Netflix’s latest Dutch crime thriller, “Amsterdam Empire” (TV Series 2025), packs in a lot. There’s avarice, backstabbing, several partners and stakeholders double-crossing, triple-crossing–an endlessly renewing mix of betrayal, passion, and inexorable bloodlust. Nobody can resist. All are complicit, sucked into the very marrow of intense negotiations. Trust is in deficit. The needle of blame keeps shifting from one person to the next.
There’s a lot of swashbuckling ambition on display, but it never melds into anything resolutely satisfying. The show remains an awful muddle with motivations doused in inconsistency. There’s so much it’s attempting without ever landing somewhere compact, coherent, or convincing.
In a staggered rush to go large and epic on cartels and empires, character delineations take a beating. Much of it gets shafted to an interchangeable coterie, traits easily replaceable. The saga is overstuffed, crammed with excess factors, angles. One individual’s aspiration could very well go for the other, and there wouldn’t be much of a fuss. Dynastic ambition is its own self-negating monster, eating its way in. “Amsterdam Empire” flirts with scale but forgets finer shading, creating mere prototypes. The show gets lost in an intemperate flush of warring impulses and agendas. No one can escape unscathed. All become susceptible to attacks from the other.
Amsterdam Empire (TV Series 2025) Recap:
The series is too monotonous and deadbeat, despite ample efforts to set up intrigue and provocation. As they say, too many cooks spoil the broth. The saga suffers from busy over-plotting that systemically cuts it dry of any tension, stakes that could have heightened momentum. No such luck is to be found here, where we just lurch from one scene to the next with strong apathy and clear disinterest in whatever unravelling. Nothing distinguishes it from standard templates. Hence, not much power or grit derives from one woman being on a warpath.
It’s a tale of one-upmanship that hurtles to violent extremes. As one tries to exert on the other, outwit the other, there’s enormous churn produced by the toil of careful orchestration. To save one’s business, keeping it afloat calls for wits and savvy. The series charts the degree of cunning one wields to keep going and ward off threats. The tussle between Jack and Betty primes its own vengeful drama that stays at the drama’s firm centre. But it’s ridden with several implausible stretches, a lack of confidence in handling the narrative threads. We see flickers of plot that quickly die out before they can shape into something intense, sobering, gripping.
Who informs the cops?
The series centers on Jack Doorn, the owner of one of the biggest coffee shop franchises in the Netherlands, the Jackal. Everything in his life revolves around it. It’s his greatest achievement, and he has never fathomed being in a precarious situation over it. Jack, too, has a secret stash of cannabis, via his supplier Guido, who has an underground farm. The Netherlands permitted shopkeepers to store up to a certain amount of cannabis. Of course, there would be many going over the mark. Jack trusts Guido, but the latter suffers a raid, which upends everything.
Much of this ties back to Jack’s wife, Betty. Their marriage has been going through a rough patch, headed for divorce. She had found out about his affair with TV show host Marjolein. He tells Betty he will settle with her for a hefty alimony, but she won’t back off until she has possession of the Jackal. She has had an immense contribution in setting it up.
Since Jack isn’t budging, Betty rats out Guido’s farm to the cops. He goes into hiding. When he tells Jack he wants to come out into the open, there’s a scuffle, ending with him being killed by Jack. The situation is framed as a suicide by Jack. He can go to any length to keep his business close and private and not have it parcelled out. He cannot remotely consider it a viable option. But he has many hurdles to cross and endure. Betty will not let go of her demands so quickly. She tails him with constant threats, insisting she be given what she deserves.
Does Betty persist with getting control of the franchise?
Betty is equally determined to wrest control of the Jackal. But she has to marshal enough legal proof to ensure she’s seen as the one running the business. Betty needs witnesses to build her case. Erik, who worked for Jack, slips about the latter’s earlier marriage. Betty goads them into testifying, but Jack’s ex-wife insists she would do so only if the franchise is given over to her kids.
However, somehow, she turns around to Jack. The one-upmanship continues. They get in touch with Bolle, who has a share in the business. Jack’s ex-wife testifies for him, since he has bribed her. His daughter goes against him despite earlier reassurance. Jack drugs Bolle, so the latter isn’t able to turn against him. Hence, the judge doesn’t proclaim anything, and Jack is relieved.
Jack touches base with Gijs after Guido gets killed. Gijs knows he will snuff out Betty because she is a menace to Jack’s business, which will imperil his exploits as well. But when she promises him a percentage, he lets her be. He would take vengeful action and lash out at her only if she didn’t keep her word. Greed runs by its own designs.
When Gijs learns of her wretched situation, he aims to kill Jack, but Betty is overtaken with concern and cautions Jack. Jack survives a shooting by Gijs’s son. Betty apprises Jack’s ex-wife about all that has gone down. Gijs arrives at the rendezvous set up by the women, though he does have a hunch there might be something shady. Gijs is confident he can handle the situation, which ultimately turns catastrophic. He walks into the abyss of his own death.
Amsterdam Empire (TV Series 2025) Ending Explained:
Does Betty take over the franchise?
It’s a shootout and confrontation. There is a lot of confusion and missteps. Gijs ends up killing his own son. Betty and Katja kill Gijs. Katja rushes to Jack’s side at the hospital and entreats to be forgiven for considering betraying him. Is Jack now a changed man?
Nevertheless, Betty is still certain to take over the Jackal completely. She’s not one to call it off owing to shifting situations. Once Jack is out of the hospital, he tells her he’s ready to give away the Jackal to her. But she wants the alimony money too, along with the franchise. She wants as much as possible. Betty whisks out Guido’s lighter. She posits it as proof of his murder. He tries to gaslight her, but she has assembled a persuasive case.
The only way for Jack to get out of this muck is to hand over the Jackal to Betty so that she will not rake up Guido’s case. The season does end with the forced handover. Jack sees he has no other choice presently. But as far as we have seen of Jack, he’ll not lie low. He may try with all his might to wrest it back, outsmarting Betty for what he treasures the most in his life.
