Well-schooled TV viewers know, by now, that “The Walking Dead” — and, to a lesser extent, “Game of Thrones” — are the goriest shows on the tube.
Then again, it’s hard not to be the standard-bearers for violence when your show has zombies disemboweling and munching on their victims (“The Walking Dead”) or people being burned alive and/or tortured and killed, medieval style (“Game of Thrones”).
FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” used to rival those two shows in terms of graphic violence — most of its major characters were brutally killed off — but it’s no longer on the air. However, there are a few other series that proudly pick up the mantle of graphic scenes that might have you watching through the hand (or hands) covering your face.
And there’s nary a zombie or sword in sight.
“The Knick,” which airs Fridays on Cinemax, takes place in the Knickerbocker, a turn-of-the-20th century New York City hospital where drug-addicted-yet-brilliant surgeon Dr. John Thackeray (Clive Owen) is on the cutting edge — literally — of surgical techniques.
Now in its second season, “The Knick” has graphically shown, among other horrors, Thackeray’s former gal pal Abigail after losing her nose to syphilis. When she went to Thackeray for help, removing her fake (wooden) nose, viewers saw a gaping black hole smack-dab in the middle of her face. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, Thackeray solved her nasal nightmare problem by sewing her arm to her cheek in order to help her “grow” a new nose through extra skin generated by the surgery. (The result wasn’t pretty, but hey, it worked).
Warning: Some may find videos disturbing
One of this season’s subplots on “The Knick” revolves around Thackeray — once again addled by drugs after getting clean for a short time — trying to discover a cure for addiction (experimenting not only on himself but on others).
Toward that end, some of the bloodier “Knick” scenes have included a patient (and morphine addict) whose brain was totally exposed after he lost the top half of his skull in an accident. While the man is still alive (but sedated), Thackeray uses an electric prod to probe the man’s brain — in up-close-and-personal detail, including gloppy sound effects —in order to discover which regions of his brain control the man’s addictive tendencies. Good luck with that.
Thackeray also experimented on a (dead) female heroin addict, slicing her open and exposing her organs.
And, of course, there’s the usual run-of-the-mill blood-and-guts surgery that’s a daily part of The Knick.
“Code Black,” the new Wednesday-night medical drama on CBS, goes out of its way to show the graphic horrors of the emergency room. So far this season — among many ER nightmares — we’ve seen a spike sticking out of a man’s neck, multiple shots of people’s guts literally oozing out of their bodies and, most recently, a woman’s severed legs being handed to one of the ER docs — in a plastic bag.
As its title implies, ABC’s “How To Get Away With Murder” revolves around several homicides inherent to the central plot: law professor/defense attorney Annalise Keating (Viola Davis) and her posse of aiders/abetters, who happen to be her law students as well as being implicated in several murders. In last week’s midseason finale, we finally discovered who shot Annalise in the season opener — with lots of blood spatter for good effect.
Enjoy your lunch.