Let Me Show You My Reverse Tracheotomy: “The Pitt” on Max or HBO or whatevef

“The Pitt” on Max starring Noah Wyle: this medical drama fucking RULES and we should talk about it

https://picen.tvmao.com/images/8f/5d/a0724e31d5cdc68d96cb07f051ad507380155d8f.jpg

i’m caught up and cannot wait for ep 6. notes so far

- pvmic but grizzled Noah Wyle is hot af
- i love the 1 hour= i episode structure
- no music! maximum intensity
- i understand like 5% of the jargon but i am fucking RIVETED to my seat
- the plate spinning of all the building storylines is fantastic
- love the chemistry btw Wyle & Dr Collins
- love Dana the head nurse
- i need Princess to crack soon bc i haaaaaate her character so much (but i know at least 2 versions of her irl)

i never was obsessed w ER or House & dont usually care abour medical shows but i am full heart-eyes emojis for this show

episode 4 really proves how good the show is imo

We've watched the whole thing so far as a family (well, most of us), including my daughter, a near-future medical professional. We love it, and while there are a few TV moments here and there, it seems pretty level-headed and relatively realistic. Ironically, the person that reminds me the most of a legit young doctor (in training) is Brian Cranston's daughter, who nails the right level of nerdy competence.

1) I didn't even notice there is no music!
2) I wonder if the doctors that wrote/consulted kept notebooks of all the random or mundane cases they had, because some of the stuff the show depicts is so very specific without coming across Very TV Doctor Show.

I used to watch ER, back-when, but not House or Grey's Anatomy or whatever, so can't compare to those. But as good as ER was in its prime, this seems different and in many ways better.

My good friend’s wife was an ER nurse in NYC was telling us they really captured the vibe and feel of a busy urban emergency room.

yeah the specifics feel very true to irl experiences on the writing staff or consultants or something — my BiL was a paramedic & i have ER nurse friends

like even the way Wyle ducks into the bathroom to kinda cry for like a nanosecond (about something genuinely devastating) but then looks at himself in the mirror & laughs felt so truthful

love Cranston’s daughter, she’s so competent and handles her shit so well in those intense procedures!

I am not usually a fan of doctor shows — I watched a few episodes of ER back when Linda Cardellini and Parminder Nagra were on it, because... well, Linda Cardellini and Parminder Nagra. And I have seen a few episodes of House, but never Grey's Anatomy. The hospital show I've probably seen the most is Chicago Med, which is... OK. But yeah, The Pitt is pretty compelling. Some of the kid doctors are annoying (the one who's a huge bitch who thinks she knows everything, and the one who keeps getting splattered with blood), but some of the others are just dumb kids and entertaining about it. They're setting up some interesting plotlines that I hope resolve well and not as horror.

the one who keeps getting splattered is kinda fun imo. waiting for him to run out of scrubs of ~any~ kind lol

oh and i said i hate Princess -i meant Trinity! I hate Trinity!

princess boned a dave navarro dude under the stars -she’s cool as hell lol

I might have said this in the other tv thread, but I started this show with a fair amount of ambivalence and maybe even skepticism. I was especially wary of the 15 eps = 15 hours of one shift; it just sounded like it was going to get really tedious. And the whole plot of the woman with the moody son who may or may not become a school shooter just felt very forced.

But lo and behold by the third or fourth episode all my reservations went away and I think this show has only gotten richer with each passing episode. I’m impressed with the depth it’s developing - a long simmer of a show.

And now for better or worse I’m expecting the school shooter plot to come back in a more unexpected way - like maybe an attempted suicide rather than a bunch of injured kids… something less predictable. Hoping for something less on the nose, at least.

the way this show handles death so matter of factly but with so much empathy is like nothing i have seen on tv in a long while

like maybe Leftovers was the last show i can think of

Only thru ep3 so not reading the board yet. Love Noah Wyle in this. Hopefully he gets to pee in ep4 :) Also appreciate casting and acting from the patients and family members. Adds to the verisimilitude

i still have not gotten over them uh, popping out the dent, in that dude’s FACE in episode 1

like

i didn’t know faces could do that. that was hardcore

my fiancé and I are both physicians and we both thought this was the most realistic medical show we’ve ever seen — or at least that I’ve ever seen, since I don’t usually gravitate toward them. it’s really tightly scripted and well acted, super enjoyable. the medical student who’s the daughter of one of the surgeons is a bit of a caricature but having known a lot of similar people it is fun to root against her.

Is this too-much intense like the Bear? or heartbreakerly so like This Is going to Hurt? Or a more general ER meets 24 kinda idea?

I have a feeling my other half will inevitably want to watch this lol. Though he's just started on 6 feet under of all things so it might be a while.

More general ER, I'd say. It's got its sad spots (so far) but nothing terribly melodramatic and intense yet. It's pretty grounded.

yeah cosign that

Yeah, it's a very grounded show. Blood, tension, anxiety, but they haven't resorted to a single "no one's ever seen this disease before" or "if we don't get this contained, the whole city will be at risk" plotline yet.

