Home > The Knick > Season 1 « TV Series Page The Knick: Season 1 (2014) SEASON: Season 1 Season 1 Season 2 Want to see Episode List Season 1 The Knick Critics Consensus The Knick is sincere, emotional period television that takes a down-to-earth, no-holds-barred approach to vital topics. 87% TOMATOMETER Critic Ratings: 66 96% Audience Score User Ratings: 976 NEW More Info × Close Want to see Super Reviewer Submit Super Reviewer Edit Review Episodes 1 90% Episode 1 Air date: Aug 8, 2014 Steven Soderbergh directs Clive Owen in this new medical drama set in 1900. Strong language, nudity and scenes of surgery from the outset. More 2 90% Mr. Paris Shoes Air date: Aug 15, 2014 Thackery orders Barrow to deliver more cadavers, while Edwards opens a covert basement clinic. Strong language, violence & distressing scenes. More 3 90% The Busy Flea Air date: Aug 22, 2014 An old flame needs Thackery's expertise and Algernon sets up a secret surgery. Cornelia grows anxious as typhoid spreads to the city's elite. More 4 90% Where's the Dignity? Air date: Sep 5, 2014 Algernon makes a risky move to get on the surgical team and nurse Lucy follows Thackery into Chinatown to find out about his secret life. More 5 80% They Capture the Heat Air date: Sep 12, 2014 Thackery is forced to operate on a thug from Collier's gang and Algernon tries a new surgery. Very strong language and distressing scenes. More 6 80% Start Calling Me Dad Air date: Sep 19, 2014 Thackery and Bertie try to perfect a caesarean procedure and Cornelia questions her future. Strong language, nudity and distressing scenes. More 7 91% Get the Rope Air date: Sep 26, 2014 New York shakes with racial tension when a police officer is stabbed. Contains violence, very strong language, racial themes & distressing scenes. More 8 91% Working Late a Lot Air date: Oct 3, 2014 A drug-deprived Thackery fears that a prominent inventor-surgeon will overshadow his accomplishments at the upcoming New York Surgical Society event. Meanwhile, Bertie courts Lucy as he fends off his father's demands that he leave the Knick; and staff members go to court to keep Typhoid Mary in quarantine. More 9 80% The Golden Lotus Air date: Oct 10, 2014 Robertson must come up with hush money to cover up a late-night crime at the Knick; a desperate Thackery looks to Lucy to obtain his drugs; and Eleanor's erratic behavior concerns Gallinger. More 10 82% Crutchfield Air date: Oct 17, 2014 In the Season Finale, Thackery becomes increasingly more paranoid and pushes himself to the limit while continuing the blood-transfusion research; and Edwards and Cornelia reach a crossroads. Meanwhile, Barrow gets in deeper with creditors; Lucy seeks help from Bertie; and, with the hospital in the middle of a crisis, Robertson orders a vote. More The Knick: Season 1 Videos 0:30 The Knick: Season 1 Trailer View All Videos (1) The Knick: Season 1 Photos View All Photos (99) Tv Season Info This medical drama set in the 1900s charts the exploits of the staff and patients at Knickerbocker Hospital in New York City, where they try to maintain their reputation for quality care while struggling to keep the doors open. In the first episode, accomplished but cocaine-addicted Dr. John W. Thackery (Clive Owen) is named chief surgeon and is pressured by a major benefactor to hire Dr. Algernon Edwards (Andre Holland), a black man, as his top assistant. Other principals introduced include Thackery's protege Dr. Everett Gallinger (Eric Johnson); young Dr. Bertie Chickering Jr. (Michael Angarano); Cornelia Robertson (Juliet Rylance), the well-meaning daughter of the facility's major benefactor; Lucy Elkins (Eve Hewson), neophyte nurse from the country; Tom Cleary (Chris Sullivan), a brutal, opportunistic ambulance driver; Herman Barrow (Jeremy Bobb), the underhanded, duplicitous hospital administrator; and Sister Harriet (Cara Seymour), a brash, outspoken nun who's not afraid to mix it up. Genre: Drama Network: Cinemax Premiere Date: Aug 8, 2014 Creators: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler Exec. Producers: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler, Steven Soderbergh, Clive Owen, Michael Sugar, Gregory Jacobs Cast Clive Owen as Dr. John W. Thackery André Holland as Dr. Algernon Edwards Eve Hewson as Lucy Elkins Jeremy Bobb as Herman Barrow Juliet Rylance as Cornelia Robertson Michael Angarano as Dr. Bertram "Bertie" Chickering Jr. Chris Sullivan (XII) as Tom Cleary Cara Seymour as Sister Harriet Eric Johnson as Dr. Everett Gallinger David Fierro as Jacob Speight Maya Kazan as Eleanor Gallinger Grainger Hines as Capt. August Robertson Matt Frewer as Dr. J.M. Christiansen Leon Addison Brown as Jesse Edwards Michael Nathanson as Dr. Zinberg Melissa McMeekin as Typhoid Mary Mallon Show More Cast News & Interviews for The Knick: Season 1 TV Premieres Countdown for September 30, 2016 2016 Emmy Winners Announced: Game of Thrones and Veep Win Top Awards 2016 Emmy Award Nominations View All