The Knick

  • Wanna Join? New users you can now register lightning fast using your Facebook or Twitter accounts.
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,800
113
43
Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#1
Anyone watching this show? This is another excellent show under the radar probably because it's on Cinemax. I've only watched the first 3-4 episodes since HBO was showing the early episodes to promote it so people would order Cinemax.

Anyways, from what I've seen it's dope, definitely going to download the rest of the season.

In New York City in 1900, the Knickerbocker Hospital operates with innovative surgeons, nurses and staff who have to overcome the limitations of the then-current medical understanding and practice, to prevent staggeringly high mortality rates. Dr. John Thackery (partially based on historical figure, William Stewart Halsted[2]), the newly appointed leader of the surgery staff, battles his cocaine and opium addictions with his ambition for medical discovery and his reputation among his peers. Dr. Algernon Edwards, a Harvard-educated, European-trained black surgeon (probably based on the historical Daniel Hale Williams),[3] must fight for respect within the all-white populated hospital, as well as the racially-charged city. While literally struggling to keep the lights on, the hospital attempts to attract a wealthy clientele, without sacrificing quality care



 
Last edited:
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,800
113
43
Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#9
Finished the season. my god the last few episodes were amazingly done. this show fucks all other shows on TV right now. The acting, writing and directing are up there with Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, if not better at times. Clive Owen is putting on the performance of his lifetime. You guys are missing out
 
May 9, 2002
37,066
16,282
113
#10
Finished the season. my god the last few episodes were amazingly done. this show fucks all other shows on TV right now. The acting, writing and directing are up there with Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, if not better at times. Clive Owen is putting on the performance of his lifetime. You guys are missing out
Ill have to catch it on Netflix if it ever makes it over there.
 
Oct 23, 2009
1,235
124
63
44
#12
Just finished watching the first season, shit was nuts. Clive Owen kills it man, interesting how creative he gets while getting lost in his addiction.

And lol at the cure for cocaine addiction, had to look up Bayer to see if it really was true.
 
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,800
113
43
Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#13
Binged watched season two, what a wild ride. Absolutely brutal in it's honest portrayal of how dark this world is.




MASSIVE SPOILERS DO NOT READ

I'm shocked at the ending though. To create such an amazing character in Dr. Thackery brilliantly played by Clive Owen and to just end it two seasons? That would be like killing Walt in breaking bad after two seasons. It was a role of a lifetime imo for Clive Owen, one of the best performances I've ever seen on TV, a shame it's come to end so soon, I felt this should have kept going at least another two three years. Apparently there may be new seasons but different time periods idk. On the other hand, they didn't try and make a destructive junkie into a hero, instead being an arrogant junkie led to his demise, as it should be. I suppose it would be too fake to have someone so self destructive, so fucked out of his mind with addiction to keep him going. And the other storylines, Jesus fuck everyone that was "good" is fucked and the "bad" people prosper- the rich cunts who do horrible things live on and continue being rich fucks. Brutal yet honest.

Criminally underrated show. I guess some people will be put off by long stretches of dialogue and slow pacing at times but it's worth it. The research the show did with the medical equipment, medical theories and procedures of the time was amazing. Everything in the show is based on reality, even the final Dr. Thackery operation was something someone did.
 
Last edited:
May 13, 2002
49,944
47,800
113
43
Seattle
www.socialistworld.net
#14
Just finished watching the first season, shit was nuts. Clive Owen kills it man, interesting how creative he gets while getting lost in his addiction.

And lol at the cure for cocaine addiction, had to look up Bayer to see if it really was true.
Yeah all this stuff was inspired by real shit, even Dr. Thackery is loosely based on Dr. Halsted:





The show portrays Thackeray as a drug addled though trailblazing medical professional; he's based on the real life surgeon Dr. William Stewart Halsted, who was hooked on both cocaine and morphine according to his Johns Hopkins biography. It all began when Halsted was experimenting on using cocaine as an anesthetic, experiments which would result in him injecting himself with the drug and becoming dependent.

The bio also reflects Halsted's move to cure his addiction by transitioning to morphine, which just resulted in a dual dependency that would last for the rest of his life. While he earned a reputation as an addict, he was very talented in his field, so much so that despite concerns he arose to position of Chief of Surgery n at Johns Hopkins becoming one of the "Big Four" founding professors of the hospital.