In its final episode, New Amsterdam reminded us it’s always been about family.
WARNING: This post contains spoilers for the series finale ofNew Amsterdam.
New Amsterdamended by beginning a whole new chapter.
Nora and Opal Clow as Luna, Ryan Eggold as Dr. Max Goodwin on ‘New Amsterdam’.Ralph Bavaro/NBC
DAVID SCHULNER:Funny story.
Can you talk about the emotional impact of that choice and seeing Luna follow in her father’s footsteps?
I grew up here and that’s why I wanted to be a doctor here."
Sandra Mae Frank as Dr. Elizabeth Wilder, Nora and Opal Clow as Luna on ‘New Amsterdam’.Ralph Bavaro/NBC
Once we knew that, the foundation was there.
The series finale was about Max’s last day.
Do you think he was successful in his mission when he took over at New Amsterdam?
That’s the theme we’ve been talking about with a number of characters.
From that standpoint, he felt very successful and satisfied at the end.
Same with the hospital.
Was this always the ending you intended?
They have been asking us, “How can we help?”
HORTON:That was so head-trippy.
SCHULNER:They don’t know!
They don’t know Max is joining the World Health Organization.
It’ll be a total surprise for them.
Why did you choose to have Max not end up with Elizabeth and instead leave her the hospital?
SCHULNER:Criminal Mindswas canceled and then rebooted two years later.
In our reboot, we will give you that answer.
HORTON:We also love ambiguity.
I had a writer explain to me one time that there’s a difference between confusion and ambiguity.
In storytelling you don’t want confusion, but you want ambiguity.
We wanted to leave it hanging there for the audience to participate in it.
We wanted to give them that freedom.
We talked about Max and Luna, but what about how the other characters' stories were wrapped up?
HORTON:We felt really satisfied with the endings we came up for everybody who was still with us.
They were such great characters in our show and such good actors.
Otherwise, I feel good about where everyone ended up.
I love that Iggy asked his divorced husband out on a date.
There’s just something so wonderfully positive about that.
Again, [viewers] can imagine if it will work.
Will they make it through this?
That’s a satisfying place to leave that story.
As storytellers, what’s your takeaway from this show?
When this came along, I played it for him and he loved it.
That’s really unique to the show and I’m really proud of that.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
