What's up, doc?

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: The Knick - Television program review - Brief article

At first glance, The Knick, a gritty medical drama set in a New York hospital at the dawn of the 20th century, looks like so many other post-Sopranos anti-hero dramas: The protagonist, Dr. John Thackery (Clive Owen), is a brooding, middle-aged, upper-middleclass professional with a secret life. In this case, he's both an experimental surgeon and a drug addict. Directed by Steven Soderbergh, the Showtime series is lavish and cinematic, and it often filters history through a knowing contemporary lens, highlighting the racism and class distinctions of the era it's set in.

But The Knick isn't...