(Photo by: Virginia Sherwood/NBC)
New Amsterdam now has two new episodes left of its second season. The creator of the medical drama has decided to shelve an episode which features a fictional pandemic taking over New York City. With the coronavirus impacting the world, the decision was made to pull the episode and air it at a later date, per Deadline.
This means the season finale for the NBC series will air on April 14th. The series returns with new episodes on April 7th. Daniel Dae Kim and several members of the crew have been diagnosed with coronavirus. Kim is a new member of the cast, and he is already on the mend.
David Schulner wrote a lengthy essay explaining why he decided to pull the episode of New Amsterdam for now. In part, he said the following:
“Though, sometimes, when we get it right, the fiction we write actually does what Hamlet instructed. This was the case of an episode of New Amsterdam called “Pandemic” written by David Foster (a Harvard trained M.D.) and directed by Nick Gomez. David wrote the episode in 2019 about a flu pandemic overtaking our fictional hospital in New York. During a bad year, influenza can kill up to 80,000 Americans. We wanted to get this message out. And the best way to do that was to scare you so bad you’d be washing your hands during the commercial breaks. We showed what happens when our hospital has to erect tents in the parking lot because every bed is taken. When the doctors and nurses and medical techs have been working back to back shifts because their replacements are sick. When panic sets in. When people are quarantined. When people die.
Sometimes, what the mirror reflects back is too horrifying to look at.
This is why NBC recently decided not air “Pandemic”. David even renamed it, “Our Doors Are Always Open”, as a salve. But, let’s call it what it is. We shot a fictional pandemic episode right before a real pandemic hit. People are dying in real life. Do we really want to watch fake people die too?”
New Amsterdam has already been renewed for three seasons.
What do you think? Are you a fan of this series? Was pulling the pandemic episode the right move?
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