Apologies to people who are fans of medical dramas of all kinds—I’m new to the genre and won’t be able to compare The Pitt (on HBO Max) to ER, New Amsterdam, The Resident, Chicago Med, Code Black, or even (if you are really old) Dr. Kildare.
Even so, the fresh impact of The Pitt on a new viewer is vivid. For anyone who goes about their week waiting for the next immersion into a treasured alien world, The Pitt does not disappoint. In this case, the aliens are doctors, nurses, hospital administrators, and a patchwork of patients in various degrees of mortal danger, physical damage, or waiting-room delay. Each episode presents a fast-paced profusion of arrivals, near-death experiences, actual deaths, excitement, boredom, confusion, perfusion, cannulas, extractions, and a host of other medical procedures the existence of which may have been previously unknown to viewers.
On some level, the show is simply a workplace drama, with the jealousies, competencies, incompetencies, supervisory craziness, fatigue, frustrations, minor moments of glory, and external forces that characterize any workplace. But the medical setting adds an intensity that exceeds most other environments, with the exception of military or natural-disaster settings.
In essence, the medical context is a central performer itself, in that a profusion of medical procedures that seem entirely authentic are whistle stops on this tour de force drama. I wished for a physician in the living room with me while watching the show to calibrate the level of verisimilitude, but to a layman it looks like the creators really did their homework with some medical people who got good grades themselves.
In reality, this is a character-driven show, and Noah Wyle (of ER fame) is the central figure as head doctor Michael Robinavitch (“Robbie”). He infuses his character with intelligence, compassion, and humanity as he navigates through the medical personalities, procedures, and patients while carrying heavy internal anchors of Covid-era patient and mentor losses.
Also stellar is the quintessential practical cat that seems to keep every human endeavor together in the form of ER desk manager Dana Evans, played by Katherine LaNasa, who has all the answers and yet emerges with a black eye and questions about how much longer she can do this. If she leaves the ER (and the show), she will certainly be missed.
A persistent theme is the contrast between long-term ER doctors and new-that-day rookies, who still have a lot to learn but also contribute medical insights and appealing doctor-patient connections.
Among the long-term doctors are competent but steely Dr. Landon (Patrick Ball) and weary but wise Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif). In the rookie camp are Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez) playing the precocious young genius with an M.D. mother hovering in the wings, Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell) as the farm kid in scrubs, and Dr. King (Taylor Dearden) as the insightful, somewhere-on-the-spectrum observer.
There are more fascinating characters, not to mention the multiple patients, procedures, and public emergencies that add extra intensity to an already high-pressure drama.
The first season consists of 15 episodes, each of them representing one hour in the emergency department of the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, modeled on the Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.
Let’s just say that The Pitt is highly recommended. And you will have the additional joy of not having to wait in a state of distraction for next week’s show, since the first season is complete, but you will probably join many thousands of others who are now having their patience more deeply tested as they sit in their own private waiting rooms, wishing for Season 2.