Thursday nights belong to Noah Wyle again. In the 31 years since ER debuted, TV watching habits and release schedules have changed substantially. However, the response to The Pitt’s first season is a shot of adrenaline to the chest for fans of longer seasons, a weekly release, compelling characters, and crackling chemistry. We can have it all!
Set in the underfunded and overextended Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center, each episode of the Max drama covers one hour of what was meant to be a 12-hour work day. A mass shooting at a music festival at the end of the eleventh hour extends the day shift, introducing several doctors and nurses who work nights, who are so well written and portrayed that they slot right in.
Unlike 24, which bounced around many locations, The Pitt only leaves the vicinity of the emergency department (and hospital grounds) in this week’s finale. This focus on one central hub adds to an immersive experience with zero opportunity to scroll on your phone absentmindedly. Switching off from the reality of the world with a show that doesn’t hold back on showing the reality of the world might seem like a curious choice, but it is comforting to watch competency in action.
While the general word of mouth has steadily been building, a positive response from healthcare workers came from the jump with early headlines touting The Pitt’s accuracy. “It started with the medical community really embracing it, feeling seen and heard by it,” Wyle tells The Daily Beast’s Obsessed. Showing this industry’s challenges has been enlightening for even those close to first responders. “This has been a catalyst for some really beautiful conversations in people’s homes,” said Wyle.
The momentum continues, but Wyle is grateful for this initial response: “Getting that stamp of credibility, I think, is the best marketing tool we could have asked for.” Splashy billboards and talk show appearances are great, but this is “the best whisper campaign we could’ve hoped for.”
There is no better time to be a fan of medical shows with options (Grey’s Anatomy, Pulse, Doctor Odyssey, Watson, Berlin ER, Doc, St. Denis Medical) to suit various preferences and moods. But nothing is dominating the conversation quite like The Pitt, which is generating reactions that hark back to when X was still called Twitter and live-tweeting TV was frequent and not noteworthy. And while I have stopped regularly posting on X, I find myself checking my timeline on a Friday morning because I need to up my Pitt online dose.
It isn’t just Wyle’s world-weary Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch who is getting attention, as it seems like every main character (and guest stars like Shawn Hatosy’s Dr. Abbot) are receiving the “I would die for…,” “need to protect them at all costs,” “giving me a reason to live” style tweet, fancams, shipping suggestions (even without explicit romance a lot is percolating in this area), and adoration.
Whether you see yourself as a Pitthead, Pittpilled, or part of the Pitt Crew, the positive word of mouth has led to an uptick in conversation in recent weeks. This is a massive win for those who long for the best of network and streaming worlds. When some staff toast “to the Pitt crew” over beers in the park at the end of the finale, it doubles as raising a drink to the creative team, the first responders who inspired the series, and fans who adore these characters.
The finale’s post-shift hangout proves The Pitt doesn’t require a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. Still, there are plenty of loose ends at the end of the season, like Dr. Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) drug addiction treatment, if charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) did quit, and which med students will return—or if Robby will finally go to therapy.
Robby and the rest of the day squad end the season by finally clocking out, but unlike other hit streaming shows, The Pitt will not make viewers wait years for the next fix. Wyle confirmed to Obsessed that Season 2 will begin shooting in the summer, and at the Deadline Contenders Event, the actor revealed it will take place 10 months after events in Season 1—and over the Fourth of July weekend (ahoy, fireworks injuries).
The casting is another triumph, mixing hot recognizable actors like Wyle, Hatosy, and LaNasa with newer (equally hot) talent like Supriya Ganesh as Dr. Mohan, British actor Gerran Howell, and Ball’s Langdon (the theater actor only had a Law & Order credit on IMDb pre-Pitt). The Pitt doesn’t swerve the nepo baby discourse, but Isa Briones, Taylor Dearden, and Fiona Dourif make a strong case for taking up the family business. Plus, Brad Dourif briefly appeared as his off-screen daughter’s on-screen father without distracting from the main story.
The Pitt injects something new into the familiar medical drama format by stripping back the bells and whistles (there is no score, for example). But this fresh approach isn’t throwing the rule book out. Having medical professionals like Dr. Joe Sachs in the writers’ room, a two-week boot camp for the regular cast, and real nurses as background actors all adds to the authenticity. Nevertheless, this isn’t a documentary, and the storylines hit hard because the creative team (including Wyle, who wrote two episodes) is attuned to balancing tone without leaning too far into misery or levity.
“You want somebody to have a harrowing experience, then you want to bring the audience back out, let them breathe, get perspective, relieve them with a little comedy, if possible. It’s constriction, expansion; a good call and response,” says Wyle. “These are the tenets of any kind of good drama. You don’t want to stay in one vein for too long. You don’t want to over-fatigue an audience.”
Wyle explained that if the tone tips too far one way or another, it can be corrected in the editing room. The actor also credits the writers, “who had a metronomic sense of when the audience was going to need a lift or to have the rug pulled out from underneath them.”
Undoubtedly, having TV veterans like R. Scott Gemmill (JAG, ER, NCIS: Los Angeles) and John Wells (ER, The West Wing, Southland) at the creative helm (as well as Wyle in an executive producer role) means that rather than treating the entire first season like an extended pilot, each episode pushes the story forward and gives it that old-fashioned must-see TV shine.
“The point was to have everybody introduced to these characters in their professional capacity the way that the patients would,” says Wyle. As the day progresses, more is revealed, like Robby’s PTSD from working during COVID-19 or Dr. McKay’s (Dourif) ongoing child custody legal battle. The one-day format gives tight exposition parameters, but the writing finds organic ways to drip-feed new personal information, adding texture and depth.
The finale does the difficult job of concluding the shift that began at 7:00 AM, hitting emotional beats that include Robby admitting to Abbot that he broke (“so f—ing what” is Abbot’s response) and leaving us wanting more.
The Pitt has resuscitated Thursday night TV, and I am ready for my next appointment. The waiting room is packed, but thankfully, the nurses and doctors will return soon.
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