Baseline: The Pitt
The ER writers are still going strong with The Pitt. When I wrote about this medical drama a few weeks back, we hadn’t gotten to the festival. The past four hours have been intense, almost to the point that HBO should have offered premium packages to those of us that would have gladly binged it all in one sitting. When the season ends, I will probably watch it all in a single sitting just to see if I react to it differently.
I can’t ruin this show for anyone, but I want to go over the crew because I think they’re the coolest ER crew ever put together in a medical drama.
Collins
We meet her as she’s going through her own medical milestone. I thought we would see her fold, but she got right back to work and pulls an entire shift before the festival victims arrive. She also has her catharsis moment that appeared to be years in the making right before the shooting happens. Could you imagine? You just cleared the deck of all of your drama and then your ER fills up with close to a hundred new patients in minutes.
McKay
I like that she has one of those leg monitors on. The festival shooting happens and she’s running around dealing with dozens of patients in a hospital that is on lockdown and she also has her son with her. There is never an end to the stress on this show, but you find yourself coming back every week for it.
King
They’re calling her neurodivergent, but I like the way she solves cases. She donated blood while treating patients. I’m hooked on this festival storyline and how they’re each dealing with patients in their own style.
Whittaker
He’s the heart. In the first episode we watch him perform CPR on a patient that has been gone for over five minutes because he just couldn’t let him go. It was the first patient he’d lost and it not only showed what type of doctor he is, but acted as a window to how his peers react to a regular occurrence at work as well.
Langdon
He messed up with the meds, but I love how he showed up and went to work and they just knew they needed the extra hands. I’m morally ambiguous, but I think the shortcuts they’ve used on the floor during this festival will come up later.
Javadi
She made a balloon for a failing heart using a straw and a twisty. I don’t know if I’m affected more by her quick thinking or just how fragile we are that a few home supplies used in a certain way can change the track of our internal organs in seconds. I need to believe that lasers and a sterile room are needed to reach my chest cavity, not just a simple cut and a slurpee straw.
Robbie
We get it. We don’t have to mention it. This is the guy we measure all the other tv guys against this year. I love broken people that are tired and hyped all at the same time. On a single shift he learns his failed relationship aborted his child, his stepson’s girlfriend died in his arms, it’s the anniversary of the death of his best friend during COVID, and office admin are on him about the budget and shortcuts to save lives. By episode 13, he’s broken down and you don’t blame him. He takes a five minute break and he’s back on the floor. Yeah, this is the guy.
I haven’t seen a single episode of ER. I just understood the way they shot movements within a hospital revolutionized the look of medical dramas. He looked like a Doogie Howser like character in that show. The writers came back over twenty years later and made him the doctor we root for.
Every Thursday night, I’m watching this show. Someone on episode 14 just said air introduced to the femeral line and now I’m lost trying to figure out if I have that. I’m getting back to tonight’s episode now. Watch this show.