The premiere episode of Steven Soderbergh's "The Knick" has met rave reviews. The drama series starring Clive Owen in the lead role is about the staff of the Knickerbocker Hospital. The drama is set in the early part of the twentieth century. Here are top 5 things to know about the series:

1. "The Knick" would air on HBO on Friday, Aug. 8, from 10 p.m. - 11 p.m

2. The first episode of the show was titled as "Method and Madness." It showed Owen's character, Dr. John W.Thackery, as the chief surgeon. Owen's character gets the title of chief surgeon when his mentor J.M. Christiansen departs.

3. The main cast of show includes Clive Owen (Dr. JohnThackery), Jeremy Bobb (Herman Barrow), Eve Hewson(Lucy Elkins),Chris Sullivan (Tom Cleary), Cara Sullivan (Sister Harriet), Andre Holland (Dr. Algernon Edwards),Michael Angarano (Dr. Bertram "Bertie" Chickering, Jr), Eric John (Dr. Everett Gallinger), David Fierro (Jacob Speight), Matt Frewer (Dr. J.M. Christiansen), JulietRylance (Cornelia Roberston).

4. Reportedly, the show is not for weak hearted, as it would showcase the brutal side of surgical procedures. The season 1 trailer of the show showed gory images of amputated legs and organs been thrown in a bowl.

"Soderbergh makes a fascinating, oddly homey hell out of the Manhattan of the early 1900s. Starkly divided by class, with the wealthy elites living as European royalty and the lower class reduced to squalid peasantry, it's a city of roiling social animus, lurching into the modern age while leaving plenty of dust and blood in its wake," wrote Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair.

5. The show also shows interesting dynamic between Algernon, a black doctor, and Thackery.

The next episode of "The Knick" is called "Visceral."