The Book of Rannells: The Knick: Season 2, Episode 1 – “Ten Knots” (2015)

This might prove a difficult series to talk about.  Andrew Rannells appears in several episodes of this period drama and, while it’s clear that it’s highly serialized (i.e., tons of stuff happened last season that I’m not privy to,) I’m mostly able to follow the various plot threads continued here.  That said, there’s a sizable cast and I don’t know too many characters’ names, even if I can distinguish between most of them onscreen.  Let’s try it and see what happens, eh?

The series centers around New York’s Knickerbocker Hospital at the turn of the twentieth century.  The main plots, as I understand them:  the hospital recently lost its chief of surgery (who’s been hospitalized himself for addiction,) and a very experienced, highly-intelligent Black doctor wants to become the replacement – to the shock of the board, naturally.  There’s also a former nun who’s in jail, stowaways on ships carrying bubonic plague, and a young woman recently released from an asylum, plus a side plot in San Francisco involving a woman who’s disconcertingly under the thumb of her father-in-law and, by proxy, her husband.

There’s some interesting stuff here, but it’s pretty slow-moving and many of the plots feel kind of scattered.  Obviously, I’m at a disadvantage, not having seen the first season, but while I follow what’s going on, I’m having a hard time keeping track of how it all fits together.  However, I like Dr. Edwards (the would-be chief of surgery) and Cornelia (the put-upon woman in San Francisco) and how their plots deal with race and gender in the early 1900s in a fairly nuanced way.  Word of warning, though, this series is not for the faint of heart.  They go all in on the old-timey surgical procedures, and there are some seriously gross scenes in this episode, including one involving a lot of pus that I had to look away from.

Save Rannells (of course,) I’m not familiar with most of the cast.  The big exception is Clive Owen as Dr. Thackery, the addict who’s left the hospital, and I also recognize André Holland, who plays Dr. Edwards – I first noticed Holland in Moonlight, and he appears in A Wrinkle in Time, too, as Mr. Jenkins.

Rannells plays the impressively-named Frazier H. Wingo, the architect hired for the construction of a new hospital, which breaks ground in this episode.  The new hospital project gets a bit of screentime but not much, and Wingo himself is only in one scene.  As such, there’s little to say about him at this point.  At first glance, he seems no-nonsense and carries himself like someone who’s good at what he does.

Anyway, moving on to first impressions!

Recommend?

In General – Possibly.  I like a number of the themes.  We’ll see what I think a few episodes from now.

Andrew Rannells – Too soon to tell – we’ve hardly seen anything of him yet.

Warnings

Graphic images, violence, sexual references, drinking/smoking/drug use, and strong thematic elements.