Another Busy Weekend: The Knick and Outlander

Who needs the fall season when you have a summer like this?  I cannot catch up on the old batch of summer shows, and now two new shows have premiered over the weekend.  The first is a series from Cinemax (premiering August 8th) called The Knick starring Clive Owen and directed by Steven Soderbergh.  Here is the basic plot from Cinemax: "Set in downtown New York in 1900, 'The Knick' is centered on the Knickerbocker Hospital and the groundbreaking surgeons, nurses and staff who work there, pushing the bounds of medicine in a time of astonishingly high mortality rates and zero antibiotics"  This is the Russian roulette version of ER where all the chambers but one are filled with bullets.  And given our misuse of antibiotics, we may be looking at our future as well.  Pay attention. 

And the story is about more than medicine.  One NPR review noted:

Because race has so often been used as a shorthand for class in America, these stories open up new ways of talking about poverty and oppression at the century's turn. And because every period story is also about the time in which it is made, The Knick also gets to make poignant observations about how health systems treat the poor and people of color today.

If doctors in early New York are not your thing, how about a nurse in early Scotland.  On Saturday (August 9th) Starz premiered Outlander.  Brought to you be Ronald D. Moore, the creator of Battlestar Galactic, the show starts in 1945 and then flips to 1743 where her skills as a World War II nurse come in handy since Europe seems to like battles regardless of the century.  For a while you can watch the season premiere here on YouTube. 

And should the Cinemax show get some traction, there is plenty of material in author Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series to keep things interesting.  The Los Angeles Times recently pointed out how not even Stephen King could compete with Ms. Gabaldon's book:

Twenty-three years after the first “Outlander” book was published, there are now some 26 million copies of the series’ installments in print. When the eighth book, “Written in My Own Heart’s Blood,” was released this June, it outsold Hillary Rodham Clinton’s new memoir, “Hard Choices,” and dethroned Stephen King from the top of the bestseller list. The novels have spawned countless websites, reams of fan fiction, a cottage industry of Jamie and Claire tours of Scotland — and finally, after languishing in development for decades, a television series.

Could Cinemax have its own Game of Thrones?  That is a high bar, yet judging from the first episode, Cinemax has created a quality product.  I look forward to more episodes.  

Update:  Outlander has already been renewed for a second season after showing only the first episode.  Good news for the those who like their time travel series filled with kilts, medical kits, and plenty of adventure.