Cinemax has been in the original series game now for a couple years, producing top-shelf action and pulp shows like Strike Back and Banshee. But with The Knick -- directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Clive Owen -- HBO's sister channel spreads its wings out a little further with a gritty drama showcasing turn-of-the-20th Century medical practices at New York's Knickerbocker Hospital. In short, The Knick, which debuts Friday, feeling like a show that many might assume would be a fit for HBO marks a big step for Cinemax with regards to establishing a new brand identity.
And it's good. It's not scintillating, but (for now) the novelty of watching out of date (and now barbaric, in hindsight) surgical practices provides a fascinating view of a medical world rarely portrayed or explored in movies or on TV. And if you don't find yourself immediately invested emotionally in the characters - most of whom represent very stern, authoritative voices of an era now proven to have been woefully under-informed - there's still fun to be had as a grungy fly on a grimy wall as Clive Owen's drug-addled Dr. John Thackery attempts to battle death ("an enemy who has never known defeat") in an attempt to give his patients temporary victories. Meaning, more time on Earth - be it only a few months or a handful of years.
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