Tonight’s episode of The Knick was the best one of the season. For the first time in a long time, I felt as if the episode was a cohesive whole instead of just a bunch of parts thrown together. Actually, this might be the most complete, cohesive episode of the entire series run so far.
And that’s been my main criticism. Ignoring some of my most hyperbolic statements (I think in my last review I used the phrase “intelligible trash”), that’s been the thing I’ve brought up. This is not a show that concerns itself with plot as much as it does with its characters; the plot is perfunctory, only mean to foster development. And trust me, that is what I love to see. Mad Men is a perfect example of this type of show.
But Mad Men is almost always cohesive, and very rarely does it feel as disconnected from its parts as The Knick can. That’s a lot of pressure to put on a freshman show, I know; but at the same time, The Knick wants to be a prestige drama. Maybe episode eight is where they found their stride. Maybe my perspective has changed. Regardless, I have enjoyed the last two and one-tenth episodes more than I did the previous six combined.
There are still things that I don’t like; some characterization that I don’t necessarily agree with. Cornelia going to Algernon’s apartment in the middle of the day is not only incredibly stupid for her personally, it’s also incredibly selfish. All it takes is one white dude to report her in Algernon’s room and Algernon is strung up by the neck. I don’t buy the idea that Cornelia would be so love-struck as to forget the fact that her mere presence next to Algernon would cause not only the end of his career but his life as well. I also don’t buy the idea that Algernon would be stupid enough to encourage her to do such a thing.
Also, Thackery’s character continues to annoy. His opening scene monologue about god missing from the universe and what sin actually is rings very false considering the time period. The idea that there is a man that is that progressive about sex and race before women even had the right to vote is patently ludicrous. Especially since he’s saying while wrapped in the arms of a girl so young that the show makes a point not to show her fully naked, just to accent the fact that she can’t be a day over eighteen, if eighteen at all.
Anyways.
The good far outweighed the meh. Typhoid Mary was released from prison, putting her back in play; she’s a cartoon villain, almost needlessly evil, so it’ll be interesting to see where her character goes from here. With her storyline in play again, that’ll put a damper in Cornelia’s husbands future moving plans; it’ll keep her at The Knick for at least a while longer. Hopefully her husband and her father-in-law die of typhoid.
I also want to share how much I enjoyed the Gallinger storyline this week. Gallinger is such a fascinating character in this episode; he’s clearly such a garbage pile but his devotion to his family and this baby that isn’t his really paints him in a different light. Gallinger is such a contradiction; he’s got all the softness of men a hundred years away from him but the vileness of those that stand next to him. I really loved that storyline this week and I hope we see more interesting stuff out of Gallinger and his family in the weeks to come.
It’s weird. This episode took everything that I didn’t like and made me like it, at least for this week. All of the characters and plots that I didn’t buy all the sudden came together for me. It’s entirely possible this is just me waking up from some coma-dream in which I was the only critic on Earth criticizing this show but I hope that this is not the case. I hope that the show is finding its stride.
I was listening to a podcast today with Andy Greenwald and John Mulaney, and Greenwald brought up a quote of Mike Schur’s:
“[I]f money were no object, every comedy on TV would shoot and then throw away their first ten episodes.”
I think that’s true for all shows. You gotta find the rhythms of the actors, writers, and crew, and the only way to find that is to do it over and over and over again. You see it in sports, day in and day out, as you do in television; they are baptized in fire. But that’s the great thing about television and sports; if they come out of that fire unscathed and uncowed, you really have something special in your hands.
See you next week.
[Photo via Cinemax]
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