The Pitt 2025

 

The Pitt

“Everybody seems to know exactly what to do, is this kind of thing normal?”

“Thankfully no, but preparing for the worst and hoping for the best, it's what we do.”

“A wise man once told me, you learn to live with it, learn to accept it and find balance if you can. I hope we all do.”

-The Pitt

I've always wondered what makes a medical procedural such an engaging watch. You may think it is some sort of grateful voyeurism. That is, a window into a world of situations that you are thankful you are not part of. We are enthralled by danger and sorrow. Yet, at the same time we know the importance of distance, and we appreciate the safety of our daily lives.
These realities emanate from the core of The Pitt. Though, it seems to me, that this shows’ central premise receives most of its momentum from a far more mundane conceit, Time. Chronicling a single 12 hour shift at a Pittsburgh trauma Center. This medical drama sidesteps the common dilemma faced by most medical procedurals. Namely, that the ER, trauma unit or hospital seem to be the only medical facility in the entire United States. They receive all of the most severe cases day in and day out.
The Pitt assuages this perception by confining its first season to 15 hours. Each episode is an hour in a single day. This structure has several benefits. First, it effectively conveys the hectic nature of an metropolitan ER. Bouncing from patient to patient, and case to case with a fluidity and naturalism which a case of the week structure rarely affords. The residents and attending doctors in The Pitt barely get a minute to themselves, and it shows as they move with skill and speed throughout each hour of the day. Secondly, this collapsing of time allows for something rarely seen in a series such as this, the realization that this day is not a normal day. Couple all this with the pressure cooker that is the ER in and of itself and you have a meaningfully engaging character drama as well.
The Pitt enriches the medical genre with a sense of naturalism and honesty. Creator R. Scott Gemmill and his team entreat us to recall a simple reality, the medical field is far more than we often think. Holding life in its hands this field is at once the luck of the draw and the measure of years of experience, all in a single moment. Perhaps that is what compels us towards these series: they are life, joy and sorrow in microcosm. At their best these shows remind us of our mortality, and the ever-present hope of a human life. The Pitt is well worth a watch, if you are of the appropriate viewing age.

Rated TV-MA for medical blood and gore, language and some graphic male and female nudity in conjunction with medical situations

I found The Pitt to be artistically engaging, thematically resident and creatively structured. I hope in some way you do too.

The Pitt can be streamed on HBO Max with a subscription