The Knick is the latest TV series to continue the current trend of melding the worlds of cinema and television. Shows like Boardwalk Empire, House of Cards and True Detective have all featured Hollywood royalty making the transition from the big to the small screen in recent years. Television - in particular cable television in the United States - is increasingly seen as the place to be for creative types – be they actors, writers or directors. And now we have The Knick, which is created by relative unknowns Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, but has lured Steven Soderbergh – who had recently taken a sabbatical from film-making – back behind the camera to direct all ten episodes. It also features Clive Owen in the lead role. That’s a fine wealth of talent, and The Knick is a show that certainly benefits from it.
The Knick is a period piece, set in the year 1900 focussing on an early New York hospital called The Knickerbocker. Clive Owen plays Dr. John Thackery, newly appointed head surgeon at The Knick, and a man intensely passionate about medicine, but who is also blunt, curt and as severe as his own moustache. Early in the first episode he gives a speech about the brave new world they live in; how exciting things are and how fast they’re moving. It seems almost quaint now, given how far we’ve come since, but his passion is infectious, and for the people living in 1900 New York, it really is a time of endless possibilities. From a 2014 perspective, however, their bold new future is our savage past.
This being a modern cable drama, our lead is obviously also a deeply flawed character, which manifests here in the form of a debilitating dependency on drugs. So far, so boiler-plate, but Clive Owen is a classy performer, and his stern performance as Thackery elevates the character above what could be Just Another Damaged Lead into something more interesting.
The main point of conflict in the story comes when Thackery has a new deputy imposed upon him in place of the man he wanted to promote internally. The new recruit, Algernon Edwards (Andre Holland), is highly qualified and has spent time in Europe pioneering new methods and experiencing innovative surgical practices: he’s the perfect candidate. The problem? He’s black. And this is 1900s New York.
Current events in the news show us how far there is still to go in terms of race relations in 2014, let alone in the year 1900. Interestingly, Thackery isn’t presented as an out-and-out racist in his protestations about hiring Edwards: it’s more the fact that the rest of the world’s opinions on the matter will simply distract from the medicine. You get the impression that Thackery wouldn’t care at all if the rest of the world would just let them get on with it, but he’s savvy enough to know that hiring a black doctor – even one as qualified as Edwards - will be an issue. There is doubtless plenty of material to be mined from this set-up, and it will be interesting to see if and how Thackery and the rest of the hospital staff soften towards their new colleague as the show progresses.
Aside from Thackery and Edwards, the show also follows the rest of the hospital staff, from The Knick’s manager, down to the put-upon nurses, and, most entertainingly, the ambulance drivers who operate outside the hospital walls. As hulking “paramedic” Tom Cleary, Chris Sullivan is already the breakout star of the show. A roguish Irishman who gets paid for delivering patients to The Knick – a concept that seems entirely alien to our modern sensibilities – Cleary has all of the best lines and moments in the premiere. With money on the line for every patient delivered – dead or alive – it’s fascinating to see how far Cleary will go to get his paycheck. While bullying another ambulance out of their charge is played almost for laughs here, one suspects there may be darker deeds in Cleary’s future.
The Knick also helps itself stand out from the crowd with its wildly anachronistic soundtrack, which is scored by Soderbergh's long-time collaborator Cliff Martinez. Martinez' score is all pulsing synths and atmospheric electronica - hardly the sort of thing one expects for a period piece such as this. But it's a creative decision that works wonderfully, giving the show a unique identity and a curiously contemporary slant.
Whether the show will turn out to be more serialised or procedural going forward is difficult to tell from a pilot episode that mostly concerns itself with establishing the world of The Knick, although there’s no getting away from the fact that the show – in both setting and main character – owes a heavy debt to House. Dr. House was a modern, medicinal Sherlock Holmes, and transposing a similar, albeit less comedic, character to the 1900s setting also evokes the actual Sherlock Holmes. But The Knick is less about a man solving mysteries than it is a wider depiction of the mysteries and wonders of the period and the setting itself.
Hospital dramas aren’t exactly thin on the ground, but there may not have ever been one quite like this before. Much like Boardwalk Empire, The Knick features such a wide array of characters already that it should be able to explore all aspects of life during this period - not just in the hospital - and it should be fascinating to watch that unfold. With Soderbergh behind the camera and Clive Owen in front of it, The Knick is certainly a classy affair, and having already been renewed for a second season, we - unlike the patients at the titular hospital - can look forward to an extended stay at The Knick.
No comments:
Post a Comment