Review & Recap: ’The Knick’ Season 2, Episode 1 ‘Ten Knots’ Continues Steven Soderbergh’s Bloody Hyperrealism

We talk about auteur-driven television often, because it’s become part of our discourse now, nearly a new sub-sect in the medium of visual storytelling. In its utopian image, auteur-driven TV is perhaps the missing link between cinema and television, taking the best of both mediums and fusing them to create a super-hybrid of narrative — long and deep, but formally audacious and meaningful. But even in its loosest definitions, there are not many examples. In fact, Jill Soloway (“Transparent”) is the rare writer/director putting her imprimatur on television in the same manner as cinema. Even Cary Fukunaga had creator Nic Pizzolatto’s story and screenplay to guide him through “True Detective,” and as the filmmaker admitted himself in a Tribeca Talk earlier this year, aside from a few conspicuous shots and that daring bravura longtake, “the camera doesn’t move that much,” noting that time and logistics precluded “visual pizzaz” throughout the series...