*Spoiler Warning* This article contains spoilers for seasons one and two of “The Pitt.”
At face value, “The Pitt” may seem like any other popular medical drama that has surfaced in the last 30 years, such as “Grey’s Anatomy,” “Chicago Med,” or even “ER”–the show responsible for jump-starting the career of Noah Wyle. Wyle wears multiple hats on “The Pitt” being a writer, director, producer, and lead actor. However, this show is nothing like anything on our TV screens before. The series, set within the Emergency Department (ED) of the fictional “Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center” (PTMC), takes place over the course of a 15-hour day, with each episode covering the span of one hour in a shift. The show, like many popular procedurals, features a large ensemble of characters. “The Pitt” specifically represents a diverse array of medical professionals that help the ED run, from nurses to social workers to doctors at every level of their professional education.
The uniqueness of the series lies in its format. With a whole season taking place in just one day and featuring a cast of around 20 named-characters with prevalent storylines, the show naturally moves at a very fast pace. The show demands viewers’ attention in every single scene. I often find myself having to rewind the show when watching because I blinked too long, or lost focus and missed an important detail. I find this style of show refreshing in an era where every other show feels as if it’s made for multi-tasking. I’m so sick of watching boring shows that spell everything out for their audience because they expect you to be scrolling on your phone while watching. Though the one-day format may seem optimal for binging, the release schedule stretches out over the course of around four months, with one episode being released every Thursday.
One thing the show does incredibly well is touch on social issues. The medical show format really allows for this, as it features patients from all walks of life who end up in emergent care for different reasons. This constant representation of humankind on the brink of life and death is just as dominant during the new season as it was in the first. The series touches on an endless amount of social topics through both the hospital staff and the patients they treat. In season two, these topics include but are not limited to: child abuse, self-harm, addiction, health insurance costs, and even ICE.
My absolute favorite aspect of this show is its characters. There are no perfect champions or evil villains, just humans. We meet these characters on one or two days of their lives in a work setting, yet they all display distinct personalities that the audience can immediately connect to. The show’s ensemble is diverse and represents many different backgrounds and perspectives, and yet I find myself able to relate to every single one of them on some personal level. The biggest common thread between these people (besides that they are health care workers) is that they all have their own internal battles and baggage they must cope with in order to effectively perform their jobs and help those around them. And while this detail might seem rather obvious or insignificant, it is actually very meaningful because it humanizes healthcare professionals. In the United States, violence against healthcare workers is higher in this decade than ever before (another one of the many social issues touched on by the show).
It is no secret to literally anyone around me that I have become obsessed with “The Pitt,” and with its recent completion of season two, I have a lot of thoughts regarding the show as a whole and how it has continued into a second season.
Season two takes place 10 months after season one’s shift. It is the first shift back for senior resident, Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball), who has just finished 10 months of rehab after he was caught stealing Benzos from patients in season one. On the other hand, this is the last shift for Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch (Noah Wyle), who is preparing for a three-month sabbatical.
In season one, Robby is the paternal leader of the Emergency Department. Though no “The Pitt” character is perfect, he was a strong, compassionate, and overall likeable leader that fans came to trust and respect. In season two, the writers challenge this viewpoint, showing him as a weaker leader than the previous shift. He lashes out at and talks down to his inferiors numerous times, appearing very irritable and borderline apathetic. At first, his slow descent from the pedestal was very intriguing to me. It is pretty rare to see a series take such an admirable character and upend their positive public perception–especially when it is the main character portrayed by a showrunner.
This personality change (much like everything in “The Pitt”) is not a black-and-white issue. As season two progresses, Robby drops hints that he may not come back from his sabbatical. It becomes clear over the course of the shift that Robby is struggling with his mental health, and most likely experiencing suicidal ideation. This introduces an intriguing dilemma for the audience to consider: Robby’s behavior may be explainable, but does that make it excusable?
My criticism of this storyline is not its content per se, but its prevalence. Yes, Dr. Robby is technically the main character, but as I said before, this show is filled to the brim with important characters with intriguing arcs. I feel as though some of that was lost in the new season (especially in the last few episodes) because the writing paid too much attention to our “star” character. Robby’s initially subtle struggles gradually become the forefront of every other scene. Robby’s various co-workers begin confronting him with their concern, but it got to the point where I felt as though I was watching the same scene over and over again with no progression in the storyline.
With the story focusing on Robby ad nauseam, I felt as though the other characters’ arcs got lost in the process. There were so many seemingly important details that arose throughout the season, but were never revisited or wrapped up oddly. Even the character arcs that held any prevalence towards the end of the season seemed to exist for the purposes of serving Robby’s storyline. For example, Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh), who will not be returning for the third season, grappled with family-related anxiety in the new season. This culminated in a panic attack that Robby belittled and berated her for having mid-way through the season. Instead of giving the audience a reason for Dr. Mohan’s impending departure or revisiting the baggage that had been building all season, the writers end her story with a brief scene of her apologizing to Robby. This interaction gives more insight into Robby and his struggles, but absolutely none into Dr. Mohan’s.
Now I know what you’re thinking: This show is all about realism, and they shouldn’t trade in that realism for the sake of narrative satisfaction. These characters’ issues cannot and should not be resolved in one day. And while I certainly agree with this notion, at the end of the day, “The Pitt” is a TV show. If I truly wanted to watch ER doctors in their truest form, I would take a seat at the Prisma Health Richland Hospital downtown for 15 hours. But that’s not what I want, I want developed character arcs!
It isn’t as if the show can’t do this. They have. In fact, they did it extremely well in the first season. All the prominent characters were fleshed out and experienced some sort of development that was balanced throughout the 15 episodes. The realism was still withheld, and there were plenty of issues that were not “solved,” but there was still a sense of development or at least change in the characters. This season, I would say some characters weren’t even featured enough to experience a change. Overall, the Robby-central format made the show feel imbalanced.
I still really enjoyed season two and thought it was a satisfying continuation of “The Pitt” franchise. Was it as good as season one? No. But, to be fair, season one of “The Pitt” is probably one of the best seasons of television I’ve ever watched. Despite my nitpicking, I have plenty of positive things to say about the second season.
I loved the new characters and thought they brought some fresh concepts to the show. In particular, I was very intrigued by the new chief attending, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), who opposed Robby with her alternative leadership style. My fingers are crossed that we will see her again in season three.
Additionally, I appreciated that season two was rather anti-climactic in comparison to season one. In the previous season, the audience was pulled in by a lot of big events, namely the mass casualty shooting that consumed the last few episodes. This season ends on a more cathartic note, with the characters’ burnout palpable through the screen. The strong themes of exhaustion in this season opened up more opportunities for the characters to lean on each other as they reach their wits’ ends. I think I speak for many fans of “The Pitt,” when I say that I really grab onto the relationships being built as the series goes on, and I hope there is no shortage of that in season three.
I can’t wait for the next season, and my Thursday nights feel empty knowing I won’t have a new episode to look forward to until January 2027. I hope there is a renewed balance of characters in season three, or at least some new focal points. If we must assign a main character whose perspective is spotlighted, I would love for it to be someone other than Robby. There are so many different directions that the writers could take with the promise of a new shift. I just hope that whatever route the writers do take is an unprecedented one.
