New Amsterdam: The Worst Thing Each Main Character Has Done
New Amsterdam has been a surprise hit with a fresh take on the overplayed medical drama. With stories that focus as much on the health care system as they do on patients with mysterious illnesses, along with the personal lives of the staff and even mental health challenges, it’s no wonder the show has captured the hearts of viewers.
With that said, while the characters have all done wonderful things throughout the show's run, sometimes at the expense of their own well-being, each has also done pretty bad things, too.
While Dr. Max Goodwin's heart has always been in the right place, and he deserved to leave to start a new life with his daughter Luna and girlfriend Helen, he also abandoned the hospital and staff he cared so much for. It's one of the reasons some fans think Max and Helen from New Amsterdam aren't a good couple.
With his intentions to return and clean up the mess that was made after his departure, he has his work cut out for him. By resigning from his post, he also resigned from all the changes he had tried to make over the years at the public hospital.
Dr. Lauren Bloom has had a rough run, dealing with her addiction issues as well as the effects of her troubled childhood. But she dealt with it in stride, even despite facing additional challenges in her personal and professional life.
But when she finally found a good relationship with Leyla, making them one of the best couples on New Amsterdam, she made a fatal mistake. By going behind Leyla's back and donating money to ensure an extra intern spot was available for her, and lying to her about it, she made everything Leyla had worked so hard for feel unearned. It wasn't fair to Leyla and done purely for selfish reasons.
Dr. Helen Sharpe has been a mostly positive person on the show, despite the challenges she has faced with personal relationships, and discovering she was not able to have children. She has also faced plenty of pressure at work, eventually deciding to move away not only to do good work in her home country of England but also to be closer to her mother.
Her mother is no angel and takes every opportunity to aggravate Helen, making Helen's outburst understandable to a degree. But even she felt bad about the way she treated the woman. The situation, no matter how sensitive, could have been handled better.
Dr. Floyd Reynolds has been among the most likable characters on New Amsterdam. But he has also made some mistakes, including continuing to date Lyn even after he realized that her husband worked with him, and that he might have an issue with the relationship, despite their open marriage.
Floyd's worst act, however, remains selfishly alerting Veronica to "the resistance." They were a group of doctors and staff at the hospital blatantly going against her rules and, among other things, conducting rogue surgeries in the morgue. While "the resistance" was wrong to begin with, and Floyd had good intentions by trying to create positive change in his department, he completely betrayed his friends.
Dr. Iggy Frome lied to his husband on many occasions, but the worst was when he mentioned that he interviewed a man to be his assistant who hit on him. He implied to Martin that he would not hire the man because of this, despite his qualifications.
However, Iggy went ahead and did just that, seemingly not telling his husband that he made the decision to hire the man after all. While Iggy hasn't crossed any lines, it's clear the man is attracted to him and that deep down, Iggy hired him to, at least in part, satisfy his need to feel good about himself.
Leyla had been nothing but a good influence on Lauren since she arrived in her life, along with a positive force at the hospital thanks to her intuitive nature and skills as a doctor. Despite having to start over in her career, she was always happy to do the work.
However, Leyla made a critical error when she told Lauren she would quit if Lauren left the hospital. In fairness, she said this not wanting Lauren to leave because of her. However, having been so close to Lauren in the past, she should have recognized that Lauren might be struggling with her addiction and mental health and needed to leave for other reasons.
Dr. Lyn Malvo was happily in an open marriage, which meant stepping out with other men was okay. However, she knew that her husband might have issue with that other man being Floyd, a man who worked in the same hospital and in the same department. So, she failed to reveal the relationship with him until it had blossomed into something more, which also posed a problem because the relationship had become emotional.
All three individuals were put into a precarious position when Lyn realized she was pregnant. While all the blame can't be placed on Lyn for the situation, she should have been upfront with her husband from the beginning.
Dr. Veronica Fuentes is the resident villain of season 4, the new medical director who took over when Max decided he was leaving and proceeded to undo every move he had made towards making the hospital a better place.
Focused solely on the bottom line and running the hospital like a business, she made dramatic cuts to both people and departments, launched services and ordered surgeries that weren't needed because they were profitable, and treated people poorly. It's tough to narrow the worst thing Veronica has done down to one incident, but it could be argued that one thing was forcing Max to make a difficult decision about which employees to lay off. Many of them remain the characters fans miss the most on New Amsterdam.
Dr. Elizabeth Wilder is a shining light on the show, trying to continue the work Max had begun in his absence. She started "the resistance" to push back against the changes Veronica was making to ensure the hospital fulfilled its main duty, which was to help all patients.
While her idea to conduct rogue surgeries in the morgue was born from good intentions, and she felt confident the types of surgeries were ones she could perform flawlessly, it was still a risk. If something had happened to any of the patients, there was a lot to lose. Elizabeth put not only her own career but the careers of others who willingly joined her, along with the lives of patients, and the reputation of the hospital, in jeopardy.