Stream It Or Skip It?

The first season of HBO Max’s The Pitt proved that a “back to basics” approach to drama can work in the prestige TV era, including producing a season that’s longer than 8 or 10 episodes. The new season takes place 10 months after the first, over a 15-hour shift on July 4, which of course has lots of potential for patients with missing fingers and other Independence Day-specific injuries.

THE PITT SEASON 2: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: Scenes of the Pittsburgh skyline. A motorcycle rides across the Roberto Clemente Bridge. Riding the bike is Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch (Noah Wyle) — without a helmet!

The Gist:  It’s 7 AM on July 4, about ten months after the last time we visited the emergency department at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. This is also Dr. Robby’s last shift before he goes on a months-long sabbatical. The senior attending in “The Pitt” is chagrined when he learns from Lena (Lesley Boone), the night shift charge nurse, that the attending that’s replacing him, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), is already in with the med students and residents, giving them some training on a sensor-covered patient dummy.

The waiting room is crammed, but no more than usual; for now, the usual July 4 patients who have injured themselves with fireworks aren’t there. The same young staff that was there 10 months prior is there: Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden), now a 4th year resident; Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones), now an R2; Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell), now an intern; and Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez), now a 4th year student. With them are two other students: James Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson), who likes to let everyone know how much he’s studied; and Joy Kwon (Irene Choi), who is quite the opposite.

Out on the floor are the other two residents: Dr. Samira Mohan (Supriya Ganesh) and Dr. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif). Daytime charge nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), fully revocered from the assault she suffered the previous September but very wary, drumming into new RN Emma Nolan (Laëtitia Hollard) that she needs to make sure she protects herself and calls for help when needed.

Also in the ED is Dr. Frank Langdon (Patrick Ball), working his first shift since that September day, when Santos told Robby that Langdon was stealing patients’ meds. He’s been through rehab and therapy, and he’s seeking to make amends to people on his first day back. Dr. Robby’s first tough interaction with his one-time protege is to have him work triage.

As the first hour progresses, Dr. Robby chafes at the ideas that Dr. Al-Hashimi has for the ED. Dr. King is worried about giving a deposition for a malpractice suit she’s a part of. The usual group of challenging patients come through, including Louie (Ernest Harden Jr.), who has chronic liver issues and whom Langdon stole the meds from. Also, a baby is found in the waiting room ladies’ bathroom, abandoned by her mother.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The obvious analogue to The Pitt is ER , given the presence of Wyle, creator R. Scott Gemmill and executive producer John Wells. But the show’s first Emmy-winning season proved that the two series are quite a bit different from each other.

Our Take: There is a lot about The Pitt‘s second season that feels bigger and more daring than the first. It could be that most of the characters from the first season are back, and even the least experienced of the group from Season 1 are now hardened veterans of the ED, having started with the Pittfest mass shooting (Robby eyes a plaque commemorating the day in the ED entryway) and gone through hundreds of shifts since. They’re all more seasoned and experienced — and not nearly as wide-eyed — and in the case of Whitaker, is starting to show how Robby’s influence has manifested in how they do their jobs.

But the show is also more daring with its visual effects. We see a man whose heart has stopped get his chest cranked open by trauma surgeon Dr. Yolanda Garcia (Alexandra Metz) and the bloody mess that ensues is front and center. In another episode, a man comes in with an 8-hour erection, and, well, we see everything as the staff tries to drain it.

The events of the first season certainly are evident in the second, and not just with Langdon coming back a humbled man and Robby trying to disconnect from his crushing sense of responsibility since his near-breakdown. Javadi stands up to her mother, an surgical attending at the hospital, more. Mohan is more confident in her more deliberate method of patient care. Whitaker is as confident as Dana is wary. Santos is still arrogant and still has strong convictions, as we see when she helps a little girl she suspects is being abused, but she has better ways of communicating it.

It will be interesting to see which of the stories continue through most of the 15-hour shift and which will just be moving through “the Pitt.” Will Robby and Dr. Al-Hashimi clash more over how the department is run? Will the baby’s mother be found? Will there be another mass casualty event or just a rush of people who have blown off their fingers? We can’t wait to watch and find out.

Performance Worth Watching: Noah Wyle won an Emmy for Season 1, and for good reason; he portrayed Robby’s empathy and calm leadership skills, but also did a great job of the pressures he puts on himself and how that all came crashing down on him. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles what will likely be a chaotic shift right before he goes on that sabbatical.

Sex And Skin: Lots of open wounds and blood, and we mentioned that man with the 8-hour erection, didn’t we?

Parting Shot: As the baby is being examined, Dr. Al-Hashimi blanks out for a few seconds while looking at the infant, and Mohan tries to get her to snap out of it.

Sleeper Star: Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Mel King is more distracted because of the looming deposition, which everyone but Al-Hashimi seems to have experienced at one point or another in their careers. Dearden does a good job of playing the usually on-the-ball Dr. King as someone who is preoccupied.

Most Pilot-y Line: None we could find.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The Pitt avoids a sophomore slump by leaning on the characters’ increased confidence and experience. But because there are so many cases and issues involving our broken healthcare system, there’s more than enough story to tell for a number of seasons.

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How To Watch The Pitt

If you’re new to HBO Max, you can sign up for as low as $10.99/month with ads, but an ad-free subscription will cost $18.49/month.

If you want to stream even more and save a few bucks a month while you’re at it, we recommend subscribing to one of the discounted Disney+ Bundles with Hulu and HBO Max. With ads, the bundle costs $19.99/month and without ads, $32.99/month.

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Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.