New Amsterdam's 5 Best Episodes According To IMDb
NBC's "New Amsterdam" might have a fairly typical premise for a doctor show, but anyone who goes in expecting a light-hearted medical drama has another thing coming. This show's take on the "idealistic doctor trying to make the hospital better" trope pulls no punches. While there's plenty of obligatory romance and interpersonal tension, New Amsterdam Medical Center prescribes a healthy dose of realism with every episode. Characters still have their quirks, but more often than not, there's a solid explanation behind them. Real-life events that impact healthcare professionals are more than likely to make an appearance in the show. All in all, "New Amsterdam" has a knack for hitting closer to home than you might think.
During its five-season run, the show covered all sorts of topics, and its characters have gone through one wringer after another. Some of the individual episodes have become particular fan favorites, and now, we'll take a look at the five "New Amsterdam" episodes that IMDb has deemed the best.
Season 1, Episode 22 - Luna
Dr. Max Goodwin's (Ryan Eggold) patient-first approach and drastic decisions made the medical director a controversial figure in New Amsterdam early in his tenure, and his personal life is no less dramatic than his approach to work. The Season 1 finale, "Luna," brings unprecedented turmoil to both sides of his life in one fell swoop that has made it far and away the highest-rated "New Amsterdam" episode on IMDb.
"Luna" has everything you'd expect from a good medical drama season finale, from relationship turmoil and ethical issues to gruesome emergency situations. However, as the name implies, the backbone of the episode is the plot line that deals with the dramatic emergency C-section home birth of Max and Georgia's (Lisa O'Hare) daughter, Luna (Nora and Opal Glow). Max and Dr. Bloom (Janet Montgomery) try to save both Georgia and the baby after a damaged placenta causes life-threatening bleeding. After some serious tension, a number of twists and turns crash the main plot with a side quest involving a fugitive lawyer called Wilson Hatch (Eric Steffer Stevens) ... literally. Hatch steals an ambulance and ends up driving it into the one the Goodwins, Dr. Bloom, and Dr. Sharpe (Freema Agyeman) are riding. The season ends on the crash site, with Max cradling the newborn Luna in his arms among the wreckage.
Apart from being a stellar slice of "New Amsterdam" in its own right, "Luna" sets up several important plot lines that feature heavily in the rest of the show's duration. As such, some of the show's finest moments can be traced back to this specific, dramatic episode.
Season 5, Episode 13 - How Can I Help?
As it happens, Luna also plays a role in the second-best "New Amsterdam" episode. Series finales can be tricky to pull off, but "New Amsterdam" certainly succeeded with "How Can I Help?" The very last episode of the show's fifth and final season shoulders the mighty task of bringing each and every plotline to a satisfactory conclusion. It's pretty safe to say that the mission was a resounding success.
"How Can I Help?" is an episode of goodbyes and new beginnings. As Dr. Goodwin prepares for the next step of his career by accepting a job at the World Health Organization and handing the medical director reins to Dr. Elizabeth Wilder (Sandra Mae Frank), fans get a full round of farewells, goodbyes, and happy closures — as well as one last difficult surgery case, this time on a patient from Ukraine.
However, the series finale has a big surprise up its sleeve. Though Max moves on with his life and career, a nifty flash-forward reveals that the Goodwin family is far from done with New Amsterdam Medical Center. As we find out, Max's daughter will eventually follow in her father's footsteps. As such, the series closes with a flash-forward scene of New Amsterdam medical director Dr. Luna Goodwin (Molly Griggs) uttering her father's motto: "How can I help?" Talk about sneaking in one last tug of the audience's heartstrings.
Season 2, Episode 1 - Your Turn
With the cliffhangers and plot points that "Luna" leaves dangling at the end of "New Amsterdam" Season 1, it's hardly a surprise that the follow-up episode rates quite highly, as well. The Season 2 opener, "Your Turn," ushers the show's sophomore season in with a bang. While the viewer goes in with full knowledge that someone died in the ambulance crash that ended "Luna," "Your Turn" takes its sweet time before finally revealing that the major character we lost is none other than Georgia.
With his wife dead but his daughter alive, Dr. Goodwin's life has now irrevocably changed, but even so, the Georgia revelation is just one of the many times the episode rattles the show's tectonic plates. "Your Turn" all but states that the lingering agony from the ambulance crash will go on to impact Dr. Bloom's life in many ways, and the episode also takes the time to set up huge things for various "New Amsterdam" couples — both good and bad.
Some of the most important things in the show either begin or conclude in "Your Turn," and for that, it deserves its place among the most beloved "New Amsterdam" episodes.
Season 3, Episode 1 - The New Normal
"New Amsterdam" has rarely been afraid to tackle important issues that impact hospitals in real life. On occasion, the show has actually managed to be ahead of the curve — namely, the original, pandemic-themed Season 2 finale had to be hastily scrapped due to the real-life global COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, what we got was "A Matter of Seconds," a serviceable if rather detached episode that, however, did a good job introducing fans to Daniel Dae Kim's jovially abrasive trauma surgeon, Dr. Shin. Don't think that "New Amsterdam" was unwilling to tackle the real-life pandemic situation, though. On the contrary, the show jumped headfirst in COVID-19 coverage with "The New Normal."
The Season 3 premiere opens with an unflinching montage that shows New Amsterdam's exhausted staff doing their level best to cope. Tired, desperate doctors and nurses in protective equipment treat patients and set up temporary tents to accommodate the influx of patients. All the while, they do their level best not to buckle under the stress of the job, which is only aggravated by the distance from their loved ones. What's more, one of their own has also fallen. Dr. Kapoor (Anupam Kher) has a serious COVID infection, and it remains to be seen whether he'll pull through.
All of this is already enough to make "The New Normal" one of the most gut-wrenching episodes of "New Amsterdam," but then, a serious plane crash nearby raises the stakes even further. Rarely has the staff of New Amsterdam Medical Center faced greater challenges than they do in "The New Normal," and the episode's stellar IMDb rating reflects how well it works. "New Amsterdam" fans might be conflicted about Season 3 as a whole, but its opener most certainly packs a punch.
Season 1, Episode 10 - Six or Seven Minutes
As the midseason premiere of "New Amsterdam" Season 1, "Six or Seven Minutes" had a lot to prove when it originally aired on January 8, 2019. Not only did it have to show that the series can continue to captivate the audiences, but it also had a cliffhanger for the ages to deal with. The midseason finale, "As Long as It Takes," ends with Dr. Goodwin suffering a medical emergency with only his non-medically trained wife Georgia there to help him. Where to take things from there?
"Six or Seven Minutes" provides a simple, yet ingenious solution to the situation: Dr. Sharpe has to guide Georgia through a tense, disturbing DIY tracheostomy over the phone, and the two women who clearly care for Max work together to save his life. Of course, the solution to the cliffhanger is only one part of the charms that have earned the episode no small amount of IMDb prestige. This is the episode that fully reveals how important Max is for the hospital, as several members of the New Amsterdam staff both understand how much his idealistic approach has influenced them ... and decide to support him as the medical director even after finding out about his cancer. As such, "Six or Seven Minutes" is one of the key moments where New Amsterdam Medical Center transitions from a hospital in turmoil to a cohesive, motivated healthcare unit.