--- title: "The Knick" year: 2014 kind: "series" canonical: "https://film.one/tv/the-knick" fi1m_score: 82 critics_score: 69 critics_reviews: 7 published: "2026-09-20T21:13:01.071717+00:00" updated: "2026-09-20T21:13:13.952965+00:00" region: "SG" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # The Knick (2014) Created by Jack Amiel, Michael Begler · 1h 00m · IMDA M18 · Drama **Fi1m score: 82** · Critics 69 from 7 reviews *In a sentence:* Everyone is bleeding, the electricity is unreliable and the surgeon in white shoes is on cocaine > Steven Soderbergh directs, shoots and cuts this drama about a New York hospital in 1900, and it is as handsome and as bloody as television gets. Clive Owen’s genius addict is the one stock figure in the building; everyone around him is better. ## Synopsis New York, 1900. The hospital everyone calls the Knick is losing paying patients as the city’s money moves uptown and survives on its benefactor’s fortune; his daughter Cornelia Robertson (Juliet Rylance) manages the board’s business. John Thackery (Clive Owen), a surgeon of real gifts who injects cocaine between his toes, is made chief of surgery. The benefactor imposes a deputy on him: Algernon Edwards (André Holland), a Black doctor trained in Europe, whom Thackery refuses to work with and the other surgeons refuse to acknowledge. Herman Barrow (Jeremy Bobb), the manager, is falsifying the accounts and owes money to a gangster. A new nurse, Lucy Elkins (Eve Hewson), arrives from the country. The theatre’s electric lights keep going out. ## Review New York, 1900. The Knick is downtown, short of money and short of paying patients, and its surgeons operate in a wooden bowl of a room while students look down from the benches. Jack Amiel and Michael Begler created the series and wrote it with Steven Katz; Steven Soderbergh directed, photographed and edited all twenty episodes himself. *The Knick* is the best-looking thing we have seen made for television, and for most of its length it is also one of the best. The operations are what people will talk about. Howard Cummings builds the theatre as an amphitheatre with a table in the pit, and Soderbergh takes his camera down into the pit with the surgeons, close enough that the wound fills the frame. The first, in the first hour, is a caesarean on a woman bleeding faster than anyone can work, and Thackery (Clive Owen) counts the seconds aloud while he cuts. We watched it through our fingers. We were horrified by the blood pooling under the table and by how calm everyone was about it, and then, some episodes on, we noticed we had stopped flinching and started leaning forward. Soderbergh lights with what the hospital has. The wards are brown and yellow under gas; the theatre is white under the new electric lamps, which fail; daylight comes in high and cold. The camera is handheld and the lens is wide, so faces stretch at the edges of the frame and rooms look larger than the hospital can afford. Cliff Martinez writes the score on synthesisers, cold pulses and long held chords under 1900, and it ought to be a mistake. It is not. It says these people believed they were living in the future, and the pictures agree. Ellen Mirojnick dresses Thackery in a black frock coat and white leather shoes, and he keeps the shoes clean through everything. Owen is the weak point, or rather Thackery is. A brilliant surgeon who injects cocaine between his toes, insults everyone and is always right is a man we have met before, and the writing takes him down a road we could have mapped after two episodes. Owen plays him fast and hard, jaw first, and is watchable throughout; he is not surprising once. The critics who found the series predictable were looking at him. They should have looked to his left. That is where Algernon Edwards (André Holland) stands, a Black surgeon trained in Europe, appointed Thackery’s deputy by the hospital’s benefactor and refused by everyone in the building. Holland plays a man who knows to the ounce how much anger he can show and spends it carefully. Kept out of the theatre in the early episodes, he opens a clinic in the basement for the patients the front door turns away, and we were angrier on his behalf than we expected to be. The series is at its best when it looks at the Knick through his eyes, and it does so more as it goes on. The rest of the building is well stocked. Jeremy Bobb’s Herman Barrow, the manager, steals from the hospital and owes money to worse people. Juliet Rylance’s Cornelia Robertson runs the board her father pays for and is not expected to have opinions. Eve Hewson’s Lucy Elkins, a nurse fresh from the country, becomes the object of Thackery’s attention. Chris Sullivan’s Tom Cleary drives the ambulance and fights the other drivers for the bodies, and Cara Seymour’s Sister Harriet is the nun he argues with. The faults are in the writing. The dialogue is plainer than the pictures and sometimes says the theme aloud; people announce that they are modern. The middle of the first season slows to soap, a debt here and an affair there, and the second season takes a turn we will not describe. It ran for two seasons of ten hours and stopped, which is the right length and a shame. Soderbergh has built something two hours could not hold: a hospital you come to know room by room. Each episode runs an hour and carries a 15. Watch it at home with the lights off, and do not eat while you do. *Fi1m score 82, published 20 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like The Knick, and nearly all of them, whether they like it or not, begin with how it looks. Soderbergh’s direction is the point of agreement: the long takes, the play of light and shadow, the period sets and costumes, and the surgeries, which several reviews describe as gruesome enough to warn the squeamish away. Clive Owen’s drug-addicted surgeon draws steady praise, and Collider picks out Andre Holland’s Dr Edwards as the more layered of the two. The reservations gather around the writing. Variety argues that the bloody procedures stop telling us anything new once they have been repeated, and The Times finds Thackery a brilliant, brutal addict on a road to redemption we have travelled before. The Guardian, broadly warm, still finds it slow. The spread is wide: five clear recommendations against two dismissals, with the dissenters objecting to the story rather than the style. ## Straight answers **Is The Knick worth watching?