The Knick: Season 1 News Episodes 1 90% Episode 1 Air date: Aug 8, 2014 Steven Soderbergh directs Clive Owen in this new medical drama set in 1900. Strong language, nudity and scenes of surgery from the outset. More 2 90% Mr. Paris Shoes Air date: Aug 15, 2014 Thackery orders Barrow to deliver more cadavers, while Edwards opens a covert basement clinic. Strong language, violence & distressing scenes. More 3 90% The Busy Flea Air date: Aug 22, 2014 An old flame needs Thackery's expertise and Algernon sets up a secret surgery. Cornelia grows anxious as typhoid spreads to the city's elite. More 4 90% Where's the Dignity? Air date: Sep 5, 2014 Algernon makes a risky move to get on the surgical team and nurse Lucy follows Thackery into Chinatown to find out about his secret life. More 5 80% They Capture the Heat Air date: Sep 12, 2014 Thackery is forced to operate on a thug from Collier's gang and Algernon tries a new surgery. Very strong language and distressing scenes. More 6 80% Start Calling Me Dad Air date: Sep 19, 2014 Thackery and Bertie try to perfect a caesarean procedure and Cornelia questions her future. Strong language, nudity and distressing scenes. More 7 91% Get the Rope Air date: Sep 26, 2014 New York shakes with racial tension when a police officer is stabbed. Contains violence, very strong language, racial themes & distressing scenes. More 8 91% Working Late a Lot Air date: Oct 3, 2014 A drug-deprived Thackery fears that a prominent inventor-surgeon will overshadow his accomplishments at the upcoming New York Surgical Society event. Meanwhile, Bertie courts Lucy as he fends off his father's demands that he leave the Knick; and staff members go to court to keep Typhoid Mary in quarantine. More 9 80% The Golden Lotus Air date: Oct 10, 2014 Robertson must come up with hush money to cover up a late-night crime at the Knick; a desperate Thackery looks to Lucy to obtain his drugs; and Eleanor's erratic behavior concerns Gallinger. More 10 82% Crutchfield Air date: Oct 17, 2014 In the Season Finale, Thackery becomes increasingly more paranoid and pushes himself to the limit while continuing the blood-transfusion research; and Edwards and Cornelia reach a crossroads. Meanwhile, Barrow gets in deeper with creditors; Lucy seeks help from Bertie; and, with the hospital in the middle of a crisis, Robertson orders a vote. More Critic Reviews for The Knick Season 1 All Critics (66) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (8) The Knick isn't merely good -- but clinically, historically (even sociologically) interesting. Aug 8, 2014 | Rating: A | Full Review… Verne Gay Newsday Top Critic Overall, The Knick is a sublimely addictive ride for which viewers will want to scrub up. Aug 8, 2014 | Full Review… Joanne Ostrow Denver Post Top Critic The Knick is an astonishing new medical drama that has the potential to be one of the year's best and most talked-about shows. Aug 8, 2014 | Full Review… Matthew Gilbert Boston Globe Top Critic Getting into The Knick ...will take two or three episodes. But once you check into this particular TV hospital, and stick around for a while, you'll care about the characters, their stories and their amazing new inventions. Aug 7, 2014 | Full Review… David Bianculli NPR Top Critic Though the series boasts fine acting, a fluent script and a star director, it's not much more involving than the average broadcast hospital drama. It's watchable but not must-watchable. Aug 7, 2014 | Full Review… Tom Conroy Media Life Top Critic It is, as an aesthetic object, outstanding; as a medical drama, satisfying; and, as a piece of art, totally disappointing. Aug 7, 2014 | Full Review… Willa Paskin Slate Top Critic The Knick quickly becomes something of an outré procedural drama that remembers that well-paced storytelling is best served by consistently raw intensity. Apr 5, 2019 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… Edward Frost CineVue Stylish, dark, gory and twisted, Cinemax's The Knick is exactly the show you've been waiting for, if you're the type of person who thinks Downton Abbey needs more viscera. Jun 8, 2018 | Full Review… Tom Fitzgerald and Lorenzo Marquez Tom & Lorenzo ...Soderbergh and the production designers recreate turn of the century street scenes in painstaking detail.And perhaps that's the biggest thrill in watching The Knick: It's like travelling backward in time and landing in the middle of Central Park Nov 29, 2017 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review… Katherine Monk Ex-Press.com The product - through Soderbergh's eye - is a sight to behold. Sep 15, 2017 | Full Review… Jac Kern Cincinnati CityBeat View All Critic Reviews (66) Audience Reviews for The Knick: Season 1 Jun 26, 2019 One of the best shows ever. Eduardo B May 19, 2018 The apocalypse according to Soderbergh. (Mauro Lanari) Mauro L Jan 19, 2018 There are several genres that have stood the test of time and have been elevated to the status of perennial