You’ve seen one medical drama, you’ve seen all of them, proper? Conventionally engaging actors in scrubs and labcoats, tensions (romantic and in any other case) brewing among the many employees, mysterious maladies recognized and/or cured earlier than the credit roll. And whereas many of those qualities may very well be attributed to Max’s The Pitt, they shouldn’t overshadow this truth: The Pitt is definitely one of the best new present of 2025, medical or in any other case. With skilled pacing and gripping tales, it’s tough to look at just one episode in a single sitting – all of the extra so now that each one 15 episodes of its first season are streaming.
Familiar although it may appear – didn’t Noah Wyle, who stars as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, already play an emergency-room physician for greater than a decade on ER? – The Pitt grows into one thing distinctive and assured over its first season. When it’s actually cooking, it seems like somebody discovering the key to how they used to make TV: huge episode counts, minimalist course, circumstances of the week intertwining with private arcs. It’s a lot greater than the sum of its many nice elements, because of a wealth of expertise and expertise behind the scenes and in entrance of the digital camera.
The shadow of ER looms giant over The Pitt and never simply due to its lead actor – who, it deserves to be mentioned, is sweet all through season 1 – and the place it takes place: The inventive crew contains each John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill, former writers on the long-running NBC drama. But this isn’t simply Wells and Gemmill reheating Must See TV leftovers – their work right here differentiates itself in a few essential methods. For one, as soon as we enter the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s emergency division (a.okay.a. The Pitt – although the administration needs you’d cease calling it that) with Robby within the collection premiere, we hardly go away. But extra essential is The Pitt’s construction, every of its episodes depicting one hour of a 15-hour shift in probably the most traumatic part of a instructing hospital.
That single-location conceit proves to be one thing of a secret weapon. Not solely does it present the anticipated pressure of a office the place the stakes are at all times life-or-death, however it permits for the writers to return to storylines that may in any other case be relegated to a single episode. Because we’re watching a day within the lifetime of the hospital unfold throughout a full season à la 24, we will anticipate checking again in with characters because the clock ticks on. It implies that we get to see a affected person’s frustration with waiting-room instances construct throughout a number of episodes, or watch an ambulance get stolen whereas characters together with PTMH’s safety guards and social employee place bets on the end result. The attachments we kind to those sufferers and the fantastic performances behind them result in some splendidly emotional moments each excessive and low. Yet regardless of how tragic the circumstances, The Pitt at all times manages to remain simply on the precise facet of maudlin, permitting for grand sentiment that by no means overwhelms the scene or will get defused by a misplaced joke.
While Robby is the ostensible important character (the one on all of the posters, and the one with probably the most display time as a result of his standing as senior attending doctor) he’s additionally merely a participant within the grand ensemble of the ward. There are quite a lot of characters to maintain monitor of, and that’s the place one in every of The Pitt’s savvy makes use of of tried-and-true TV strategies helps out: We’re assembly Robby and his colleagues alongside a contemporary crop of interns and residents on the primary day of their ER rotation. Those contemporary faces are then combined and matched with the extra seasoned physicians all through the premiere and the 14 episodes that comply with. The writing of those characters is preternaturally assured – so good at establishing who somebody is and what makes them tick that when a complete different employees is dropped on us in direction of the top of the season, it seems like we’ve recognized them for years already.
In maybe the best coup of all, there’s not a foul character within the bunch. Whether it’s the beloved Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden), the wide-eyed wunderkind Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez), eternally struggling Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), or the dreaded/ever controversial Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), they immediately make their marks and change into extra compelling the extra time we spend with them and their supervisors. (And as a result of this complete, one-of-a-kind solid deserves their props, let’s not overlook to acknowledge the superb work of Patrick Ball as Gregory House-esque Dr. Frank Langdon, Supriya Ganesh as “Slo-Mo” Dr. Samira Mohan, and Katherine LaNasa as cost nurse extraordinaire Dana Evans.)
Within the cramped quarters of The Pitt’s major set, the actors are rigorously and thoughtfully blocked. You would possibly clock one of many leads working unobtrusively within the shot with their again to the digital camera or attending to some enterprise as they cross in entrance of an ongoing dialog – motion that isn’t essential, per se, however is true to what their character is perhaps doing at that time of their shift. It’s a part of the present’s clear and understated course, like its behavior of easily following a personality as they transfer from one scene to the subsequent or shifting the digital camera’s focus from an actor within the foreground to a different within the background when transitioning between storylines.
And oh, what storylines there are. It can typically really feel like quite a lot of monumental stuff has occurred to those individuals within the span of simply in the future. But relatively than amping it up with melodramatic twists, The Pitt leans onerous into realism, each within the medical particulars and within the harsh lifetime of the hospital. Thanks to the comparatively lax content material restrictions of streaming, which means some extensively gnarly gore; the time period “degloved” is claimed throughout the first jiffy of episode 1 – and sure, we see what’s been degloved, in excruciating element. Everyone additionally will get to swear loads, too, and you will be shocked how a lot of a distinction that makes.
There’s an magnificence to the best way the digital camera floats across the ER, working in live performance with refined modifying that maintains momentum as The Pitt segues from high-intensity surgical procedure to the relative peace of the nurses station (full with a Greek refrain of kinds). There’s apparent approach on show, even when it’s foregoing the current TV craze for flashy, single-take scenes and episodes. The look of The Pitt feels distinctive right down to the best way the set is lit: all brilliant lights and blanched colorings that nonetheless keep away from coming throughout as sterile or flat.
This is a present with loads on its thoughts, significantly the decaying state of American healthcare. COVID rears its head, however season 1 drills deeper into the big selection of therapies the overworked and underpaid PTMH employees are tasked with finishing up, no matter whether or not they’re geared up to deal with them. It additionally feels no obligation to depict them as strictly heroic, discovering fascinating shades of grey within the biases they present in direction of sufferers and infrequently one another. At its worst, these can really feel like teachable moments from a “very particular episode,” as when Dr. Heather Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) gently confronts Dr. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif) about doubtlessly misdiagnosing a affected person as a result of her weight. But that’s a rarity, and extra function than bug, and as a lot as such moments stand out from the remainder of season 1, they often come throughout as passionate relatively than preachy. Besides, there’s by no means actually sufficient time to completely linger on such conversations (much more dramatic private ones) earlier than the subsequent catastrophe is wheeled in.
More than something, the enjoyment of The Pitt is in seeing the work of people that know what they’re doing – each on-screen and off. It makes you cheer when somebody accomplishes a very tough process or makes a breakthrough on a thriller. It’s additionally what you get when you have got TV veterans who know the medium in and out and aren’t afraid to make use of that data in service of some contemporary and thrilling concepts.