** *The Knick* is worth watching for anyone who can stomach period surgery, and we scored it 82. Steven Soderbergh directs, shoots and edits every episode of this drama about a New York hospital in 1900, and it is the best-looking thing we have seen made for television. Clive Owen's cocaine-addicted surgeon is a familiar figure; André Holland, as the Black deputy nobody will work with, is the reason to stay. **How long is The Knick, and what is it rated?** *The Knick* has episodes of about 1h 00m and is rated M18 by the IMDA in Singapore. It is a drama series. **Where can I watch The Knick in Singapore?** *The Knick* is streaming on HBO Max in Singapore. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is The Knick, and is it suitable for children?** *The Knick* carries a 15 in the UK and is not suitable for children. The operations are filmed from inside the theatre with the wound filling the frame, and the first episode's caesarean had us watching through our fingers. It is bloody rather than frightening, but the squeamish should not eat while watching, and there is drug use throughout. **How does The Knick compare to Deadwood?** *The Knick* and *Deadwood* are both filthy American dramas about institutions being invented as we watch, and *Deadwood* is the richer of the two. Its speeches are more elaborate and its ensemble more even; *The Knick* is the handsomer, with Soderbergh's camera and Cliff Martinez's cold synthesiser score, but its central character is a stock figure. Choose *Deadwood* for talk and *The Knick* for pictures and blood. ### Reviews we read (7) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Tim Goodman (90/100, inferred): Tim Goodman hails the series as an ambitious and stylish period drama that rewards patient viewers with its bold take on early 20th-century medicine. He singles out the compelling dynamic between the two lead doctors and Soderbergh's masterful direction for particular praise. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/knick-tv-review-722709/) - **Vulture**, Matt Zoller Seitz (85/100, inferred): The critic finds The Knick the best thing Cinemax has produced, calling it a politically astute statement about the past and power dynamics rather than merely a period piece. Soderbergh's direction, with its use of light and shadow and long takes, is singled out for creating a visually and thematically rich atmosphere. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2014/07/review-the-knick-soderbergh-cinemax.html) - **The Guardian** (75/100, inferred): The Knick dazzles visually with its high production values and Soderbergh's direction, featuring gruesome experimental surgeries and a strong performance from Clive Owen as the drug-addicted surgeon. It is deliciously gory and oozes quality but is not especially pacey. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2014/oct/17/the-great-fire-knick-tv-review) - **Variety**, Brian Lowry (40/100, inferred): The critic finds the series a creative stretch for Cinemax but ultimately unconvincing, with its bloody medical procedures failing to offer new insights after repetition. Soderbergh's direction provides striking imagery but the narrative remains impressionistic and predictable. [Read](https://variety.com/2014/tv/reviews/tv-review-the-knick-1201271263/) - **The Times**, Andrew Billen (★★☆☆☆): The Knick looks amazing thanks to American budgets and Soderbergh's direction, with tense opening surgery scenes that are as bloody as Peaky Blinders. Thackery is portrayed as a brilliant but brutal drug-addicted cliché on a predictable road to redemption. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/tv-review-the-great-fire-the-knick-hvgcrc0l396) - **Den of Geek**, Gerri Mahn (4.5/5): The critic praises the series premiere for its grand, gory depiction of early 20th-century medicine and its painstaking historical detail in sets and costumes. While noting the show's extreme gruesomeness makes it unsuitable for the faint of heart, they express love for the episode's visceral impact. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/the-knick-series-premiere-method-and-madness-review/) - **Collider**, Allison Keene (80/100, inferred): The series offers a distinctive take on the medical drama by setting it in 1900 New York, with Soderbergh's stylish direction bringing period authenticity and modern flair through tracking shots and a minimalist score. The critic highlights the strong ensemble, especially Andre Holland's layered role as Dr. Edwards, while noting familiar elements in Clive Owen's lead character. [Read](https://collider.com/the-knick-review/) ## Details - **Created by:** Jack Amiel, Michael Begler - **Creator:** Jack Amiel, Michael Begler - **Director:** Steven Soderbergh - **Writer:** Michael Begler, Jack Amiel, Steven Katz - **Cinematography:** Steven Soderbergh - **Editor:** Steven Soderbergh - **Music:** Cliff Martinez - **Production design:** Howard Cummings - **Costume design:** Ellen Mirojnick - **Producer:** Michael Polaire, Steven Katz - **Cast:** Clive Owen as Dr. John Thackery; André Holland as Dr. Algernon Edwards; Jeremy Bobb as Herman Barrow; Juliet Rylance as Cornelia Robertson; Eve Hewson as Lucy Elkins; Eric Johnson as Dr. Everett Gallinger; Michael Angarano as Dr. Bertram “Bertie" Chickering, Jr.; Cara Seymour as Sister Harriet - **Runtime:** 1h 00m - **Certificate (IMDA):** M18 - **Release (Singapore):** 8 August 2014 - **Genres:** Drama - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z880Wxny860 ## Where to watch in Singapore - HBO Max: streaming *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Deadwood* (2004), Fi1m 91: Another filthy, foul-mouthed American town where the institutions are being invented as we watch — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/tv/deadwood.md) - *Charité* (2017): Berlin’s great hospital in 1888, with Koch and Behring; the German cousin of this one - *The Elephant Man* (1980), Fi1m 84: Lynch’s gaslit London hospital, with Hopkins as the surgeon who takes Merrick in — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-elephant-man.md) - *Bodies* (2004): Jed Mercurio’s obstetrics ward, where the incompetent consultant is protected and the patients pay - *Contagion* (2011), Fi1m 78: Soderbergh again, shooting and cutting a modern epidemic with the same cold, procedural eye — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/contagion.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/the-knick