My overall rating of "The Knick"'s Season 1: 6/10
So in the previous episode, we've seen some - in my opinion - standout performances from some of the secondary role actors. Namely, characters of Abby and Gallanger's wife, Eleonore, really impressed me with their charms (even though in her scene, Abby used the phrase "have sex" in a seeming anachronism for the year 1900). In this episode we get a bit more of them. And it is this episode, when I foretold the development of Eleonore's plot, having known without specifics the fate of a singular female character from the title's reviews, and concluding that it must've been said about her, given the far-from-subtle foreshadowing here. Still, seeing her still be happy and sweet in this episode is uplifting, the sinister, cruel context notwithstanding.
However this episode also sets up an outstanding duo of Sister Harry and Mr. Cleary, previously brilliant solely on their own or in brief interactions and now having a reason to team up. Here, their graveyard dialogue is profound, charming, funny and many other things, and it's not even their best showing together - that will come in future episodes still. Both are absolutely superbly written and acted. Among the primary roles, Gallanger and Thackery are brilliant (the scene with the heart: the deep sorrow and Thackery's childish excitement at the mechanics at work - nothing short of inspired); and among the tertiary it's Chickering-elder who is good in his somewhat-unsympathetic role. Cornelia and the health inspector are both awful and make for particularly low-brow and wooden scenes.
As for all that's not mentioned here: there are some bad or unpleasant scenes, contrivances, strange things (I have no idea what Barrow is working towards beyond vaguely attempting to make pennies on trivial things), mistakes (the rat the guy slips on is not "a large one" and what sort of entertainment is it anyway?) etc.
So in the previous episode, we've seen some - in my opinion - standout performances from some of the secondary role actors. Namely, characters of Abby and Gallanger's wife, Eleonore, really impressed me with their charms (even though in her scene, Abby used the phrase "have sex" in a seeming anachronism for the year 1900). In this episode we get a bit more of them. And it is this episode, when I foretold the development of Eleonore's plot, having known without specifics the fate of a singular female character from the title's reviews, and concluding that it must've been said about her, given the far-from-subtle foreshadowing here. Still, seeing her still be happy and sweet in this episode is uplifting, the sinister, cruel context notwithstanding.
However this episode also sets up an outstanding duo of Sister Harry and Mr. Cleary, previously brilliant solely on their own or in brief interactions and now having a reason to team up. Here, their graveyard dialogue is profound, charming, funny and many other things, and it's not even their best showing together - that will come in future episodes still. Both are absolutely superbly written and acted. Among the primary roles, Gallanger and Thackery are brilliant (the scene with the heart: the deep sorrow and Thackery's childish excitement at the mechanics at work - nothing short of inspired); and among the tertiary it's Chickering-elder who is good in his somewhat-unsympathetic role. Cornelia and the health inspector are both awful and make for particularly low-brow and wooden scenes.
As for all that's not mentioned here: there are some bad or unpleasant scenes, contrivances, strange things (I have no idea what Barrow is working towards beyond vaguely attempting to make pennies on trivial things), mistakes (the rat the guy slips on is not "a large one" and what sort of entertainment is it anyway?) etc.
