Last year, we neglected to write anything about Cinemax’s The Knick. I intend to make up for that oversight before, during and after season two plays this fall.
I don’t know how many people actually watched the show, since it ran on Cinemax — a premium network that I’m not certain many people have, though it’s often bundled with HBO on many cable providers — and broadcast new episodes Friday nights at 10 p.m. ET, when potential viewers are presumably out enjoying their lives.
Posting a trailer for season two, which Cinemax released this past weekend, might not do you much good if you haven’t watched the first season. But the preview certainly gives you an idea of what the show is, what you missed, and obviously, what’s to come. Check it out.
Starring Clive Owen and executive-produced by Steven Soderbergh (Magic Mike, Ocean’s Eleven), who directed each of season one’s 10 episodes, The Knick takes place in 1900 New York City and follows Dr. John Thackery, the chief of surgery at the financially challenged Knickerbocker Hospital. Though Thackery is a brilliant surgeon, renowned for innovative and daring procedures (some of which don’t go so well for patients), he also nurses one hell of a cocaine habit.
(Last season ended with Thackery checked into a recovery clinic, where he’s given heroin to get over his cocain addiction. Hey, it was 1900!)
The cast also includes Andre Holland as Dr. Algernon Edwards, a black surgeon who is named assistant chief of surgery by hospital administrators over Thackery’s protests. Edwards is a brilliant physician trained in Europe, but racism and hospital politics prevent him from the status befitting a man of his position. He’s the best character on TV that you might not know about, which hopefully changes this year.
Season two of The Knick premieres on Cinemax Oct. 16.
