The Knick - Season 1
The show premiered on Cinemax on August 8, 2014.[1] On July 10, 2014, Cinemax renewed The Knick for a ten-episode second season,[2] which premiered on October 16, 2015.[3] In March 2017, Cinemax announced the series was canceled.[4]
The Knick - Season 1
In September 2020, Soderbergh confirmed that a new season of The Knick is in development led by Barry Jenkins and André Holland, who would return as his character Dr. Algernon C. Edwards, and that original creators Jack Amiel and Michael Begler have written a pilot episode.[5]
Production for season 1 began in September 2013 in New York City.[1][10] Dr. Stanley Burns, founder and CEO of The Burns Archive, served as the on-set medical adviser on the series, and worked closely with production and the actors to make the hospital scenes realistic and authentic to the period.[1] Images from the Burns Archive became important references for everything from the antiseptic atomizers in the operating theater to an early X-ray machine, to the prosthetic worn by a recurring character.[11]
Jack Amiel and Michael Begler wrote the majority of the first-season episodes, and Steven Soderbergh directed all 10 episodes in the first season.[12] Soderbergh was also the director of photography and editor, under his usual pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mary Ann Bernard, respectively.[13]
After the conclusion of the second season on December 18, 2015, it was announced that Cinemax had ordered a script for the season three premiere and a season outline, with negotiations for a third season.[14] In a December 2015 interview with director Steven Soderbergh, he confirmed that Dr. Thackery dies in the season two finale, and that it was all planned from the beginning, and Clive Owen only had a two-year contract for the series. Soderbergh also said, "I told them [Cinemax] that I'm going to do the first two years and then we are going to break out the story for seasons 3 and 4 and try to find a filmmaker or filmmakers to do this the way that I did. This is how we want to do this so that every two years, whoever comes on, has the freedom to create their universe."[15] However, Soderbergh decided, depending upon what those future seasons were, he would like to direct them. "We always envisioned The Knick in two-year increments and with the idea of annihilating what came before every two years.[16] In a 2021 interview Soderbergh outlined his original plan for a six-season series that would involve substantial leaps in time. Seasons 3 and 4 were to be set in the post-WWII era and seasons 5 and 6 in the immediate future. The entire cast and characters were to change.[17]
The first season of The Knick scored 75 out of 100 on Metacritic based on 37 "generally favorable" reviews.[18] The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports an 87% "certified fresh" critics rating with an average rating of 8.3/10 based on 170 reviews. The website consensus reads: "The Knick is sincere, emotional period television that takes a down-to-earth, no-holds-barred approach to vital topics".[19]
After the first season aired, IGN reviewer Matt Fowler gave it an 8.6 out of 10 score, saying "The Knick was impressive, intense television - with fascinating, oft-gruesome topics brought ferociously to the forefront by Soderbergh's adept hand. It was hard to watch at times, both due to gore and pure depressing content, but it was always thought-provoking and incredibly well-rendered."[20] Keith Uhlich of The A.V. Club named the episode "Get the Rope" as his seventh favorite motion picture of 2014.[21]
The second season received critical praise. Metacritic scored it an 85 out of 100 based on 17 "universal acclaim" reviews.[22] Rotten Tomatoes gave the second season a 97% approval rating with an average score of 8.55/10 based on 120 reviews, with the critical consensus: "The Knick delivers an addictive second season with stunning visuals, knockout performances, and disturbing moments adding up to a period drama that's anything but dated."[23]
The first season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on August 11, 2015. The set contains all 10 episodes, plus three audio commentaries by cast and crew, and two-minute behind-the-scenes featurettes for the episodes.[32] The second season was released on Blu-ray and DVD in region 1 on August 2, 2016. Bonus features include several behind-the-scenes looks at the costumes and sets, including the extravagant ball constructed for the seventh episode, "Williams and Walker", as well as audio commentaries with cast and crew.[33]
There are a lot of different kinds of hospitals on television. If you want a hospital where the doctors are more concerned with their personal lives than their patients, you can always check into Grey's Anatomy's Grey Sloan Memorial. If you want a hospital that's constantly running out of resources, you can check into Code Black's Angels Memorial. But if you want a hospital where surgery is performed with early 1900s technology, you're liable to catch on fire from faulty wiring, and your doctors are addicted to cocaine, then you should definitely check into the Knickerbocker Hospital from Cinemax's The Knick and recap everything that happened there in the series' first season.
