Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Knick: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie Review

Physician, heal thyself.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman August 4, 2016

Maybe there’s something inherently distressed about the name Knickerbocker, for as any lover of Hollywood lore knows, the Knickerbocker Hotel in Los Angeles has been the site of several infamous incidents, including the arrest of Frances Farmer in 1943 and the suicide of costume designer Irene Gibbons in 1962. Though perhaps not as infamous, there was (and continues to be) a Knickerbocker Hotel in New York City as well, right on Times Square in fact, which was a “happening joint” for decades were show business icons like George M. Cohan set up shop and actually lived. Perhaps because this particular Knickerbocker Hotel didn’t share the Hollywood “version”’s scandalous history, that proclivity may have passed over to what was once called the Knickerbocker Hospital, a formidable fortress of a building way uptown in the Harlem neighborhood, where from the mid- 1800s on a mostly poor and often actually destitute clientele was served (at least ostensibly). The Knick is one of the new breed of “quasi- historical” dramas that takes a basically factual background and then heavily fictionalizes it, to varying degrees of success. The real Knickerbocker Hospital was founded in 1862 under the name Manhattan Dispensary (no, not that kind of dispensary, though drugs do play a rather major part in the television series’ story arcs), and evidently didn’t actually acquire the Knickerbocker moniker until circa 1913. That said, The Knick is set around the turn of the century and follows the exploits of John W. Thackery (Clive Owen), a doctor who, like the hospital where he works, adopts a monosyllabic nickname, Thack. Thackery is supposedly based on a real life medic named William Stewart Halsted, one of those incredibly colorful historical figures who pioneered “new” techniques like, you know, using hygienically sound approaches toward surgery while also nursing his “dark side” courtesy of what was reportedly a pretty bad cocaine habit. The Knick, kind of like its addled protagonist, has both good and bad elements, and it tends to lurch somewhat precariously from a dramatic standpoint quite a bit of the time, but it offers an interesting premise and several excellent actors.

My colleague Ken Brown offered his assessment of the series' first year in his The Knick: The Complete First Season Blu-ray review.

The Knick doesn’t scrimp on doling out traumas for its (overly?) large cast, and that proclivity is in evidence from virtually the get go in this second season. Dr. Thackery is seen in an opening sequence doing something (pretty squirm inducing) to a “working girl”’s nose, and then asking for payment in drugs. Dr. Algernon Edwards (Andre Holland) is seen visiting his doctor, who informs him he has a detached retina due to his rambunctious after work behavior, something that could seriously impede his already precarious position as an African American physician. Several other supporting characters also have their various trials (figuratively and literally), something that tends to make The Knick feel a bit overstuffed in the “downer” division, so to speak. This seems to be an increasing trend in television’s “soapier” dramas, something perhaps exacerbated by the unexpected success of Downton Abbey: Seasons 1 - 5, though it’s notable that Julian Fellowes typically allowed at least one character at a time to experience a little happiness, even as many others were experiencing their individual gauntlets.

The most convincing through line in an often fairly meandering intersection of various characters’ stories is probably the whole focus on Thackery’s addiction and how he attempts to deal with it. There’s a fascinating “lightbulb” moment when Thackery realizes that in a way he’s his own best patient and can experiment on supposed “cures”, something that repeatedly informs various episodes. That focus perhaps tends to sway attention away from the actual issue at hand, which is obviously Thackery’s inability to totally eliminate the monkey on his back. Owen does a convincing job bringing this obviously wounded character nicely to life, and he's surrounded by a coterie of excellent supporting performers who flesh out their characters surprisingly well, given the labyrinthine nature of the series which may only focus on an individual character for a moment or two in any given episode.

The Knick kind of reminded me of the French series Maison Close: Season One, a similarly opulently produced “historical” opus that merges supposed fact with outright fiction, but which also dallies in a contemporary ambience while telling tales from long ago. That disconnect between style and substance will probably appeal to younger viewers, but it may offer a distancing aspect for those who want their history straight, no chaser.

