty.

The victim, Amortia, whose Indian name means “immortal,” told him that she believed souls are reincarnated over and over until they find their one true love.  If she’s “The One,” John will have to wait another twenty to thirty years until her reincarnated self reaches an old enough age to marry again.  That would give the producers lots more seasons, but even I won’t wait that long.

Then there’s Eva.  Eva is proving to be his equal: smart enough to know a “savant” when she sees one, tough enough to only be mildly annoyed by a knife to her throat, and involved in his life enough that she might just believe him someday when he says, “By the way, all these crazy ramblings were actually true.” (I really want to see the flaskbacks revealing how his wives took the news.) She is also becoming enough of a friend that he is bringing her by Omar’s so that they can hang out after work.  Oddly enough, the episode that led to Sara Dillane actually convinced me Eva’s “The One.”

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