The Knick

One of my favorite TV shows is The Knick. It's about a group of surgeons who work at the Knickerbocker in 1900, New York. A lot of new advances in medicine and the like are being discovered. But there's also a lot of personal drama going on as well. The Knick primarily serves poor people who can't afford medical care, so the place is always struggling to get funding and donations. There's storylines and drama involving that too.

It can get dark at times, especially with some of the subject matter. There's racism, sexism, a suicide, so many deaths. And a lot of graphic close ups of all the surgical procedures. They did a good job of making those look realistic, and I do not recommend watching while eating. I flinched a lot at those scenes. So, it might be hard to watch for the squeamish. But it's still a really good show. Some people think the only reason it didn't become huge is because HBO threw it onto Cinemax for more content to try to get more people to subscribe but no one did so no one knew about it. I'm inclined to agree.

It only got two seasons with ten episodes each, and ended up cancelled. But I hear they're trying to make season 3 and a spin-off happen. Season 1 came out in 2014, season 2 in 2015. I liked season 1 more, and I wasn't really happy with how the show ended. So I like to pretend the last 3 or so episodes of season 2 didn't happen.

I love this show because the progressive era is my favorite point in history. (I actually found out about it because I was working on writing a historical romance that takes place around 1905, so I wanted to watch something that could give me more understanding on what things should be like.) So it was nice to watch something that takes place then. I loved seeing what the early inventions of things today looked like. The aesthetics were good. The storylines drew me in. I loved some of the characters.

But my favorite part of the show was John Thackery. So much so, I'm giving him a special section on this page. Because he's one of my top favorite characters of all time.

There are spoilers from here on, though I try to avoid major reveals. Read on at your own risk.

Characters

There's a good amount of characters in it, but here's the most notable ones.

Algernon Edwards

A black surgeon who got hired after Thackery became head surgeon. Mainly because he had connections to the Robertsons (who run and fund the hospital), but literally no one else was happy about that decision because, it's the early 1900's and everyone else there is white. After seeing the hospital turn away a black patient, Edwards opens a secret clinic in the basement of the hospital where he makes his own discoveries and inventions. (And gets to actually perform surgeries because no one's been letting him do anything during them.) Eventually, Thackery stumbles upon it and loses his shit, until he finds out all the cool and exciting things Edwards had learned from it. Edwards offers to share some of that information, even co-author a book on them (since he'd otherwise be unable to publish it, because racism in the 1900's). Thack agrees, and they slowly over the course of all their shared discoveries become good friends.

Bertram Chickering Jr.

Prefers being called Bertie. He's the nicest person on this show. (Probably the only nice one tbh.) His father doesn't approve of him working at the Knick, and wants him to work at a better hospital. But Bertie loves working with Thackery and seeing all the exciting things he comes up with and I ship it. At one point, he does end up at a "better hospital" but it makes him miserable and he eventually returns to The Knick. (They wouldn't even call him Bertie!)

Cornelia Robertson

A childhood friend of Edwards who works with the higher ups at The Knick. Part of how Edwards was even able to get a job there. Ends up in a secret relationship with him at one point. Also is part of storylines involving investigations. There was one involving Typhoid Mary that I particularly enjoyed. She also solves a mysterious death that she believed to be a murder. That storyline had quite a few twists I didn't see coming. The ending she got in the finale is probably the only one I'm happy with. Sort of.

Everett Gallinger

I hate this guy as much as I love Thackery. He's one of the surgeons. Although everyone is a dick towards Edwards at first, Gallinger is the worst with it. He ended up having to take time off from The Knick because, long story short, his baby died and his wife was going through a mental breakdown over it. I started hating him a little less since he seemed to at least care about his wife. But then he returned to The Knick more racist then ever before. He eventually makes friends with a group of pro-eugenic people after Thack kept choosing Edwards over him. Gallinger not only adopts those views, but goes off and gives vasectomies to young teenage boys at an "Idiot House" because, eugenics. It gets found out at one point but he only ever defends his actions and then faces no consequences for it because, racism in the 1900's. I can't stand this asshole and wanted to punch him in the face so many times...

Herman Barrows

Works with getting funding for the hospital. Constantly in debt and gets into trouble with loan sharks. Is in love with a prositute he's always paying to see. Is convinced she loves him back but it's most likely an act on her part. He's a dumbass who buys her from the brothel, buys a house for her, and, after his wife finds out about it, leaves his wife and kids for her. Not the worst person on this show, but he kind of sucks.

