The Tribune

FOLLOWING The Tribune’s interview with Academy Award nominee Clive Owen last month, the time has now come for his new critically acclaimed show to premiere on television in the Bahamas.

“The Knick”, a Steven Soderbergh-helmed period medical drama, premieres this Friday on MAX Caribbean.

Set in downtown New York in 1900, “The Knick” – short for the Knickerbocker Hospital – tells the story of a hospital that is in a state of turmoil due to a decline in affluent patrons and an increase of poor patients combined with a severe mishandling of its finances. Brilliant surgeon Dr John Thackery (Clive Owen) tests the limits of medicine, morals and race relations in an era where social norms were slow to change. Despite developing a severe addiction to cocaine, which was legal at the time, Dr Thackery remains one of the stars of the hospital as he pioneers new methods in the field. Against his will, he is eventually paired with a young Black doctor named Algernon Edwards (Andre Holland) whose intelligence and at-all-costs methods rivals Dr Thackery’s, but whose arrival is met with resentment from fellow doctors and prejudice from patients.

When The Tribune’s Cara Bethel met Owen for a roundtable interview session in Los Angeles, the British actor had this to say about his character:

“I find Dr Thackery to be a hugely originally character and it was a such a challenging role that I definitely wanted to play. I didn’t want to play the ‘good guy’; I wanted to play a character who was complex and different, and I think that he is in for a bumpy ride as the season progresses, but in some ways I think he will redeem himself. It was very fascinating to look at all the elements that made up the medical world of 1900 and it struck me just how dangerous a place New York was at that time.”