For those of you who haven’t been keeping up, “The Knick” is the best new medical drama to air in quite some time. Cinemax had to end its dry spell eventually, and what better way to do it than to have a show helmed by none other than Louisiana’s own Steven Soderbergh? Less “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” and more “Sex, Cocaine, and Entrails,” “The Knick” is brash, unapologetic, and riveting.
The first season, a 10-episode emotional roller coaster all on its own, wrapped up Oct. 17, and the blisteringly paced, emotionally unravelling debacle of a finale provided anything but closure. It’s good news, then, that Cinemax has confirmed renewal of the show for a second ten-episode season.
In an era of cinematically breathtaking television, “The Knick” looks to have nothing but raising the standard in mind. Clive Owen is jaw-dropping at times, as intensely brilliant yet not-so-secretly drug addicted Dr. John Thackery, head surgeon at the real-life Knickerbocker Hospital (hence, “The Knick”). Andre Holland provides equal parts passion and pomp as Thackery’s deputy chief of surgery, Dr. Algernon Edwards. Jeremy Bobb, Eve Hewson and Juliet Rylance all dazzle in supporting roles as well.
The most significant thing about this show, however, isn’t the acting. Nor is it Soderbergh, who pilots most admirably for such a multifaceted and complex show. The greatest thing “The Knick” has to offer is instead its refusal to give up ground on important issues. Be it drug addiction, New York race relations or abortion, the show pulls no punches in areas that cable, and yes, even similar pay-per-view networks, are apt to. It’s one thing to feature sex, drugs and desensitizing violence prominently. That’s been done. But the way a good gritty episode of this program can make your stomach churn is something of an entirely different nature.
With seemingly no regard for the audience’s heartstrings, “The Knick” has a tendency, in the mold of HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” to pull the chair out from under its viewers when it’s least expected. It’s things like this, painful as they may be, that keep audiences on their toes and alert. After all, the last thing America needs right now is another self-aware, clumsily framed, episode-by-episode procedural to water down the punch. For some good gut-wrenching drama, check out Cinemax’s “The Knick.”