Every Friday Chris hand-selects a streaming recommendation for your weekend.
This Week’s Featured Flick
The Knick: Season 01 on HBO Go
THE TRAILER
THE DETAILS
CREATORS: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler
DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh
CAST: Clive Owen, André Holland, Jeremy Bobb, Juliet Rylance, Eve Hewson, Michael Angarano, Cara Seymour, Eric Johnson, Chris Sullivan, David Fierro
GENRE: Drama
RUNTIME: 60 min / episode
YEAR: 2014
THE PLOT (via HBO Go)
A brilliant surgeon pushes the boundaries of medicine, morality and race relations at a NYC hospital at the turn of the 20th century in this drama series. Throughout 10 episodes—all directed by Steven Soderbergh— the show follows Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen) and his groundbreaking work at the Knickerbocker Hospital as it faces a period of major upheaval.
THE REASON
Season two of The Knick premieres next week on Cinemax, so I suppose this should technically be one of those “catch up before the new season arrives” kind of recommendations. However, I’m just going to assume you don’t have Cinemax, because who has Cinemax?? Actually, you probably don’t subscribe to HBO either, but I know that won’t stop you from using your mother-in-law’s new boyfriend’s login info. So type it in and put this on.
I feel it is my duty to draw your attention to this dark period drama set in operating theaters and opium dens. I know there’s probably more great television today than we’ve ever seen before, but this is one of my absolute favorites right now. The roster of incredible talent on screen goes far beyond Clive Owen’s brilliant, but dangerous Dr. Thackery. André Holland and Eve Hewson are fantastic as the first black surgeon at the Knickerbocker and the first nurse to inject liquid cocaine into Thackery’s penis, respectively. Actually, scratch that. We don’t know how the mad doctor spent his college years. There are also several lesser-known, but familiar faces running around, like Michael Angarano (young William Miller) and Matt Frewer (Big Russ Thompson, the asshole neighbor in Honey I Shrunk the Kids). John Hodgman (The Daily Show’s “resident expert”) even shows up for a hot minute just to be suuuper creepy.
The Knick is also stunning to look at. Soderbergh isn’t afraid to mix light sources or shoot in the shadows, often pushing the boundaries of what is even visible on screen. This aesthetic alongside the dreamy hyper rhythmic electronic score by Cliff Martinez (Drive) set the tone for a show that is all about pitting progress against the sacrifices required to achieve it.
There are ten episodes in the first season. If you start now you just might binge the entire thing before you go back to work on Monday.
WATCH IT NOW ON HBO GO
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