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The new medical drama The Pitt debuted on Max in January without much if any notice from myself. I have never been one for medical dramas or comedies on television and as such this one went unobserved.
A couple of weeks ago the series grew in my attention because a number of YouTube reactors who are actual doctors reacted to episodes, and I was impressed with how impressed they were in the medical accuracy depicted. I became intrigued enough to watch an episode and that hooked me.
MAX
The Pitt is set in the emergency department of a major University hospital in Pittsburgh, with the title referring to both the city and the derogatory nickname for the department. With a waiting room overflowing with patients, for some waiting hours and hours to be seen, the season is dedicated to a single 15-hour shift with each episode one hour of that workday. The series presents a bewildering but engaging cast of characters lead by Noah Wyle as Dr Robby, the seniormost attending physician in the department, a number of other attending physicians, several student doctors doing their residencies, nurses, social workers, and ‘boarders’ patients admitted to the hospital but still in the ED because beds have not yet opened up.
Each episode really just flies by with an amazingly well choreographed mix of emergency room medicine, patients emotional crises, and personal drama from the staff. We get to know each of the principal hospital doctors and nurses but without the flow ever seeming to stop or ignore the ongoing needs of the patients who are there for everything from burned hands to lethal overdoses.
Because I have watched the reaction videos from a few doctors I do have foreknowledge of some of the major events coming up in episodes I have yet to watch but I have no sense of having been ‘spoiled.’ The characters are so well-drawn, so engaging, that simply watching them do their thing, deal with medical and personal crises is entertaining enough without any need for ‘twists’ or surprised.
The Pitt streams exclusively on MAX.
