Andre Holland, left, and Clive Owen as surgeons in 'The Knick,' set in Gilded Age New York. Cinemax


The title refers to the fictional Knickerbocker Hospital, which is run by a well-heeled family but surrounded by downtown slums. The term "period drama" often sparks images of lace collars and elaborate hats. "The Knick," which unfolds at the end of the Gilded Age, has its share, but even some high-society scenes are far from prim. In one, a health inspector tracking a typhoid-fever outbreak grills an uptown lady about bowel movements and sex.

New television shows, even ones starting in summer's back stretch, face intense competition for audiences. But "The Knick," premiering Aug. 8, is armed with the sort of pedigree necessary to attract viewers as well as social-media chatter.

Steven Soderbergh, whose movies range from "sex, lies, and videotape" to the "Ocean's Eleven" franchise, midwifed the series as an executive producer and directed the first season's 10 episodes.

Clive Owen plays John Thackery, the hospital's prickly head of surgery who tries to keep his addiction to cocaine and opium under wraps while pushing for innovations in the operating room. The series captures an era marked by medical breakthroughs amid staggeringly high mortality rates. It also portrays conflicts of race and class that swirl around the hospital. Andre Holland plays Algernon Edwards, a black surgeon who trained at Harvard and in the elite operating rooms of Paris but is routinely humiliated as the Knick's newly installed assistant chief of surgery.

"The Knick" will appear on Cinemax, the sibling channel of HBO that is trying to shed its reputation for pulpy movies and soft-core pornography. "This street brand of 'Skin-emax' built by default, and we're trying to evolve beyond that," says Cinemax President Kary Antholis. "The Knick" is part of the channel's rebranding effort, which includes a handful of original series emphasizing high-octane action, he says.

When Mr. Soderbergh and his producing partner Gregory Jacobs presented the show to Michael Lombardo, HBO's president of programming, they asked to be on Cinemax. ("It took us about two seconds to make the decision," Mr. Antholis says.) They believed "The Knick" would stand out more on Cinemax than among HBO's many high-profile series. And they knew it would be easier to get the necessary budget if they were on Cinemax's books, instead of tapping into the same resources as costly HBO series such as "Game of Thrones." Mr. Antholis says "The Knick" is more expensive than Cinemax's other original series but declined to discuss the budget, noting that the speed at which Mr. Soderbergh shot—nearly 10 hours of TV in 73 days—made it cost-effective.

"The Knick" was recently picked up for a second season, marking the first time that Cinemax or HBO has renewed a series before it aired. Mr. Soderbergh also will direct all 10 episodes in the second season.

"The Knick," which was created by writers Jack Amiel and Michael Begler, recreates operating rooms in an era before antibiotics or surgical gloves. Doctors in the series confront meningitis, hernias and the ravages of syphilis. Ambulance drivers get paid per passenger and jockey for cadavers that doctors can dissect for research. To the producers, all this offered a fresh angle on a TV genre that has been done to death: the medical drama.

"Surgeons then had to be so strong, emotionally, to deal with the mortality," Mr. Soderbergh says. "To have people die and in many cases not know why— the psychic pressure of that must have been intense."

The director also saw advantages in envisioning how "Grey's Anatomy," might have looked at a time when "Grey's Anatomy" was a relatively new reference book for physicians. For one: no surgical masks. "Typically when you shoot a doctor show you've got all these scenes where you can't see their faces," he says.

"The Knick" was filmed in New York. The sets, designed by Howard Cummings, have flickering electric lights, grimy wallpaper and archaic surgical instruments. To convey the often murky atmosphere, Mr. Soderbergh relied almost entirely on hand-held digital cameras. An electronic score by the director's frequent collaborator Cliff Martinez adds a contemporary pulse and an air of mystery.

Mr. Owen's character, Dr. Thackery, is loosely modeled on Dr. William Halsted, a founder of Johns Hopkins. He has a rakish thin mustache and wears white lace-up boots chosen by costume designer Ellen Mirojnick to hint at a rock-star attitude. Mr. Owen says the surgery scenes were particularly taxing. In the operating theater, he had to speak with nurses andfellow doctors, explain the surgery to spectators—and at the same time make sure his surgical handiwork looked convincing. "I'm playing this genius doctor, so you don't want the [camera] cutaway to somebody else's hands being brilliant," Mr. Owen says. A historical consultant, Dr. Stanley Burns, supplied period photographs of operations and advised on the surgery scenes. Mr. Owen says, "Often his mantra was 'more clamps and more blood.' "

Write to John Jurgensen at