After the success of Contagion, Steven Soderbergh gathers another badge of honor of himself.
The Knick is another show of his that perfectly encapsulates the anxiety and hardships faced during the Coronavirus. For some of us, the only way to cope is through movies and other forms of informational format. The Knick is criminally underrated and should definitely be on your watch-list!
The show is set at the turn-of-the-century and shares a medical drama where brilliant surgeons perform outrageous surgeries to save the lives of patients from terminal illnesses. It further captures events and societal issues that brilliantly remain relevant today. The most interesting thing about this show is that it doesn’t shy away from the hard realities of healthcare workers. With the suicide of the Manhattan ER doctor this past week, this show becomes more apt than ever.
Most of the medical dramas cover the personal lives of the doctors without truly grappling with the disturbing impact of the cases on them. It simply skimps through the stories of the patients and their treatment. They are no longer the centre of the story and neither is the method that the doctors use.
Doctors have the Go complex that is necessary and almost annoying. They need to have blind trust in their own abilities so that the patient and their family can trust them with their lives. However, some of the plots touch the blurry lines where doctors consume cocaine and other drugs to simply stay sane during such critical periods of insanity.
Source: Business Insider
Sure, medicine has progressed extensively ever since, but doctors and scientists are still struggling to find cures to many diseases. We still lack understanding of the basic medicinal problem and that speaks volumes about the time we’re currently living in. This is exactly why The Knicks is so smart. It speaks about the fact that no matter how much knowledge you possess, you cannot outsmart death. The battle against the unknown continues.
Now, nobody is selling a fairytale. Hence, if you’re faint of heart, you can give this show a miss as many parts of it are gruesome and extremely uncomfortable to watch. You can easily feel mortified and scared since you’re already impacted by the Coronavirus.
The performances of the show are remarkable, the writing is smooth and free from glitches, the direction is done brilliantly, and all in all, the show is exceptional! It is available on Hulu, Amazon and Cinemax add-on.