This review ofThe Knickcontains spoilers.
It felt right at the time and is still what I admire most about the show.
Yes,The Knickis big and paints in broad, beautiful strokes.
Ad content continues below
I hope not.
There is plenty of depth toThe Knick.
Characters words reveal how they feel, not what they think the hallmark of any well-conceived drama.
AndThe Knickitself has plenty to say about modern social issues even in its 1901 setting.
Plenty of shows are deep and introspective.
Just listen to that score again!
It sounds like aDonkey Kong Country underwater level.
Visually, take the sad case of the now departed Inspector Speight.
Youre No Rose opens with the sight of his corpse being fished out of a lake.
Speight has always been emblematic ofThe Knicks approach to visual storytelling.
The Knickis a world where peoples outside appearance frequently match their inner-self.
- That can be an iffy proposition.
And Im sure that would have been interesting in a meta sort of way.
But Speights is a creep!
So they physically portray him as a creep.
Its an admirable level of economy in storytelling.
The Knickdoes tend to create broad characters.
Plus, once characters have a visual stereotype, then they can begin the process of subverting them.
Of course, Bertie wasnt even aware that Thack and Lucy boned so…whoops.
Who knew they had women and gender studies classes at 1900s rehab though.
Youre No Rose does return things to the status quo too quickly.
Neely begins the city-wide season-long plot with her investigation into Speights death.
The Knickis a lot like its protragonist: obsessively advancing forward like a meticulously-coifed shark.
If youre out of rehab and able to work, you work, damn it.
*Ill refer you again toClive Owens Hair Indexas a marker of John Thackerys level of cray-cray.
Rating:
4 out of 5
