The Knickwill surely go down in history as one of the most compelling and fascinating TV series of the Second Golden Age. WhenSteven Soderbergh“retired” from moviemaking he moved to Cinemax and directed every episode of the turn-of-the-century medical drama series to dynamite results. The show was gruesome, thrilling, devastating, and darkly funny all at once, and Soderbergh’s direction and camera work was downright groundbreaking. He shot everything with one camera, covering all the action in fluid, POV movements that put the viewer right into the heart of the series. Which makes this recentThe Knicknews sting even more—Season 3 ain’t happening.
WhenThe KnickSeason 2 finale wrapped up two seasons of story in a shocking manner, Soderbergh revealed that he envisionedrebooting the series for Season 3and letting a new director come in to tell a new two-season story—and beyond:
But that was last summer, and Soderbergh has now wrapped a new project for HBO calledMosaic, a new feature film calledLogan Lucky, and is developinga film based on the Panama Papers. And in speaking withTV Line,The Knickco-starChris Sullivanrevealed that Season 3 is a no-go—the show is over:
“Yeah, I’ve heard it’s done. They were gonna try [to do a third season], but I’ve heard it’s done.”
This is a bummer, but the Season 2 finale does work perfectly as a series finale so it’s not as if the show was abruptly cancelled. Moreover, the concept that Soderbergh derived for future seasons is an evergreen idea, so I suppose it’s possible he could pick it back up in a few years if Cinemax is game.
For now, we’ll just have to let two nearly perfect seasons of television be it forThe Knick. That’s not a bad run.
Update:Cinemax makes it official in a new statement (viaTV Line):
“After a critically acclaimed two-season run of THE KNICK on Cinemax, we will not be going forward with additional episodes of the series,” saidKary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and Cinemax Programming. “Despite our pride in and affection for the series, as well as our respect for and gratitude towards Steven Soderbergh and his team, we have decided to return Cinemax to its original primetime series fare of high-octane action dramas, many of which will be internationally co-produced.”
