‘The Pitt’ Episode 1 Recap: “Hour 1: 7AM-8AM”

As Noah Wyle walks to work as attending physician Dr. Michael Robinavitch, note that he is not Noah Wyle walking to work as third year newbie doctor John Carter. As Wyle’s “Dr. Robby” enters Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center through a calm back hallway before surveying the chaotic churn of the hospital’s main lobby, he is not an impressionable Carter meeting Eriq LaSalle’s Dr. Peter Benton for the very first time. The Pitt, MAX’s new medical drama, is not ER, despite the presence of Wyle as star and producer, executive producer John Wells (China Beach, ER, Third Watch), and former ER writer R. Scot Gemmill as exec producer, showrunner, and head scribe. And if two medical shows in the small screen history of too many medical shows to count happen to be too similar? Well, that will be considered by the estate of Michael Crichton’s lawsuit against Warner Bros., which is nowhere near our problem. Because it’s 7AM, time for Robinavitch’s shift to start, which will consume the first hour of Wyle’s new series. (15 episodes = 15 hours.) As an attending at the Pitt, Robby is not impressionable. He has seen everything, more than once. And typical for his emergency department is everything coming through the door at the same time.       

With a sharp, practiced scan of that lobby, Robby knows what his floor will be dealing with. Massive trauma, GSWs – the Pitt takes them on, just like the fictional hospital would respond if the fictional Pittsburgh where it exists ever experienced a TV medical drama favorite event. You know, like a bridge collapse, or an outbreak of poison gas. But also just like any TV medical drama, the triage bays in Robby’s ED see “characters welcome”-type patients, like “The Kraken” – he’s still disruptively waiting for a bed on another floor – or the alcoholic repeat offender who knows the names of the entire medical staff.

Robby begins his shift by checking in with Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), the charge nurse whose all-knowing control of the floor is startling. Dana is so omniscient, she’s the only one to sense that senior resident Dr. Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) is dealing with – and keeping quiet – bouts of morning sickness. Langdon (Patrick Ball) is the other senior resident, and they’re both on hand for Dr. Robby to introduce the Pitt’s latest rotation of medical students in training. 

Are Noah Wyle’s features a mix of plaintive knowing, as he sees promise and potential in the faces of these young medical professionals – suggesting how John Carter once was, in a completely different TV medical universe – and resigned pragmaticism, as Robinavitch must submit these kids into the live fire of the bruised and busted American healthcare system? They are! Wyle’s Robby is not Wyle’s Carter. But at the same time, and with Wyle in his 50s instead of his 20s, he embodies idealism and burnout in equal measure.

Does The Pitt being on MAX and allowing F-bombs and the like also extend to an increased  amount of medical drama gore? Because the arrival in the emergency department of a woman who was either pushed onto or rescued from the elevated train tracks exposes the med students to a grisly Civil War medicine-style scene. As Robby, Collins, Langdon, and first-year resident Dr. Santos (Isa Briones) leap into a treatment plan, fresh-faced Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) looks unsure while Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) faints at the sight of it. Javadi is also a 20-year-old former child prodigy who’s a Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center legacy: her mother is a chief surgeon upstairs. Nobody knew this tantalizing tidbit of nepo baby drama except for Dana Evans, and Dana didn’t tell Dr. Robby or anybody else on staff, just to fuck with them. Zing!

The chippy professional dynamic between surgery upstairs and the main floor ED on The Pitt is already apparent, but so is the controversy with how Robinavitch is running things as attending physician. When a hospital administrator he’s been steadily ducking finally corners him, their argument over the department’s “numbers” occurs from two different philosophical places. For Dr. Robby, every patient and their plight deserves to be unique, no matter how long that takes. But for the hospital’s bottom line, what matters is volume and good reviews. Clearly, whether the Pitt is an emergency room or a Taco Bell is gonna be a major issue this season, as it also represents the next 14 hours of Robby’s life.

Who else will be part of this Pitt journey? Dr. Melissa “Mel” King (Taylor Dearden), a veteran of two years on the frontlines of the VA, who is quick and capable in a trauma situation – like with a young couple whose four-year-old ingested marijuana edibles – while being less sure in her personal interactions. Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif), who thrives on the pressures created by patients waiting 8 hours, 12 hours, or even longer for treatment. (Dourif plays McKay with a frazzled coolness that appeals to the young medical students; it would make her stand out from the staff if we knew these people in real life.) And Santos (Briones), who is also quite sure of herself as a medical resident, but also possesses an intriguing slyness. Was she only joking when she offered to broker a kidneys-for-cash deal with Whitaker? (Santos, unreadable: “I can get you $30k by this weekend.”) Who could say?  

Finally, there is Dr. Abbott (Shawn Hatosy), who is located by Robby on the roof of the hospital. Actually, on the very lip of the roof of the hospital. It’s a feint of a suicide attempt, and meant as dark commentary on all of the hours in their workday. “This is the job that keeps on giving,” Robby tells Abbot, like to reassure him. What he doesn’t mean is some John Carter-esque dream of a healthful outcome for all, or the spark of something in the human condition that will make all of them believe. No, Robby just means ulcers. Or nightmares. Or the suicidal tendencies given by the rhythms of the work that he does and Dr. Abbott does, and all of the staff at The Pitt does – as overworked medical professionals in an underfunded hospital with the modern US healthcare system as its albatross.

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.

The post ‘The Pitt’ Episode 1 Recap: “Hour 1: 7AM-8AM” appeared first on Decider.