There are a number of high profile shows currently airing on all manner of streaming services, from The White Lotus to Severance to Reacher. But the actual best show on TV? I think you can definitely make the case for Max’s The Pitt, the new ER drama from well, a couple guys behind the original ER, including star Noah Wyle and producer and writer R. Scott Gemmill.
The Pitt is the 24-styled tale of a single ER shift in an overwhelmed emergency department in Pittsburg, led by Wyle overseeing a hierarchy of residents, med students and nurses constantly juggling chaotic case after chaotic case, while dealing with their own personal issues.
The Pitt is a rare series that will run for 15 episodes, 15 hours of that ER shift rendered in real time that again, no show has really gotten away with in earnest since FOX’s 24. It features compelling performances from its entire cast, weaving its various patient and physician storylines in and out of each other seamlessly.
Yes, it’s true that a lot of craziness is all happening in a single day between the staff and patients, and that much insanity (miscarriages, rat infestation, now a mass shooting) may not happen all at once. But I am embedded in the medical scene with my wife in the profession, and she and all her friends say that this is probably the best, most accurate medical drama they’ve ever seen. Yes, there are cases this insane, and they can all come in this quickly. Yes, the tactics and diagnoses and prescriptions are almost entirely accurate. The worst thing that can be said I’ve heard is “well, a medical student wouldn’t know that,” but even among actual ER doctors I know, the general sentiment is yeah, it’s pretty close. The closest they’ve seen on TV, at least.
The show is capable of some absolute gut-punches. One of the most significant (spoilers) was an accidental overdose of a college student that resulted in irreversible brain death as we watched his parents in denial over the fact. But far and away the hardest episode to get through was about the drowning death of a little girl as she tried to save her younger sister after she fell in a pool. Just horrific but yes, too common in real life, as I have friends who have lived through this exact experience. You can only imagine how much harder it hits in person.
Sure, I guess you could say something like the super-heady Severance is doing higher-concept TV and is “better” in some ways, but The Pitt is far more accessible and executes its concept almost flawlessly. A brand new hit series running for 15 full episodes is unheard of in this day and age, and with the show renewed for season 2 already, they’re all going to mount up and do it again. It’s a must-watch.
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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
