In 2019, just as the year was about to close, we made our list of The Best TV Shows & Mini-Series Of The Decade [2010s] and Steven Soderbergh’s Cinemax period-piece medical drama, “The Knick,” which looked at the professional and personal lives of the staff at a New York hospital during the early part of the twentieth century, was in our top ten. For my personal money, it would have been top five or top three, but regardless, while still underseen in some circles, the show was phenomenal.
READ MORE: Interview: Steven Soderbergh Talks ‘The Knick’ Season 2, The Future Of TV, And Much More
Created by writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler and directed by Soderbergh in its entirety, the series introduced many audiences to André Holland before his star-making turn in Barry Jenkins’ Oscar-winning “Moonlight” as the doctor Dr. Algernon C. Edwards.
The series ended after two seasons, as designed in the bold move of killing off its lead character, Dr. John W. Thackery (Clive Owen). But a few years after it ended, we revealed first and exclusively, that Soderbergh and Jenkins had a plan to continue on with the show: Jenkins directing and fast-forwarding in time to focus on Holland’s Algernon character many years later.
Development on the show has been quiet over the last few years, but speaking to Holland last week for his latest film—the heart-wrenching addiction, art world, and fathers and sons drama, “Exhibiting Forgiveness” (read our A-grade review), which premiered at Sundance earlier this year— the actor told us the series is still in the works, described it as one of, if not, the project he’s loved the most and is vehemently trying to make this sequel series continuation happen.
“I loved that show so much, maybe more than anything I’ve ever done, I was obsessed with that show,” Holland said of “The Knick.” “So, it’s been my life’s work to get this show back on the air.”
Holland also said that all the principals are still involved, Jenkins as director and Amiel and Begler as writers. Additionally, it sounds like the scripts have been completed, and they’re just waiting for a studio to bite.
“We’re going to get it there,” he said. “Barry’s still attached to it; the original writers are still involved. We’re just looking for a new home for it right now, and we’ve got some strong leads on it so we’re hoping to get someone to raise their hand and say, ‘Let’s make it!’”
Holland suggested that the uncertain climate of film and TV in the post-WGA, post-DGA strikes is still making TV studios anxious, but they believe they have a way to make the numbers work economically.
“It’s hard right now because everyone’s afraid of making period shows even though like ‘Shogun’ killed it,” he continued. “But for whatever reason, people are still nervous about doing period. I think we have a way of doing it that is financially attractive to people but also still has that great storytelling that was the heart of the original.
The show is expected to skip ahead in time and cover Algernon’s life as a doctor nearly 20 years from the original, which ended in 1901.
“[We’d be] jumping it forward in time a bit [ed. Previous reports said 1918], getting into the early Harlem Renaissance, mental health and all these things that are really relevant,” Holland explained. “And we left that last episode of the second season in a place where you kind of felt like Algernon was going move into something new, so this one picks up as he’s found that new thing.”
Keep your fingers crossed, and more on The Knick” when we have it. We’ll also have more from this interview soon. “Exhibiting Forgiveness” opens in limited release on October 18 via Roadside Attractions.
