tjroseman I think it's too easy to say NA is similar to "Highlander," simply because its lead character is immortal. While McLeod cannot die unless beheaded, he, and his fellow immortal Nick Knight, are immortal primarily defined by their supernatural natures. The great appeal of John Amsterdam (or York, or Dutch, or any of his other aliases) is that he is a relatively ordinary man who, by virtue of having lived in New York since the 17th century, has learned much and experienced more. None of us is likely to picture ourselves as McLeod or Knight, but practically anyone can imagine that given the right circumstances, we could be John Amsterdam. He is extremely human, not at all superhuman....except for that one thing. He cannot die, not until he finds and commits to The One. It is refreshing to find a sci-fi story framed in a police setting in which the crimes are the least interesting parts of the hour we spend with him. We want to see more of John with his son, Omar. We want to go back into his past. Unfortunately, I at least have no desire to see him further his relationship with the woman he believes is The One.

j-art-davies After watching the first two episodes I must say I am liking this so far. I my opinion the Highlander references are not that important as the series is developing the concept in a quite original way. By is giving the main character a more down to Earth life and an acceptance of his fate/destiny they have given the series a sightly more believable feel. The interweaving of the supporting characters with the introduction of people from Amsterdam's past is adding immensely to my enjoyment of this show. I hope it can be developed into a program that is worthy of more than one series. I appears from previous comments that the scheduling at Fox may play a major part in whether the audience is retained after its good start.

ljfoor Now, granted, it's very early in the game on this show. And, also granted, there is nothing original in the initial premise/concept of this show. But I am giving New Amsterdam a chance because so far this show has taken the violence, incongruence, and subplots that I didn't care for in Highlander away (I much more like the premise of a never-ending search for true love) and it's a well-told story. I watched Highlander because I liked Duncan, I found his story compelling, and I was more interested in the character study (after 400 years, he was still trying to get stuff right!)and his story; the rest was peripheral. I like John as a character so far and I like that he's so up front about his life -- no secrets. The concept of staying connected to his son even works. The supporting characters seem just right. And, I like the NYC setting. This is essentially a writer-driven series, with a compelling cast, so I think for this show to stay promising and continue forward, the writing will have to stay strong throughout. Time will tell.

MichaelJDentico This is one of the most innovative shows on television I've seen in a while, despite the fact that this idea has been attempted before, to no avail. Fox took a big risk when they placed this show into the Monday 9PM time-slot that's been reserved for 24 for its past six seasons. Although, as many of you know, it has been delayed due to the writer's strike. This show is undoubtedly symbolic and eye-gripping. Once you start watching, you can't stop, and it's 45-minute runtime goes by in what seems like ten minutes. The lead is solid as John Amsterdam, and even though you can detect a slight Irish accent on him, it adds to the "everyman, been everywhere, done everything" part that he has to play. On an audience level, one has to think what it must be like to live for 400 years, with virtually no risk of mortality. That is, unless you find your true love. John is depicted as the idealistic everyman, since he's lived so long (born in the 17th century (the 1600's)), he's been able to pick up every skill and the knowledge of a genius. A homicide detective, John's experience has endowed him with an impeccable instinct and sharp mind, hence he is able to quickly solve crimes that would otherwise lead fellow investigators to dead ends or mistrials. Although only a handful of people know his secret, he sometimes lets slip facts that he shouldn't know about personally to others. For example:"This bar used to be a speakeasy during the prohibition.""How would you know that?""...I used to drink here..."With that said, I think this is one of the shows that is worth watching these days. You can catch it on Fox, Monday at 9/8c. If you don't watch TV, you can also catch each episode as they're added on the fox website, under fox-on-demand.