Levi Zinberg

Chief surgeon at a hospital Bertie goes on to temporarily work for. He relegated Bertie to boring routine roles and won't entertain any of his ideas. He's kind of the opposite of Thackery in that way. Thackery himself hates him, ever since he met him at a Surgical Society conference where doctors were sharing their research and inventions. Zinberg came off as a bit of a showoff and Thackery eventually becomes convinced he's stealing people's work.

Lucy Elkin

A nurse at the hospital who Bertie falls in love with. She doesn't share his feelings, and falls for Thackery instead. Their already-questionable relationship becomes even more questionable when there's a major cocaine shortage and she's the only one able to get the drug for him. Then it became a case of her loving him, but him loving that she's able to get him cocaine. (Thankfully Thackery realizes the unhealthiness of it all once he returns from rehab, and breaks it off.) Her father's a God-fearing preacher.

Sister Harriet

Catholic nun who runs an orphanage. Goes on to give illegal abortions to those who need it, with the help of Tom Cleary (ambulance driver- not much else to say about him that warrants a spot on this list). I loved their friendship but then, without getting into major spoilers, events happened that I wish hadn't, and now I hate it. One of the biggest reasons why I like to pretend the show ended a few episodes earlier than it did.

John Thackery

Let's face it: This shrine is moreso dedicated to John Thackery than the show itself. Everything above was just background information!

I love this man so much. After the head surgeon died in the first episode, he was promoted to head surgeon. He's always coming up with new, crazy ideas- while being a cocaine addict. I loved a lot of his lines, and how snarky he'd get when someone would annoy him. He did make a lot of racist comments towards Edwards in the first few episodes. So my feelings towards him were initially "I like him when he's not being racist." But over time, he grew to respect Edwards and those comments stopped. And that's when he went from "one of my favorite characters on the show" to "one of my favorite characters of all time."

He can come off as a bit of a prick sometimes, but rarely for no reason. Sometimes the other person deserves it. Usually it's funny. (At least to me.) He's really passionate and driven to coming up with new medical ideas and treatments. Unfortunately, they only work about half the time. He has definitely, accidentally killed people. But he's also saved people. So... it balances out?

Towards the end of season 1, there's a war that caused a cocaine shortage. So he suffered from withdrawals because he struggled to get the drug. At one point he broke into a pharmacy in the middle of the night to steal cocaine and, upon finding it, decides to sit down, and take off his shoe to inject it into his foot. Instead of, ya know, running out of there like hell before someone catches him. (Spoiler alert: Someone catches him and the story makes the newspaper. They try to claim he was stealing it for his patients but that fooled literally no one but Bertie.) One of my favorite moments.

He ended up getting sent to rehab after news of his addiction became public. The doctors there think treating cocaine withdrawals with heroin is a good idea. After all, it's from aspirin company Bayer, so it's completely safe! That went about as well as you can imagine. So Gallinger snuck him out of there, tied him up in a boat, and sailed out to the middle of the Atlantic until Thackery was better. (One of two only good things Gallinger has ever done. And even then, it was because he was worried Edwards was going to take Thackery's place as head surgeon.) It was on that ship when Thackery had the relevation that, addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. So he returns to the hospital with the intention of finding a cure for addiction.

There was also this sideplot I really liked where he found conjoined twin girls performing at a carnival. He wanted to study them, so paid their guardian to bring them to the hospital. Thackery discovered it could be possible to separate them, and told the twins he could if they wanted him to. They did, but their asshole guardian didn't. (Because he was making a lot of money off of them being conjoined.) So, with the help of Cleary, he kidnapped the twins, kept them safe, and performed the surgery anyway.

I also love his interactions with Bertie, and I kind of ship them. Thackery is always dragging him into some nonsense, and Bertie always goes along with it. Bertie's father hates Thackery, and hates how much Bertie admires him. He went as far as to try convincing Thackery to let Bertie go and join somewhere better. Thackery basically said no, and that Bertie can do whatever he wants. He threw in a few compliments on him too. Bertie is probably the only person Thackery hasn't sassed, which is really saying something.

Somewhere in this mess, I should probably mention his relationship with a woman named Abigail. He had originally dated her back in the day, but she chose someone else over him. That someone else cheated on her, gave her syphilis, and they split. She'd lost her nose to the disease, and Thackery was able to do a procedure that involved grafting the skin of her arm to her nose. Didn't look all that great, but better than no nose. Then, it was looking like she was going to die from it and Thackery focused on finding a cure. He came up with a crazy idea that worked and they ended up getting back together. I really liked their relationship. Thack was his best self with her. (Probably because she wouldn't let him do cocaine in her house, and he actually listened.)