Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe |
| Alternative name(s): | Sharpwin |
| Gender category: | Het, M/F |
| Fandom: | New Amsterdam (2018) |
| Canonical?: | Yes |
| Prevalence: | Popular |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe is the canon het ship between Max Goodwin and Helen Sharpe from the television show New Amsterdam.
Canon
Helen and Max initially clash over some changes Max plans on making at the hospital, but that changes soon after Max is diagnosed with throat cancer. Struggling with balancing his job, his family, and the impact of cancer on his life, Max leans on Helen for support. What follows over the subsequent seasons was a slow-burn colleagues-to-friends-to-lovers arc between the two characters, which ended when Helen departed the series in season four.
Fandom
Some fans shipped Max and Helen from season one, and the pairing grew in popularity over the years with a lot of traction on multiple social media platforms. Fans enjoyed the chemistry between the characters, the pacing of the slow-burn, the tension of not so much the "will they?" but the "is this the moment?", and the communication between Max and Helen throughout the first four seasons of New Amsterdam.
So I finally started watching New Amsterdam... Max and Helen phewwww that chemistry is terrific đ„đ„đ„-- sweetbroloveit, 2022 [1]
The New Amsterdam fandom on AO3 is fairly small, with 600 works as of September 2023, but works tagged with Sharpwin make up more than half of those. A lot of shipping discussion took place on Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter, with Sharpwin being the most popular pairing of the show consistently. GIFsets and fan vids are also popular.
When Freema Agyeman made the decision to leave New Amsterdam, Helen had to be written out of the show, and many fans were disappointed with how she was written out and the way that the remaining season played out. Many felt that Helen's character was bashed in-canon, completely re-writing her character in order to vilify her. Black fans of the show were particularly upset that a Black woman was being vilified so extensively to pave the way for a new, white, love interest to enter Max's life.
The showrunners/writers knew that Freema was going to leave after season 4. And instead of writing her the ending her and Helen deserved, they just piled on a bunch of trauma to the character (terrible relationship with her mom, getting drugged, having a stroke, losing her speech) and in the end they broke up Sharpwin by having Helen leave Max at the altar. Then season 5 rolled around and when it was time to explain why Helen couldn't go through with the wedding the writers had no answer. "She just couldn't do it" is basically the answer. And everything after that was just bashing Helen so that Wilder could become Max's new love interest. They even went as far as to insinuate that Helen was being racist when conducting a study...-- itsjustafia, 2023 [2]
seasons 1-4 sharpwin was where it was atangst
friendship
longing
domestic fluff
adoration
understanding
and then they screwed it up
-- changethetides-blog, 2023 [3]
Fanworks
Fanfiction
- youâre the only one that i want (want to be around) by leeinthesky
- and then some by equifinal
- The Things We Do For Love by PureShores
GIF sets
- imagine feeling that safe. i can by sharpesjoy
- Strangers to Love by 924inlegend
Fan vids
- when will i belong? â sharpwin by helensharpes
Fannish Links
- Works tagged Max Goodwin/Helen Sharpe on AO3
- New Amsterdam [Helen S., Max G.] pairing filter and character filter on FanFiction.net
- Sharpwin search on Wattpad
- "Sharpwin" search at the New Amsterdam subreddit