New Amsterdam is on the way back to NBC after a prolonged hiatus that followed a shortened second season, and the series is tasked with the same issue as the other medical dramas that returned in the 2020-2021 TV season: the COVID-19 pandemic. For Season 3, however, the pandemic won't be the only issue that Dr. Max Goodwin is facing, and the man who has been determined to fix the hospital from the very beginning has a big challenge ahead of him with the March premiere.
Max will find his optimism tested in Season 3 while he must face not only a pandemic, but the inequities in the health care system. Instead of continuing his efforts to fix the system while also dealing with COVID, Max is determined that he will tear that system down and build something new and improved. As if the pandemic wasn't enough, Max is apparently going to take on the inequities of the health care system!
On the one hand, if New Amsterdam handles COVID anything like how Grey's Anatomy, The Resident, and The Good Doctor at least started their latest seasons, then it's hard to imagine the show packing in another big issue that Max will have the time to tackle on top of the pandemic. That said, most of the medical shows seem to be taking some liberties with the pandemic, by either resolving the pandemic or time-jumping to a future in which it has been overcome.
New Amsterdam's balance of the pandemic with the effects of the pandemic on the health care system may depend a lot on when the show picks up in Season 3. The second season came to an unconventional end, as the show had to scrap an episode that was supposed to introduce a new character played by a Lost alum, as the episode would have featured a very poorly-timed flu epidemic. New Amsterdam did manage to introduce Daniel Dae Kim's Dr. Cassian Shin by getting creative, though, and Season 2 ended less abruptly than other shows that had to cut production short of the intended episode count.
The confirmation courtesy of NBC that New Amsterdam will cover the COVID pandemic comes as no surprise, as the showrunner said all the way back in April 2020 that it would be irresponsible to ignore the pandemic in the third season, and star Ryan Eggold later shared his thoughts on how Season 3 would handle the pandemic.
That said, the third season isn't going to be nothing but doom and gloom with the mission to fix health care iniquity on top of the pandemic, as Helen will be getting some romance in Season 3, although Max may not be the biggest fan based on his own dynamic with Helen's love interest.
On the whole, there's a lot to look forward to with the third season of New Amsterdam, which will premiere on NBC on Tuesday, March 2 at 10 p.m. ET. The show was a hit in the ratings in Season 2, with an average of 3.3 in the 18-49 age demographic and nearly 14 million viewers. If New Amsterdam can hold on to those kinds of ratings in the new season, it could retake its place as a major primetime hit despite the late start.
