The following contains MAJOR SPOILERS for the "Keep The Change" episode of the Fox series, "New Amsterdam."

"My name is John Amsterdam, and I'm an alcoholic."
"Hello, John."

I'm all for socially relevant stories (I'm a Star Trek fan, after all), but the Alcoholics Anonymous theme in "Keep The Change" left me cold.

Here's what happened this week: A homeless man's best friend on the street dies of an apparent overdose, but he's sure it was a homicide. Of course, the police don't buy it, but John does, and sees in the homeless man something of himself about 40 years ago -- an alcoholic in need of help.

John flashes back to the 60s when he apparently was a stage performer. (Really, what hasn't John done in the past?)

A friend named Frank helps John enter the AA program by giving him a special coin and saying, "Keep the change."

As part of his recovery, John must write down every secret he's ever had and tell them to someone. That person was obviously going to be Frank.

However, a heart attack takes Frank out of the picture, so John chooses to tell his 20-something son Omar, who plays in John's band. Omar seems to feel closer to his dad after the revelations.

There are a lot more suspects in this week's murder mystery, including a city councilman and his do-gooder wife, who has set up a "Big Apple" clinic.

Along the way, we meet a rock star drug addict in the AA meetings (who before too long is another apparent drug overdose suicide in his hotel room -- a la Heath Ledger?) and a few other possible suspects.

We discover that there were actually three people involved.

The do-gooder wife was "doing good" by the rock star in private. When the rock star witnessed the do-gooder wife run down a child with her van, guilt moved him to tell someone, so he reached out to the homeless man whose apparent overdose started this whole episode.

When its discovered that the homeless man knows the secret, he's taken out of the picture by the city councilman who wants to keep his wife's dalliances away from the limelight.

In the romantic plot thread, all's well with John and his "true love" as they knock their knees on the walls of John's place until ... the doctor realizes that John is holding back in the information department. When she confronts him about it, he hesitates to say something (which she doesn't like), and she starts to leave. John then blurts out the truth about his immortality, as he always does, but she doesn't believe it (just like no one else believes it when he says it) and walks away.

At the end, John gives the man who doubted his friend's death was a suicide an expensive guitar (originally owned by the rock star) found in the murdered man's locker so he can start a new life. John also gives the man an AA coin and takes him to his first AA meeting.

What Worked

The mystery again was much more ... mysterious ... this week since we didn't have one obvious suspect, so I liked that.

We see another time period in John's life, the '60s, so I enjoyed that as well. And the variety of music played during the episode is helpful.

The police got a little more to do this time, thankfully.

What Didn't Work

As I mentioned earlier, the AA theme was unsatisfying to me. Perhaps it is that I didn't really lock into John's struggles so much. Life seems so easy when one has been around for 400 years.

Now, that's not to say that his addiction didn't make sense. It did. If one is going to live forever, of course overindulgence is a real possibility.

But I didn't buy into what prompted his desire to come clean. It just felt empty and cold to me. Maybe to others this felt more moving, but seeing John pass out on the stage one time didn't communicate to me how powerful his addiction was.

Omar is in his 20s, and he never noticed in all that time that his father looks exactly the same as he did when Omar was born? Omar, m'man, you disappoint me!

If it isn't a television cliche by now, it should be. Man and woman have glorious sex multiple times in an episode. By the end, they split up. Been there, seen that, cleaned up the walls afterwards. How about something different?

Yet again the bad guy(s) are evil rich white people. At least this time, it was the man and the woman.

Oh, and the police got a little more to do, but they remain mostly stereotyped and inactive. Sigh.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

"New Amsterdam" airs on Fox Mondays at 9 p.m. and stars Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Zuleikha Robinson, Stephen Henderson and Alexie Gilmore. "Keep The Change" was written by John Mankiewicz and was directed by Jim McKay.

Wayne Hall is the news editor of Airlock Alpha, writing out of the Washington, D.C. area. He can be reached at whall@airlockalpha.com.

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