It’s impossible to watch Max‘s new drama The Pitt and not think of NBC’s groundbreaking medical procedural E.R. Although The Pitt takes place in Pittsburgh (not Chicago) and follows an overwhelmed emergency room staff during a single, intense fifteen hour shift (not over the course of weeks and months), it definitely owes its DNA to the groundbreaking NBC hit. Both shows embed themselves in a beleaguered emergency room, following the doctors and nurses fighting to make it through yet another harrowing shift saving (and losing) lives. Both series are executive produced by John Wells and star Noah Wyle. Both The Pitt and E.R. feature wide-eyed interns on their first days, grisly close ups of gnarly procedures, and patients whose personal lives are even more curious than their medical concerns. And, of course, it’s hard not to compare The Pitt and E.R. knowing there’s an actual tense legal battle being waged over the show’s alleged similarities.
But where The Pitt and E.R. really do overlap the most is in the intersection of high and low television. Over the course of the 10 hour-long episodes provided to critics, The Pitt features clunky dialogue, ridiculous cliffhangers, and overly obvious messaging associated with easy primetime viewing. It also boasts propulsive filmmaking, endearing characters, and one seismic performance from star/EP Noah Wyle. Whatever ingredients The Pitt did or did not poach from E.R. come together to make a slight drama that nevertheless speaks to the existential angst of seeking or providing healthcare in 2025.
The Pitt opens during “Hour 1,” aka 7 AM-8 AM, in Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch’s (Noah Wyle) fifteen-hour shift running Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital’s E.R., aka The Pitt. From the jump, we’re warned that many of Dr. Robby’s colleagues think the chief attendant shouldn’t be working today as it’s the five year anniversary of his mentor’s death during the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the ten episodes Max sent critics, Dr. Robby has traumatic flashbacks to that harrowing day, but nothing is more emotionally taxing than the endless marathon of flatlining patients, horrific accidents, tragic reveals, and occasionally comic moments that visit the E.R.
Making this day even more tense is the fact that a new quartet of student doctors and interns have arrived: the awkward, but eager Dr. Melissa “Mel” King (Taylor Dearden), the brusque and bullying Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), twenty-year-old prodigy Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez), and earnest farm boy Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell). Helping Robby teach these newbs are the hunky Dr. Langdon (Patrick Ball), poised (and secretly pregnant) Dr. Collins (Tracey Ifeachor), scrappy single mom Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif), and sensitive third year Dr. Mohan (Supriya Ganesh).
It’s easy to get hooked on The Pitt‘s drama. The stakes are inherently high, literally life or death, and the frenetic pace is never-ending. As the season plods on, the sheer volume of heartbreaking cases, miraculous saves, and mundane tasks blur together, perhaps on purpose, to reflect how overburdened the characters and our frontline healthcare providers are.
The Pitt‘s biggest asset, though, is Noah Wyle playing an E.R. doc. Like watching Kenneth Branagh tear into Shakespeare, there’s something incandescent about following Noah Wyle as he shoulders the burden of an E.R. rotation in an hour long TV drama. Dr. Robby is somehow both jaded and hollowed by his years in these medical trenches, yet still motivated by a deep love for his patients, colleagues, and students. Wyle is able to effortlessly merge these contradictions, alongside all the inscrutable medical jargon, with grace. It’s a towering performance that lets you overlook many of The Pitt‘s pitfalls.
What makes The Pitt fall short is its sophomoric writing. The dialogue is so preachy in spots that it feels like watching an afterschool special. Instead of trusting that we’ll understand these characters are struggling to fight their way through fifteen hour nightmare shifts, the show has to repeatedly spell it out, letting characters cite national trends like they’re newsreaders. There’s a whole villainous character who just exists to stand in for the for-profit hospital owners. Patient issues run the gamut from a teen crossing state lines for an abortion to potential trafficking victims to fentanyl poisoning. The Pitt is a show spoon-feeding its plot points like medicine to the audience.
That said, every time I wondered to myself if The Pitt really needed to be so obvious with its messaging about how the sorry state of modern medicine isn’t the doctors’ or nurses’ faults, I reminded myself that we live in a culture that has responded to Squid Game with copycat reality shows and Dominos ads. Maybe there are worse things than a soapy Max drama that prefers blunt storytelling tactics to hit its targets.
After all, we live in a time where a healthcare CEO’s assassination in Midtown Manhattan drew shrugs from millions who have suffered at the whims of the current for-profit system. With discontent with our healthcare system at an all-time, feverish, vengeful high, The Pitt might be the perfect prescription: an easy-watch that villainizes the vultures preying upon the weak while lionizing the workers sacrificing themselves to save lives.
The first two episodes of The Pitt premiere on Thursday, January 9 on Max.