When The Pitt debuted last
February it immediately became a critical and popular sensation; the biggest
success by far HBO Max had as a streaming service in its brief run. It became
clear when it managed to upset Severance, which had been the
overwhelming favorite for Best Drama and win five Emmys including Noah Wyle's
well-deserved first Emmy after more than 3 decades in TV. It then swept all
four of the remaining award shows for Drama with both the show and Wyle winning
the Golden Globe, the Critics' Choice Award and the SAG-AFTRA award.
In addition to all of his other
many virtues – incredible writing, directing and acting of course – I've come
to think a huge part of the reason it has connected with so many people is the
timing of its release. When Ted Lasso debuted at the end of 2020 it came
out right at the time when America was exhausted with all of the meanness that
seemed to be at every part of our lives. Here was a comedy that centered around
a protagonist who was kind and dare I say lovable, an antidote to the Selina
Meyer's and Larry David's that had been part of comedy for the 2010s. The
Pitt debuted in February of 2025 three months after the election and
America needed a show of competent professionals doing the best they could in
an underfunded system that seemed determined to break them at every moment in a
never ending rush. The Pitt more then delivered.
Dr. Robby, the nurses, attendings and med
students at The Pitt were dealing with what seemed to be an ordinary shift
before a mass shooting changed everything. It was a real time format something
that had not even been tried since 24 left the air but none of these
people were Jack Bauer. And Rabby was clearly dealing with a deep-seated trauma
that caused him to have a meltdown at the height of the mass casualty event.
More importantly we saw in subtle ways and some less so that all of the other characters
were dealing with their own problems – addiction to drugs, chasing a high and
in a horrifying incident one of the nurses was assaulted by a patient. They had
no time to deal with their problems; the shift just ate them alive.
After twenty years of watching White Male
Antiheroes who we spent entire series trying to justify their actions, I can't
tell you how refreshing it was as a viewer to watch a group of flawed but
basically good people trying to do the best they could in impossible positions.
I'd noticed this trend going on earlier this decade in other dramas throughout
TV - Slow Horses and The
Gilded Age had received Emmy nominations for Best Drama the previous year
and the remake of Matlock had been one of the biggest critical and
audience sensations of the 2024-2025 season – but The Pitt was by far
the one that would resonate the most with viewers.
The question that no doubt
everyone was thinking in the leadup to the February premiere was: what was The
Pitt going to do to avoid the dreaded sophomore slump? The answer was
surprising and after three episodes, it's something I haven't seen an Emmy
winning drama try since Mad Men did back in 2008. It acknowledges the
passage of time – it's now July 4th, ten months since Season 1 – but
while certain things have definitely changed about the hospital and characters,
the viewer isn't truly aware of them at first. Even more fascinatingly it's not
clear if the characters themselves are aware of it yet.
It's Dr. Robby's last day before
he goes on a long awaited 3 month sabbatical and he seems very eager to leave.
The new doctor whose taking over him Dr. Al-Ashmi seems to be a good doctor but
Dr. Robby seems very reluctant to interact with her and seems less than willing
to engage with her new approaches to medicine. We don't have much time to deal
with it because sure enough the senior hospices have dropped their refuge on
the Pitt and were off.
Cassie (Fiona Dourif) is dealing
with a patient who's responding badly when he has a wrist fracture and starts
having memory loss. Each time she moves forward to a head CT. Mel (Taylor Dearden)
starts talking to a friendly patient and gets pushed aside when he reveals he's
an armed robber and she's already nervous about a deposition that's scheduled
for later today. The always prickly Dr. Santos (Isa Briones) is called in to
deal with an eight year old with an injury and notices a series of bruises that
increasingly lead her to think abuse is involved. Dr. Whitaker (Gerran Howell)
has clearly managed to walk away from the fresh faced med student who was being
pissed on his first day and is now more capable of dealing with crises and leading
med students of his own, even going so far as to lead a moment silence when a
patient passes away. He also has to take the responsibility when his wife,
suffering from intense dementia is incapable of remembering every time he tells
him her husband is dead which is wrenching in its own.
Other familiar faces are back. Charge
Nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa) has come back for the first time since her
assault as it talking another trainee through how to take care of messy
patients. The most notable return is Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball) on his first
day back after completing ten months of rehab. Langdon does seem to have changed
in his interactions with patients and staff but it’s a mixed response. Robby
doesn't want to talk to him but Mel seems willing to listen.
Victoria (Shabana Azeez) the
prodigal med student is now considering her specialty and is under pressure
from her mother to choose surgery over emergency medicine. Dr. Mohan (Supriya
Ganesh) seems upset that her mother is getting married to a man she barely knows.
And the usual mix of cases are in: a baby has been abandoned in the sink;
there's a car accident where the husband is paralyzed but treatable while the
wife stays by her side causing them to delay treating was an injury to her
spleen which needs an operation. An old Jewish woman is treated for burns and
we learn that we just outside the Tree of Life synagogue just before the
shooting started. She's being treated by a Muslim nurse – and this patient goes
out of her way to thank the Muslims for all they did to help the community in
outreach. (There will be more political storylines going forward.) And at the
end of the third episode we learn that a hospital has closed to trauma and is
about to dump its patients on the pit.
All of this is familiar and all
of the actors do it well. And yet beneath the surface we sense the subtle
changes. Dana was the mama bear
throughout Season 1; now she seems a bit punchier and less likely to stay still
and listen, her barbs have just a bit more of an edge. Mel, whose on the spectrum, seems just a bit
more nervous about the deposition and we wonder how lonely she really is.
Langdon is carrying the fact that everyone thinks he betrayed them a year ago
and no one wants to look him in the eye.
Most worrying is Robby. In the
third episode there's a motorcycle accident and he tells everybody that he
always wears a helmet – which is a lie because the viewer saw him riding his motorcycle
with no helmet at all. He seems less interested in talking through patient care
and working together when he comes back and he's also avoiding the therapist. And
when a patient dies he walks out. Whitaker asks about the moment of reflection.
"He'll still be dead when we get back," Robby says without even
looking back.
We know Robby never dealt with
his trauma when we first met him and we remember that he was on the roof at the
end of the first season. We saw just how judgmental he was when he learned of
Langdon's addiction and he seemed to take it more personally. So far it doesn't
seem to be affecting his job but Robby seems more detached then we first met
him.
Earlier this week Season 2 of The
Pitt got its first official award recognition when the Astras nominated it
for twelve awards in drama. These included nominations for Wyle, Ball and LaNasa
who've been nominated for a lot of awards after Season 1 and new faces like
Dearden, Briones and Moafi. There will doubtless be more Supporting Actor and
Actress nominations for the show in a month's time: the main reason they were
so shortchanged is because The White Lotus and Severance essentially
took up all the real estate in both categories, leaving room just for LaNasa
who managed to win in what was a surprise to her. Last year it finished well
behind those two series in total nominations but they're not going to be here
this year. Wyle is looking like he will be the first actor since Bryan Cranston
had his three-peat for Breaking Bad to win back-to-back Emmys and
looking at the first three episodes, I'm having a hard time arguing he
shouldn't.
After just two seasons imdb.com
has currently ranked The Pitt the 39th best show in TV
history. Considering it has considerably more episodes then the average
streaming or cable series these days that means more than you'd think. The
Pitt is already establishing that it is one of the greatest shows of the
decade. More importantly in an America that has becoming darker over the last
decade, it's exactly the kind of series TV and indeed the country needs right
now. I'm grateful for it.
My score: 5 stars.
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