Warning: Fullfor the episode follow...

In keeping with 2014's cable TV movement of auteur-driven seasons featuring "same director and/or same writer" - like HBO's True Detective and FX's Fargo - Steven Soderbergh took us on a grand, gritty tour of "turn of the twentieth century" medicine and socio-economics with Cinemax's The Knick And while Soderbergh's leap to TV may seem like the biggest "get" since David Fincher brought House of Cards to Netflix, he didn't make a full transition. The fact that the entire 10-episode first season was shot like one long 10-hour feature film, completely out of order (for example: all the scenes that took place in Thackery's house were filmed in a row, and so on) is both impressive and indicative of someone with a particular style and mode simply translating that - perhaps even square peg/round hole style - to a different medium.So Soderbergh didn't bend here. He didn't alter much of anything he usually does to bring us a TV series. It's just fortunate that he's a compelling director with an intense fly-on-the-wall style that lent itself nicely to the morbid medicinal practices from over a century ago. Because while the performances were strong - from the likes of Clive Owen, Andre Holland, Juliet Rylance, and Eve Hewson (who I didn't realize was Bono's daughter until more than halfway through the season) - the craft itself was the true star of the series.The camera work. The composition choices. The bizarre-but-fitting synth score by Cliff Martinez. The chilly clinical aspect of the operating theater where deaths were commonplace. The dark, warm appeal of the Chinatown opium parlor that, after bearing witness to so many atrocities, understandably seemed like a warm blanket by comparison. This was the dressing that helped make such a grim spectacle - a parade of misery at times - compelling when it easily could have spiraled into the mire.There weren't too many surprises story-wise here. Good stuff but nothing that'd make your head turn. Actually, I think the most shocking aspect of it was how little social opposition Gallinger provided after his initial bigoted objections thanks to the one-two-three knockout arc of infant death, adopted baby neglect death, and insane wife. He just sank and sank and sank, eventually allowing Dr. Edwards to finally leave the basement and stand side-by-side with Thackery in a relatively predjudice-free environment. If you don't count the huge race riot in the exciting, team-unifying episode, "Get the Rope."The Knick's biggest sin, at times, was its foreshadowing. Other times it was its reliance on convenience. Which sort of officially began in "Where's The Dignity?" when Cleary (Chris Sullivan) just happened to develop empathy for a woman dying from a botched abortion directly after blackmailing Sister Harriet due his knowledge of her side business. The end result was a rather fun "opposites attract" style friendship, but getting there was bit clumsy.The two would prove to be a convenience later on as well when Cornelia decided to have an abortion. Likewise, given what we know now regarding the stringency and ignorance of the time - with regards to both race relations and medicine - you could see characters traveling down a doomed path from quite a ways out.Story hiccups aside, The Knick was a strong series featuring impressively sweaty and grimy performances from a great ensemble. Performances made all the more impressive due to the surgical procedures some of the cast had to memorize and the daunting out-of-sequence shooting schedule.It was a time when insane, innovative doctors were rock stars and the human body was still very much a mystery. Radical new theories, devices, and techniques were being devised. From the life saving benefits of C-sections (which served as one of the show's half-season obstacles) to the barbaric removal of teeth and organs by those convinced that mental illness stemmed from bacterial infections. It was a world filled with steps forward and steps backward - all in the name of exploration and discovery.And while most of the season seemed like a giant team-building exercise, culminating with everyone cooperating under fire during the giant hospital riot, it would be Clive Owen's manic, drug-addled Dr. Thackery who would bring the entire place crashing down. Turned dangerously paranoid during a city-wide cocaine shortage, Thackery's usual passions got dialed up to eleven, eventually landing himself in rehab after he inadvertently killed a young girl while hastily testing a blood transfusion theory. While also driving away one of his biggest admirers, Dr. Chickering (Michael Angarano). It was a grand arc to play and a perfect way to represent the various irgnorance-based pitfalls of the era.Both Andre Holland and Eve Hewson would prove to be great discoveries here in their own right. Neither actor is a newcomer per se, but I think the phrase "under the radar" services them well. Holland, as an African-American surgeon in 1900, was able to bring a deep intellect and profound patience to the series, while still also showing us an edgy side that didn't deal well with failure on professional or romantic level.And Hewson's Nurse Elkins showed us how someone else could get wrapped up in drugs without being the addict themselves. It would be a bit dismissive to say that Lucy "liked bad boys" since Thackery's overall appeal extended beyond that. As demonstrated by both Bertie Chickering's hero-worship and Thackery's own lost love, Abigail Alford (Jennifer Ferrin). And I think it says a lot that despite Lucy's big sexual arc, the moment that still resonates the most with me is Thackery riding her bicycle at the end of "They Capture the Heat."