standards for television. Among them are police procedurals, lawyers/courtroom and medical dramas. Though considerably different in the minutia they have one aspect in common, they intrinsically proved ample sources of tension, conflict and intrigue. One trend that has been emerging is to take one of these archetypical professions and displacing them in time, usually back before the proliferation of modern technology. One profession that has not yet been adequately explored was medicine, one example that is eminently conducive to such a time slip, medicine; The Knick. Set in New York City in the year 1900, the men and women working in the Knickerbocker Hospital are helping to push the limits of medical procedures and understanding. With the leading characters solidly based upon two preeminent men of medicine, such as William Stewart Halsted, a pioneer in anesthetics and originator of several surgical procedures and instrument still in use. Another main character was based upon an amalgam of two of the first African-Americans to break through the pervasive bigotry and become world renown physicians and surgeons, Daniel Hale Williams and Louis T. Wright. This foundation in historical accuracy provides the severs with an undeniable veracity that crates a platform for a trip back in time was establishing itself as a formidable force on the world stage. Pulling it all together is a showrunner and principle directory, Steven Soderbergh, an auteur who has made his mark in a wide variety of genres in both the mainstream and independent cinema. Each episode is imbued with his directorial panache and distinctive style that has made his films so successful. One aspect of the medical drama that is crucial to its veracity is how the various situations fraught with tension portrayed. A prime example is found in the operating room from the very first scene involving surgery the viewer realize that this series will not shy away from the gory details. Woman is brought into the surgical theater placenta praevia a condition that is life-threatening for both mother and child. Performing the life-saving surgery is the hospitals Chief of Surgery Dr. J. M. Christiansen (Matt Frewer), assisted by his Deputy Chief Dr. Dr. John W. Thackery (Clive Owen). In preparation for the procedure and nurse brings over a basin disinfecting solution for Dr. Christiansen to dip his ample beard in. Instead of the usual tightly controlled and sterile operating room the patient is on a table in the middle of a room surrounded by rows of seats. In those seats are of number of doctors observing this brilliant surgeon at work. He announces that the up procedure has to take no longer than 100 seconds to prevent the patient from exsanguination. As he makes his first incision, the audience is given a close-up view of the scalpel cutting into the rounded belly. The doctor reaches in the pullout the infant immediately handing it off to a nurse. The bleeding is profuse in sections provided by the tube connected to a hand crank operated by another doctor. Both mother and child die in that room. Dr. Christiansen goes back to his office, spreads a clean white sheet on his couch reclines and shooting himself in the head. The Board of Directors immediately promotes space Dr. Thackery to chief who announces his intention of promoting his colleague and protégé Dr. Everett Gallinger (Eric Johnson) to replace them as Deputy Chief. His over ruled by the board insist that he hire Dr. Algernon Edwards (André Holland) a candidate suggested by the hospitals principal patron Captain August Robertson (Grainger Hines). His daughter Cornelia (Juliet Rylance) sits on the board holding his proxy. It is clear that the suggestion is in order since failure to accommodate the request will result in pulling the funds necessary to wire the hospital for electricity. Reluctantly Thackery agrees to go along. When he first meets the new doctor factory is busy in the basement at a makeshift forge working on creating an instrument of his own design. Dr. Edwards has incredible credentials from the best schools and hospitals both in the United States and Europe. Thackery is quite blunt with white is refusing his appointment, Dr. Edwards is African-American. Dr. Edwards agrees to stay on long enough to teach factory and his staff a revolutionary new technique he has devised but after watching Thackery performing most impossible procedure using his new equipment Dr. Edward states "to" I will I will stay in this circus until I have learned everything he has to offer." Most of the first season does concentrate on the open animosity everyone on staff has been Dr. Edwards. He was able to become a surgeon thanks to the patronage and influence of Capt. Robinson. His mother, Eveline (LaTonya Borsay) works in the Robertson household as a cook while his father, Jesse Karin (Leon Addison Brown) is the captains carriage driver. Dr. Edwards takes advantage of the facilities of the Knick by