‘The Pitt' Is The Best Show On TV And Noah Wyle Is Simply Brilliant
The Pitt
Credit: HBO
The last time I wrote about The Pitt, I'd only seen four episodes of the new medical drama and already I knew it was something special. Things had not quite heated up, though already I found myself emotionally invested in all the characters, each of the various cases and the incredible way this story was being told.
Now, I'm all caught up and boy-oh-boy have things reached a boiling point. Or perhaps a breaking point. This post contains spoilers. Do not read any further if you aren't caught up. Read the link above for a spoiler-free review, or watch my video review below:
The Pitt takes on the real-time format made famous by 24, but it's a very different show. Instead of dealing with terrorist plots and national security, the show takes us into the dramatic events of one day in a Pittsburgh trauma center emergency room. We follow head ER doctor, Dr. Michael 'Robby' Robinavitch (Noah Wyle) and his staff of attending physicians, student doctors, nurses, medics and social workers as they handle the steady, often chaotic, flow of new (and returning) patients beginning at the start of the 7am day shift. The series has now gone one hour into the next shift, as calamity strikes in the form of a mass shooting at a music festival, with dozens of casualties.
As intense as the last two episodes have been, as the already strained to the limits ER deals with a flood of new trauma patients, it's the rest of the series prior to the shooting that really made me fall in love with the show.
The Pitt does several things really exceptionally well:
The big mass shooting that's serving as the capstone of the season has certainly turned up the heat, giving a struggling, overwhelmed ER an almost impossible crisis to deal with, but I think the show would have worked even without such a dramatic turn of events. I'm not saying the writers shouldn't have taken us in this direction, only that I think a more 'normal' day in the ER would have been just as powerful and profound. That speaks more to the excellence of the series up through Episode 11 more than as a criticism of the last two.
In any case, this is a brilliant medical drama. It's like nothing I've seen before. The cast is phenomenal, and Noah Wyle in particular is putting in one of the best performances I've seen in years. Dr. Robby has instantly become one of my favorite characters on TV, and Wyle's funny, earnest, heartbreaking performance should win him the Emmy for Best Actor. I hope this show wins a bunch of awards and gets tons of fanfare, because it deserves both the praise and recognition, as well as another season. We have two episodes left, though I think we may have reached the dramatic peak in this week's episode, as Robby finally reaches his breaking point, collapsing in tears after he fails to save the life of a teenage girl shot at PittFest.
What do you think of The Pitt? Let me know on Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky or Facebook. Also be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me here on this blog. Sign up for my newsletter for more reviews and commentary on entertainment and culture.
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