What the doctor ordered: how The Pitt became the TV show of the moment
The stressful Noah Wyle-led hospital drama has swiftly become the surprise breakout show of the season, speaking to a time of healthcare crisisIt happened slowly at first, then all at once: people asking me “are you watching The Pitt?” As in, the medical drama streaming on Max, released at the beginning of January and set over one hellish shift at an overburdened emergency room in Pittsburgh. The question has increased in frequency and urgency over the past month, as more and more people got hooked on weekly episodes that simulate the adrenaline cascade that is emergency medicine, one hour at a time. Friends, acquaintances, strangers at the coffee shop – everyone was watching The Pitt. Or, more accurately, reliving it, because to watch The Pitt is to be absorbed by The Pitt. Such is the nature of binging, but also the show’s design: a long season – 15 episodes, or nearly twice the length of a standard streaming drama, with the finale released tonight – plus a single episodic conceit, self-contained set, mixture of long and short story arcs, and archetypical characters with tight, shrewdly deployed backstories.In other words, it’s a good procedural, in the lane of some of the best network television; a medical drama with a charismatic lead is not breaking the wheel. In fact, by starring Noah Wyle as Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a haunted yet persistently cool and competent attending physician, it specifically invokes ER, the grandaddy of all medical dramas. (As well as a copyright dispute: though they share executive producers, Warner Bros would like you to know that The Pitt is not an ER spinoff.) Continue reading...
The stressful Noah Wyle-led hospital drama has swiftly become the surprise breakout show of the season, speaking to a time of healthcare crisis
It happened slowly at first, then all at once: people asking me “are you watching The Pitt?” As in, the medical drama streaming on Max, released at the beginning of January and set over one hellish shift at an overburdened emergency room in Pittsburgh. The question has increased in frequency and urgency over the past month, as more and more people got hooked on weekly episodes that simulate the adrenaline cascade that is emergency medicine, one hour at a time. Friends, acquaintances, strangers at the coffee shop – everyone was watching The Pitt. Or, more accurately, reliving it, because to watch The Pitt is to be absorbed by The Pitt. Such is the nature of binging, but also the show’s design: a long season – 15 episodes, or nearly twice the length of a standard streaming drama, with the finale released tonight – plus a single episodic conceit, self-contained set, mixture of long and short story arcs, and archetypical characters with tight, shrewdly deployed backstories.
In other words, it’s a good procedural, in the lane of some of the best network television; a medical drama with a charismatic lead is not breaking the wheel. In fact, by starring Noah Wyle as Dr Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a haunted yet persistently cool and competent attending physician, it specifically invokes ER, the grandaddy of all medical dramas. (As well as a copyright dispute: though they share executive producers, Warner Bros would like you to know that The Pitt is not an ER spinoff.) Continue reading...
