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Because I came to this streaming show on Max late, I had the chance to catch up by watching an episode a night. Not quite a binge but certainly not having to wait a week between episodes was nice. Though I still think a weekly release is a far better model for programming because it allows interest to build, as it did with The Pitt.
Now that I have finished the season, I want to touch lightly on characters that provoked the strongest emotional reactions.
Dr. Melissa ‘Mel’ King, played by Taylor Dearden. Emphatic, smart, understanding how to
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communicate with people even as she herself struggles with presenting undiagnosed on the ‘spectrum.’ She is my screen crush, a sweet baby that like Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer you dread anything bad happening to.
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Dennis Witaker, player by Brit Gerran Howell, is the character I most identify as, though I am not bright enough to be a physician. A farm boy with an accent that identifies him as coming out of rural America, Whitaker feels things strongly and tends to blame himself needlessly.
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Dr. Trinty Santos, player by Isa Briones, irritated me though most of the season. Confident and often crosses the line into cocky she actually knows what she’s doing but her hard sharp personality makes her a difficult teammate. Her tendency for hanging unwanted nicknames on people is the thing that it very hard for me to warm up to her. I despise such things, but the finale revealed a softness she often hides and that went a long way to making me like the character.
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Dr Cassie McKay played by Fiona Dourif, daughter of Brad Dourif who appears in one episode as Dr. McKay’s father. McKay is the oldest of the student doctors, a woman who has seen some of the unpleasantness of life and with those battle scars is a little better equipped to help patients struggling with issues beyond the mere medical.
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And last but by far not least, Charge Nurse Dana Evans, played by Katherine LaNasa. Dana exhibits calm, cool, collected command as she runs the emergency department for the doctors. her authority doesn’t come from her position but her nature and years of hard-won experience. Dana Evans is my favorite character and when she got punched, hard enough to crack bones, by an asshole patient it ignited my strongest emotional response in the entire season.
