The Knick was the critically acclaimed series from Steven Soderbergh on Cinemax featuring a drug addicted Clive Owen testing medical science as the head of surgery at a turn of the century New York hospital. It was a beautiful series that seemed to be an oddity for Cinemax and a wonderful addition to your peak TV offerings from other networks. It was also canceled after two seasons back in March, something that Steve Soderbergh feels he might’ve had a hand in with his ideas for season three.
The former retiree and prestige director stopped into Reddit for an AMA to support his upcoming NASCAR heist Logan Lucky and ended up fielding a few questions about The Knick and where he could’ve gone in season three. After getting a better handle on the show with season two, it seems the director was ready to go into some new territory with the third season thanks to a time jump and some new aesthetic choices:
Season three of THE KNICK was set in 1947 and was going–at my absolute insistence–to be shot in anamorphic black-and-white. It’s POSSIBLE that may have contributed to its demise…
That is a time jump that skips past two World Wars and a Great Depression, plopping New York into a different, more prosperous time. Indiewire speculates that this would’ve meant bringing in an entirely new cast to represent the new generation of doctors at the Knickerbocker Hospital. This also makes some sense given where Clive Owen’s character ends up at the end of season two and his taste in dangerous habits throughout the series. You don’t usually live too long when you mix hardcore drug use and turn of the century medicine.
That said, there’s no reason Soderbergh couldn’t just bring back the group as new characters. It works for American Horror Story, why not here if you’re shifting through time. Either that or treat Clive Owen as some sort of surgical Keith Richards that can’t be killed by normal means. We’d certainly tune in.
(Via Indiewire)
