I'm surprised that this Cinemax series wasn't more successful. It has everything going for it like solid writing, acting, and high quality production. Set in 1900 New York City, the Knick is short for the Knickerbocker hospital. Just like other businesses, hospitals have to make a profit and survive. The Knick is a 1900 version of St. Elsewhere about a struggling hospital. The first season has ten episodes starring Clive Owen as Dr. Thackeray, a renowned surgeon and secret drug addict. Andre Holland plays Dr. Algernon Edwards, an African American surgeon trained at Harvard and worked in Europe before coming to the Knick. Juliet Rylance plays Cornelia Robertson, the hospital administrator and daughter of its owner. Cara Seymour plays a nun with quite a secret that you won't see coming with complexity and devotion. The rest of the cast is stellar but I can't name them all here. Eve Hewson is perfect as the West Virginia transplanted nurse who knows and protects Thackeray. This series is almost flawless and perfect but I can't understand why I didn't see or know about it before. This series deserved some respect and accolades like other series.

The Knick is a TV drama set in the turn of the 20th century in NYC, and focuses on the lives of the doctors, administration and staff of the Knickerbocker Hospital, notably the brilliant resident physician Dr John Thackery (Clive Owen). Having finished the second season (the whole series to date), I can honestly say this series is a must watch. Firstly, the show's attention to detail and historical accuracy deserve a chapeau, be it the costumes, the attitudes, sets, as well as the social and medical issues prevalent at the time. The show also managed, much like other excellent dramas this past decade (Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire) to weave actual historic events into the show. The show's strongest point is its' character study. Every single actress/actor on the show is flawless in their portrayal of their respective characters. Throughout the two seasons, each of these characters' personal and professional growths is detailed, as well as their inner turmoil, doubts, opinions. The brilliant thing about the show is that each character (mediocre or not) has a quality about them, so you get to love some characters and hate others. The acting and character development is THAT good. I have to add my favourite characters on the show are definitely Sister Harriet (Cara Seymour) and Tom Cleary (Chris Sullivan), whose character development from episode one really shows that one shouldn't take things at face value. This principle applies to other characters too, but I won't get into detail. That's up to you to find out !

I love this show. And it has done a great job in being perfect on attention to detail for circa 1900 in just about everything! But to my unpleasant surprise, in episode 3 of season 2, in the court scene, there was the US flag as in all courtrooms. BUT....it happened to have 50 stars! How can that happen! Come on people. Everything in that show is perfect to circa 1900, but when it comes to the US flag no one could catch that? But other than that, The Knick is a great show. Hopefully more and more people will watch it. HBO needs to continue to tease it's HBO subscribers so more can get CineMax. That is how I was hooked onto getting CineMax back with season 1.

After watching the pilot episode, I really wanted to love "The Knick." The acting was very good, the plot was interesting, the characters were compelling, and the atmosphere was intoxicating in its realistic depiction of a dark, dingy, dirty lower Manhattan in 1900. The doctors were struggling with life and death in their ungloved, bloody hands with little knowledge of what's going to work, and what's literally going to kill a patient in their operating theater while a dozen or so onlookers gawk in silence. Wow!And then Steve Soderbergh's juvenile taste for cheap, unnecessary shots of breasts, butts, men urinating, and hernia's so bad they overtake a man's genitalia began. The head surgeon is a foul-mouthed egomaniac and a cocaine addict who has a young nurse shoot him up in his scrotum, and the hospital's administrator is in hock to the local crime scum and in love with a prostitute who performs the dance of "the busy flea" while he jerks off in his pants. Is this really what's necessary for an interesting drama in 2015? They lost my interest by the sixth episode!I do like that the local nun smokes, drinks in a bar with a single man of ill morals and manners, and performs abortions for pay. That pretty aptly describes the historic hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.Good writers and a truly talented director could do so much with this story, but it's not in great hands. The concept is epic, but the product is schlock in the final analysis.Much like the first few episodes of "House of Cards," you thought you were watching an interesting, even enthralling drama capturing believable moments of real power, real weakness, and real life. Then they had the lead characters kill two people and engage in deviant sex acts, and I'm thinking, "Why am I still watching this trash?"