8.2 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
In 1900, the surgeons and nurses at the Knickerbocker Hospital in New York push the bounds of medicine in a time of extremely high mortality rates and zero antibiotics. Among them is Doctor John Thackery, a celebrated and courageous surgeon pioneering new methods in the field despite his secret cocaine dependency.
Starring: Clive Owen, André Holland, Jeremy Bobb, Juliet Rylance, Eve HewsonDrama | 100% |
Period | 20% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 2.0
German: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (4 BDs)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 3.5 |
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: 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 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.
Disc One
- Episode Post-Op Episode 201: "Ten Knots" (1080i; 3:06)
- Episode Post-Op Episode 202: "You're No Rose" (1080i; 3:06)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
- 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)
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.
Bonus Disc: Scoring the Knick
2014
Bonus Disc: Enter the Knick
2014
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