THE next time you are ill, just be glad you never have to check into The Knickerbocker Hospital, the fictitious home of groundbreaking medicine and zero antibiotics in New York during the turn of the last century. But the setting is a nice breeding ground for all sorts of drama to unfold in the new Cinemax original series, The Knick (short for Knickerbocker), directed entirely by Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh (Ocean's Eleven, Erin Brockovich) and starring Clive Owen (Closer, Sin City).

Just don't expect this to be anything like other TV medical dramas such as General Hospital, ER, House or Grey's Anatomy. Created and written by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler - a pair of screenwriters whose credits until now have revolved around family-friendly, animal- related outings like the remake of The Shaggy Dog with Tim Allen and whale-saving drama The Big Miracle - The Knick takes its viewers on a slaughterhouse tour of "cutting edge" medical procedures during the dawn of the Industrial Age, all of which, of course, looks downright barbaric by today's standards.

Soderbergh does Quentin Tarantino proud (no disrespect to the former auteur) with bloody scenes of scalpels slicing flesh open before bare hands dig in to pull out all sorts of diseased innards. At the centre of things is Dr John Thackery (Owen), an arrogant but gifted surgeon who puts the theatre back into operating theatres by performing the gory procedures to a roomful of observers. The man is trying his best to save the sick after he suddenly finds himself in charge of the Knick but can't prevent his patients from dropping dead like flies for reasons beyond his control.