The Knick

We've seen addicted medicos before, and the first two episodes of The Knick don't render any of the characters as three-dimensional as their setting (though that's asking a lot of a pilot--and the second episode is better).

The series is exceedingly good at what it does, but that is not storytelling, which leaves The Knick in the curious position of being utterly absorbing without being particularly engaging.

All 10 episodes of the first season are directed by Mr. Soderbergh, who brings grittiness and the occasional odd camera angle but not much light to the proceedings (this is a seriously dark show with limited use of lighting). Writers/series creators Jack Amiel and Michael Begler introduce plenty of characters with interwoven, serialized storylines but there’s not much new under the dim sun in The Knick.

This dark medical drama directed by Oscar-winner Steven Soderbergh suffers from multiple ailments, not least of which is its relentlessly grim tone.

All the care that Soderbergh has taken with the colors, the camera, the blood--all his masterfully deployed aesthetic choices--stand in stark contrast to the care taken with the scripts.

The resulting episodes, however, are a bit like an impressionistic painting: intriguing to look at, perhaps, but not always clear in conveying what the actual intent is. And while the characters and their relationships do progress, for the most part those arcs develop along assiduous and fairly predictable lines.

Rather than innovate, the series, on Cinemax, leans hard on cable drama’s hoariest (and whoriest) antiheroic formulas, diluting potentially powerful themes.