MAX‘s new medical drama The Pitt became a breakthrough hit for the streamer on account of its incredible writing, realistic depictions of medicine, and insanely likable cast. Fans of the show swoon over the troubled Langdon (Patrick Ball), idolize the sweet Mel (Taylor Dearden), and adore the beleaguered Dr. Robby (Noah Wyle). There is one character, however, that The Pitt creator and showrunner R. Scott Gemmill thinks audiences are being “a little harsh” on and it’s Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones).
When DECIDER asked Gemmill if any fan reactions to the show and it’s characters surprised him, he didn’t hold back.
“I think the fans have reacted the way we had hoped. I thought they were a little harsh on Santos,” Gemmill said. “‘Cause I actually, if anybody on the staff is close to me personally, personality-wise, it’s probably Santos.”
“I was like, ‘Yeah, but she’s just trying to find her way. She doesn’t mean it all,”‘ he said, defending the character.
In The Pitt Season 1 finale, Santos actually gets two scenes where she gets to show a softer side of her personality. In one, she is able to reach a patient, Max (Aidan Laprete), she believes attempted to die by suicide. She shares her own experiences losing a close friend and manages to get Max to agree to mental health treatment.
“I think there was maybe a little bit of wanting to show Santos is a good doctor, but I think that was always there,” Gemmill said.
Elsewhere, Santos follows colleague Whitaker (Gerran Howell) upstairs to discover he is not only unhoused, but living secretly in the hospital.
“From the get-go, Whitaker’s character was basically living in the hospital and that was a big secret,” Gemmill said. “If you look back, there’s a couple of little Easter eggs where he tells them that there’s whole wing that’s not being used and we see him steal a sandwich. So we’d set it up. So we knew we were going to end up there.”
“At some point it just seemed like what if Santos has a place and finds Whitaker living up there and offers. It just seemed like a natural, really nice, fun way to end their day since she’s been like just hammering him all day long.“
[Cue a hundred fan fics about Santos and Whitaker being roommates!]
“No, I’m really happy with the way people responded to the characters,” Gemmill ultimately said. “You know, when you write them, when you create them, they’re just words on a page until you cast them. We were so lucky, Cathy Sandrich and her team who are casting, just did such a great job.”
“You know our sort of goal was a lot of new faces so that when people, when the audience saw these new doctors, they didn’t have any preconceived notions about them,” he continued. “So they just assume that’s Langdon. You know, Gerran is Whitaker. I think that had a profound effect in terms of just the immediacy at which people accepted these characters for who they are. And that was really great.”
“We just lucked out so, so well with our cast that they make us look good.”
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