The Knick: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Knick: The Complete Second Season is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO (by way of Cinemax) with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. The IMDb lists this as having been shot with the Red Epic, and the results are often impeccably sharp and well detailed, even when the series indulges in some rather severe color grading. That approach varies from episode to episode (and often within any given episode), with some moments looking desaturated to the point that they're almost monochromatic, and others skewed toward cool blue tones. Even other moments have a rusty brown ambience, but through all of these grading choices, detail levels remain impressively high, especially in close-ups. The show seems to delight in showing some pretty gruesome imagery of people and/or corpses having various horrifying "operational" things happening to them, and so those who tend to be squeamish are well advised to be ready to squint their eyes. Contrast is generally very strong and consistent, and no instances of image instability or other compression issues were noticed. As Ken noted in his first season review, occasionally some darker moments have minimal crush, but it's never overly problematic.

The Knick: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Knick: The Complete Second Season features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, one which affords consistent surround activity due to a number of interesting effects, some aurally as squirm inducing as any of the visuals are in terms of bodies (living or dead) being operated on and the like. One of the more interesting aspects to the series' sound design, and one which again reminded me of Maison Close, is its surprisingly contemporary score (by Cliff Martinez), one which almost flirts with niches like EDM at times as it supports scenes from the turn of the century. The score regularly spills into the side and rear channels and provides a rather evocative if anachronistic bed for the well prioritized dialogue and other sound effects.

The Knick: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Episode Post-Op features brief breakdowns of various episodes, with interviews:

  Episode Post-Op Episode 201: "Ten Knots" (1080i; 3:06)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 202: "You're No Rose" (1080i; 3:06)

• Audio Commentary

  Episode 201 features Andre Holland (Dr. Algernon Edwards), Jeremy Bobb (Herman Barrow), Eric Johnson (Dr. Everett Gallinger), Chris Sullivan (Tom Cleary), Cara Seymour (Sister Harriet), and Jack Amiel (Creator, Executive Producer, Writer)

Disc Two

• Episode Post-Op features brief breakdowns of various episodes, with interviews:

  Episode Post-Op Episode 203: "The Best With the Best to Get the Best" (1080i; 3:37)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 204: "Wonderful Surprises" (1080i; 2:19)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 205: "Whiplash" (1080i; 2:46)

• Inside the Body Shop (1080i; 1:43) advertises itself as a "guts and all analysis of Dr. Thackery's autopsy of a heroin addict" in Episode 204 "Wonderful Surprises".

Disc Three

• Episode Post-Op features brief breakdowns of various episodes, with interviews:

  Episode Post-Op Episode 206: "There Are Rules" (1080i; 4:36)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 207: "Williams and Walker" (1080i; 2:03)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 208: "Not Well At All" (1080i; 3:50)

• Audio Commentary

  Episode 206 features Andre Holland (Dr. Algernon Edwards), Jeremy Bobb (Herman Barrow), Michael Angarano (Dr. "Bertie" Chickering, Jr.), Eric Johnson (Dr. Everett Gallinger), Chris Sullivan (Tom Cleary), Cara Seymour (Sister Harriet), and Jack Amiel (Creator, Executive Producer, Writer)

Disc Four

• Episode Post-Op features brief breakdowns of various episodes, with interviews:

  Episode Post-Op Episode 209: "Do You Remember Moon Flower?" (1080i; 4:12)

  Episode Post-Op Episode 210: "This is All We Are" (1080i; 7:27)

• Audio Commentary

  Episode 210 features Andre Holland (Dr. Algernon Edwards), Jeremy Bobb (Herman Barrow), Michael Angarano (Dr. "Bertie" Chickering, Jr.), Eric Johnson (Dr. Everett Gallinger), Chris Sullivan (Tom Cleary), Cara Seymour (Sister Harriet), and Jack Amiel (Creator, Executive Producer, Writer)

The Knick: The Complete Second Season Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Things actually don't go better with coke in this series (sorry, couldn't resist), and that dialectic between a supposedly helpful drug and its unintended side effects is probably the most compelling thing about The Knick's second season. This is a show that probably has too many characters for its own good (maybe way too many characters, in fact), and the show seems to struggle to offer reasonable screen time for so many competing stories. Luckily Owen's Thackery is a fascinating focal personage, and the good (?) doctor's travails provide some surprising emotional content even as other supporting stories sometimes flounder. Technical merits are very strong, and with caveats duly noted, The Knick: The Complete Second Season comes Recommended.