opening up a free clinic located in the basement for the poor and indigent particularly the African-American community. Dr. Thackery has a different right to spend his off hours is addicted to cocaine which he takes intravenously in between his toes and goes directly from the hospital to an opium den located on Mott Street in Chinatown. One evening he is needed for an emergency surgery and a young nurse from Kentucky Lucy Elkins (Eve Hewson) is dispatched to fetch the doctor from his residence. She finds them completely incapacitated by drugs. She is ordered by the doctor to inject him with cocaine. His being in such a state of collapse she could not find one suitable for the injection three forces her to use a vein in his genitals. She becomes completely obsessed with how such a brilliant surgeon can be a drug addict begins following him on his nightly visits to the opium den in Chinatown. The essence of what differentiates it good period drama from a great one the amount of attention given to establishing the nuances that made that time and place special. This was achieved this series is by carefully rich tapestry of second-tier characters. This is an era in New York City been a disproportionate member number of people in public service corrupted predisposed bribes. Pay off the commonplace and routinely considered the grease that made the wheels of the city move. One of the most blatant examples is large burly Irishman, Tom Cleary (Chris Sullivan), the senior ambulance driver. A routine call to fetch a patient usually involves brawl over who gets to bring the paying patient to the hospital. The hospital is so dependent on a patient that could pay cash money that the hospital manager, Herman Barrow (Jeremy Bobb), who pays a premium any source of income brought into the hospital. The top drawer of his desk is a ready source of cash to dole out bribes and kickbacks. This finders fee also extends to Jacob Speight (David Fierro) inspector from the health department searches the tenement buildings cases of typhoid. Your glances regular income by shaking down the landlords cannot write up summonses that were close their buildings down. There he finds another unexpected source of income but he discovers that Sister Harriet (Cara Seymour) the head of the hospitals orphanage is performing abortions on the side. As a good Catholic Cleary is an appalled by such a practice when he sees a young woman bled to death by trying to perform his self-induced procedure. His Catholic guilt is mitigated by the profits generated by steering such girls to the Sister with a 60/40 split of the money, in his favor. This series is unlike any other hospital sure you have likely have ever seen if you look into the biographies of the real positions used as role models youll see just how close to reality this show comes. Both cocaine and morphine but perfectly legal at the time and Doctor Thackeray was performing genuine research on the use of cocaine as a local anesthesia. In one scene it depicts him pioneering a narrow common procedure, the epidural, by injecting a cocaine solution directly into the spinal canal. The drama and tension generated by the storylines is immediately intriguing and were compelled to go from episode to episode in a binge watching spree. It will certainly make you exceptionally thankful for the modern hospital in your health insurance. Douglas M May 16, 2017 powerful. shocking that some of this stuff actually happened (1 viewing) Waleed A Feb 24, 2016 This show has gotten lots of praise so I was expecting to like it. But after 2 episodes of blood, guts, and needles I decided it wasn't for me. Marianne K Dec 25, 2015 Excellent, but a little difficult to follow all the sub plots at times, in order to complete the jigsaw. Ricky S Dec 14, 2015 Grandiosa primera temporada con todo el sabor de Steven Soderbergh en esta historia de la cirugía y de la medicina basándose en la historia del hospital Knickerbocker y del Dr. William Stewart Halsted. El papel de Clive Owen es espectacular y la serie viene con un ambiente sombrío cargado de todo. Andres V Nov 30, 2015 The show provides a blend of fascinating storylines, intriguing characters and stylish cinematography. From the flawed and brilliant Dr Thackery to the tribulations of the similarly brilliant Dr Edwards all the characters gradually come to life. The plot also reminds of how deeply flawed the emerging power house of NYC was as it began to shed its frontier status. Definitely my new Breaking Bad. Nick P Nov 20, 2015 Amazing period show! David M Nov 12, 2015 Possibly the best-looking show on TV right now. Sharp lines and content that does not get caught up in the historical setting like other time-period pieces. Daniel M See all Audience reviews News & Features 150 Erotic Movies Ranked worst to best! 2019's Most Anticipated 63 movies coming up this year 200 Essential Movies Chosen by RT staff! 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