With the arguable exception of the newly cancelled Hannibal, no current series on the television map has the visual chops of Cinemax's The Knick, Steven Soderbergh's utterly astounding depiction of life in New York's Knickerbocker Hospital during the early ages of modern surgical practices. The series' imagistic bombast is the mark of Soderbergh, who broadened his already adventurous, visceral aesthetic with the jump to the small screen, alongside HBO's release of his magnificent Liberace biopic, Behind the Candelabra. And with the release of this frustratingly short but enthralling teaser trailer for The Knick Season 2, the great filmmaker looks to be stepping up his game even more, rife with revealing tracking shots, spellbinding push-ins, and a variety of other inventive visions.


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Image via Cinemax

This would seemingly match with the wreck that we left Clive Owen's crazed Dr. Thackery and the rest of the Knickerbocker staff in, with Thackery generously treating an insidious addiction to cocaine and other substances with a dose of heroin. The teaser only gives us glimpses of what may come: a quarantine for disease, the entrance to some great stage show, Thackery looking over the denizens of a burlesque or vaudeville venue, and Thackery enjoying time in the cabin of a boat on the high seas. Though its clear the show will address the major medical and societal occurrences of the period, the deeply involving human drama that will unfold in Season 2 is left a mystery, thankfully, though these storylines will almost certainly continue to be defined as much in each shot of the series as the lovesick and just plain sick pronouncements of its wounded ensemble of characters. As if it weren't clear, I can't wait.

The Knick returns to Cinemax on October 16th.

Here's the teaser trailer for The Knick Season 2: