The Knick

Almost every scene demands that the viewer asks why it was presented in that particular fashion--not in a way that distracts from the narrative, but only helps convey the themes of the piece. And as the series jumps ahead to 1901, it's becoming more ambitious in those themes and its articulation of them.

In season two, it's altogether richer, more daring, and even more fun.

Assuming there are no serious future complications, The Knick is already well on its way to being one of the year’s best TV shows.

It builds on last year’s strengths capably in season two. The Knick has what tamer period dramas lack: A spark of life and sense of danger.

The Knick isn't simply a lush costume drama, a gory medical history, or a lesson in social studies. It inspires true passion.

The second season picks up immediately with Soderbergh's visual flourishes and sense of when to use music or make what amounts to a soundless cloud that surrounds his perfectly framed shots.... That said, The Knick is more than just a visual tour de force. The writing continues to stand out and the characters evolve, while the acting remains top-notch.

Soderbergh has found a brand new canvas to test out visual ideas and off-kilter storytelling devices, and The Knick‘s intoxicating second season proves to be a dazzlingly detailed and vibrantly visual mural of his obsessions, bringing on a sort of imagistic high that would count as the famed filmmaker’s most obvious addiction.

The downside is that the storytelling can feel awfully cold. Moments that should be personally affecting are often used to illustrate historical truths instead.... But these characters are still fascinating case studies for the mind-body connections we make as viewers: They’re better appreciated with the brain than the heart.

The Knick teems with forbidden passions and lives of unquiet desperation. [26 Oct - 8 Nov 2015, p.14]

While all of this may seem out of the past, there is something naggingly familiar, eerily fascinating and even contemporary about much of The Knick.

At points, the new episodes strain to link past and present, with Thackery launching into didacticism about how addiction needs to be viewed as an illness, and not a moral failing. His argument seems a bit too forward-thinking, and it threatens the show’s hard-earned period authenticity. But generally, the writing pulls in still-festering themes effortlessly, blending them with plotlines that are never less than engaging.

The first season of The Knick occasionally gave these characters too little to do, while the second season--at least through its first four episodes--feels like the writers have overcompensated and thrown a few too many balls in the air.... It’s easy to treat the past as a cozy prequel to the present; The Knick treats it as a ghost story. I don’t know if that makes for more honest history, but it makes for amazing television.

The Knick is as engrossing and disturbing as ever, and the medical gore's only a small piece of it.

It’s frequently witty, vulgarly funny, sexy, and suspenseful. It makes you want to see its next scene the instant a new episode ends.

The Knick has become much more than another tortured-genius antihero story. It has developed a sprawl reminiscent of HBO’s “Deadwood,” stretching to the mansion and the gutter with equal familiarity.... Despite the often dark outlook, there’s also a sense of awe at the analog machinery of life.