The Knick returns for its second season this Friday, which is a bit later in the year than the first season's premiere (which dropped in early August). In fact, the Season 2 premiere date marks almost exactly one year since the Season 1 finale (which aired on Oct. 17, 2014). Since it has been 12 full months since we've gotten any new Knick episodes, there's no shame in needing a brief recap of last season's events before scrubbing in for Season 2.
The Knick tells a sprawling story with such a large ensemble cast, the easiest way to break down the events of the first season is by character. Here's where all the show's most important characters left off one year ago:
Thack's cocaine addiction and rivalry with Doctor Levi Zinberg led him to perilous lengths in the Season 1 finale, "Crutchfield." When he learned that Zinberg was close to a breakthrough on blood transfusions, Thack tried to beat him at his own game, but his rushed experiments and faulty assumptions resulted in him the death of a young girl on his operating table. Finally able to admit his problem, the season ended with Thack in rehab... where he was being treated for his cocaine withdrawal with a new wonder drug: heroin.
The Knick's roguish ambulance driver is more of a thug than anything else, beating up other ambulance drivers to lay claim to paying patients, stealing valuables from said patients, and blackmailing Sister Harriet when he finds out that she performs abortions. However, when he witnesses a young woman die after a self-administered abortion, he agrees to help rather than hinder Sister Harriet, ensuring her patients' safe passage. Both he and Sister Harriet were shocked when Cornelia herself showed up for an appointment in the season finale.
It's a testament to the series and to Eric Johnson that his plea to Thackery actually makes you feel something for Gallinger, especially since he's been little more than a foil for Edwards for so much of the season. Of course, the irony is that Everett remains unaware how much he has in common with Edwards, in terms of how they deal with emotional distress, as his trip to the Knick to alleviate some of the pain he's in could have yielded a bond between the two instead of more friction.
No one is seeing clearly it seems, especially not the drug-addled, competitive Thackery who is so driven by a need to best Dr. Zindberg in discovering the key to a successful blood transfusion, he winds up killing a young girl. Thack's hubristic pride leads to a situation where his question of "What have I done?" reads as the most genuinely human thing he's said all season (or at least the last three episodes). Don't think for a minute The Knick would let Dr. Thackery see the error of his ways through the lens of extreme guilt, though; not when there's the new wonder drug heroin to put a smile on his face and make him forget how miserable he is and likely will be in the weeks and months to come.
When I went on the New York Knicks' Web site to refresh my memory about everything that has happened to the franchise over the past few years, I found it rather appropriate that the "History" section of the site only covers through the 2000-01 season.
All I know is, Jeff Van Gundy looks like a genius for jumping ship on Dec. 8, 2001, when the Knicks had a record of 10-9. They haven't had a winning season since. They qualified for the playoffs once, with a record of 39-43 in 2003-04. But they were swept by the Nets in the first round.
Don Chaney, Lenny Wilkens and Herb Williams all got a crack at turning things around -- with little success. So Isiah threw $50 million at Larry Brown, hoping the master of the turnaround could work his magic one more time. And in Season 1, all Brown has done is lead the Knicks to a 22-56 record, second-worst in the NBA, and one of the worst seasons in team history.
Abortion and religion, class consciousness, political corruption (just digging into Tammany Hall) and emerging feminism feel like active, urgent questions, not peeks into the dusty past. Location shots of giant stone mansions, buggies and early electric automobiles lend authenticity to the drama. Beyond a costume drama, this is smart, personal history with a steampunk vibe in the electronic music -knick-season-2-soundtrack-announced/ by Cliff Martinez. 041b061a72