On paper, the new hospital series debuting on Max this week sounds like a slam dunk. The Pitt is a 15-episode medical drama coming on Jan. 9 that reunites the creative team behind ER, one of the biggest TV shows of the modern era, while the star of the new Max show is none other than Noah Wyle — the actor who played Dr. John Carter on ER and was very much the beating heart of the iconic NBC series.
In The Pitt, Wyle plays Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, chief attendant in the emergency room of the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital. R. Scott Gemmill, who executive-produced more than half of the episodes across ER’s entire run, is the showrunner for The Pitt, which I should also note is debuting with a reasonably strong 83% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
“The myriad challenges facing the doctors, nurses, technicians, patients, and their families who work in the trenches of modern medicine have become only more pronounced in the decade and a half since we last visited their stories,” reads a joint statement from Gemmill, Wyle, and co-executive producer John Wells that they released earlier this year. “We’re thrilled to be able to return to this world with the support of our partners and are looking forward to pushing the boundaries of dramatic realism and medical accuracy in following the lives of these heroic men and women.”
Unlike with ER, the fact that Max is the streaming home for their new show means that The Pitt can get a little more visceral, in terms of everything from patients’ harrowing medical crises to the series’ ambitious structure. To that latter point, the season actually presents a single 15-hour shift for Dr. Robby, with each episode taking place in real time over the course of an hour. “For the most part,” raves Rolling Stone’s stalwart TV reviewer Alan Sepinwall, The Pitt is “a powerful reminder of why certain formulas are so durable, how satisfying they can still be when done well, and why we shouldn’t be so eager to throw out all of the things that have made TV TV for so long.”
The logline for The Pitt presents the show as a realistic examination of the challenges facing healthcare workers today, as seen through the eyes of frontline heroes like Wyle’s doctor. Interestingly, it’s also debuting at a time when other streamers are looking for their own version of ER.
Netflix, for example, has announced what feels like its own attempt at this same thing — Pulse, the streaming giant’s first procedural medical drama starring Willa Fitzgerald and Colin Woodell. Netflix’s drama “will follow the staff of Miami’s busiest Level 1 trauma center as they navigate medical emergencies and their equally complex personal lives.” Bottom line, get ready to see an explosion in medical dramas on your favorite streamers, similar to what dominated TV screens a couple decades ago in the form of shows like ER, Grey’s Anatomy, Chicago Hope, and House.
