Neither the trailer nor the plot line had interested me too much but all that changed when I found out Steven Soderbergh has been directing. Being a Soderbergh enthusiast and with some free time in my hand, I convinced myself to try it out, even though I was a little apprehensive (even Soderbergh have had his dull moments). Five minutes into the first episode and the Soderbergh signature is unmissable.
The Cliff Martinez soundtrack comes in as the doctor protagonist shoots cocaine in a horse carriage on his way to the hospital and all that Traffic, Contagion sense memory comes back. Nothing more exciting than a dark gripping Soderbergh thriller. He is just such an exciting director, he can go into any familiar territory and make something extremely unconventional. The hand-held camera aesthetic when most period pieces are shot steady, the Cliff Martinez psytrance score in place of classical music, the camera angles, the acting, the blocking everything just builds up the most gripping television experience I have seen in some time.
Everything is just so nuanced; the dialogues are realistic, the characters believable. None of that over the top witty exchanges between characters that pretends to be more intelligent than it actually is. The gore is not overdone and perfectly builds up the tension. Corrupt civic institutions, the hypocritical church, sickly immigrants, racism while at the same time the progressive social workers and the men dedicated to furthering science, perfectly paints the picture of a city that is grappling with its troubles but there is hope in the future.