Tonight's episode was good. Very glad to see the student doctor I dislike the most fuck up badly (without harming a patient) and get slapped down for it. Frankly, I was beginning to wonder whether sexual tension was building between her and the surgeon, or if it was just the beginning of a mentor/mentee relationship, but neither of those things is happening now, ha ha.

haven't seen this but is is v. curious to me that two shows set in pittsburgh debuted in january: this and the latest sherlock holmes spinoff (watson, 'a medical drama with detective elements' on cbs)

that watson show is a goddamn lie: thinly veiled sherlock notions but it’s basically just “Morris Chestnut IS House” zzz

tbf i just want artistic shots of the mighty allegheny and monongehela confluencing into the ohio river. and decent scripts i guess

who had primanti bros on their bingo card

I read a few interviews about the show, mostly with Wyle, and I think the pivot from making a new ER to the episode-per-hour format has been very clever. ER was a melodrama partially by necessity because it was really focused on the medical staff with the majority of the cases being one and done.

The individual patients have so much more room to breathe (until they're intubated?) in the script and they feel just as important as the staff.

I really like this

can't wait for Data's daughter to get slapped down some more as the day winds on

I really love the rhythm of this show, how there's no traditional rising or falling action structure, how each episode doesn't really conclude so much as pause the story.

yeah same, makes it very enjoyable and sort of cliffhangery, more like old fashioned serialised plays and stuff

"Sort of" cliffhangery is pretty much right, because rarely does an episode end on or even aim for an "oh shit!" moment, at least not so far. I forget how each episode of "24" ended, with, like, snapshots of whatever four conflicts/cliffhangers are going on at once?

But with this, so far there's been no "tune in next week to find out what happened!" sort of suspense, because there is a lot going on at once.

Could do with the show cooling it on the med students embodying clichesarchetypes bit.

We're still learning about them, though. Who was the person Cranston's daughter was talking to on the phone, for example? And arrogant student has a back story we haven't gotten yet, too. And Huckleberry, I feel we have a lot to learn about him as well. And of course surgeon's daughter is being set up for ... something.

mainly i just need propofol and ketamine stat

rarely does an episode end on or even aim for an "oh shit!" moment, at least not so far

The biggest one was "that's not the pregnant girl's mom, that's her aunt — the screaming angry lady is her mom".

The character I'm keeping a close eye on is the angry guy who keeps getting sent back to the waiting room; a violent outburst would not be a total surprise.

cranston’s daughter i guessed was talking to her sister, so maybe she was not only caring for a mom (who passed) but a sibling still as well idk

The angry man is also a racist MAGA dude. I forget why he's (still) there. Chest pains?

have you guys missed the entire plot point where she has a sister that has special needs and has assisted living arrangements during the day? it's why she was trying so hard to relate to the lady with the schizophrenia-having mom

Yes. Though eventually I sort of pieced that together.

have you guys missed the entire plot point where she has a sister that has special needs and has assisted living arrangements during the day? it's why she was trying so hard to relate to the lady with the schizophrenia-having mom

Yeah, I caught that; my question is, how special needs is she supposed to be? She seems at least somewhat autistic, but it's not clear yet whether we're supposed to care about that or if it's just a minor character trait.

angry guy is there for chest pains

I'm surprised angry guy hasn't just fucked off in frustration yet. Also, of course, potential school shooter guy, will that come back in the form of victims or *his* return to the ER? A lot of stuff hanging out there.

it was floated on The Watch podcast that maybe the possible shooter story intersects w the music festival story?

Hmm. That would also rope back in Noah's son. I kind of hope it doesn't go supernova dark and tragic, though tis the world we live in, I guess.

honestly that storyline with the shooter kid & the mom irked me the most, like jeez lady why are you making this kid the ER’s problem? i understand not knowing where to go for help but this really should not be the move.

honestly that storyline with the shooter kid & the mom irked me the most, like jeez lady why are you making this kid the ER’s problem? i understand not knowing where to go for help but this really should not be the move.

I did actually think this was ER: The Next Generation for a good while and chalked up any wincy tropes to being an unavoidable inheritance before vaguely remembering the lawsuit by the Crichton estate. The main actors do a really good job physically inhabiting their characters versus the patients who seem like they're making the most out of their guest spot (though does that apply here when it's essentially one long episode?), which I also associate with ER!

Between the schizophrenic woman whose daughter abandoned her and the lady who's handcuffed for some reason, this show is slightly overpopulated with sassy senior citizens.

don’t worry, there are still some very tired and boring looking senior citizens in the waiting area

that demographic is probably the largest at the ER, right? that and parents with their injured/suddenly ill children

Making yourself sick to go to the ER to tell the ER doc your kid might be a school shooter was such a strange choice it seemed like a real life event one of the writers read about or something.

I enjoy hearing about asystole again, I haven't heard that word since ER

this show is slightly overpopulated with sassy senior citizens.

― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Wednesday, February 12, 2025 1:52 PM (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I invite you to spend 14 hours in an actual emergency room

It could be a specific character thing, but it could also be the same reason a lot of the characters don't wear surgical masks as much as you'd expect around some of the patients, that facial expressions are a large part of acting when audiences expect to see them

It's a really good point and underscores the limitations of "realism." For example, I finally saw "Society of the Snow" last night (it's harrowing but great), and we kept wondering why the characters, despite being in sub-zero weather, were not wrapping their heads with anything they could find, but really it might have just been the practical considering of allowing us to be able to tell one bearded, goggled character from another.

Yeah, I always assume that's why in space films their helmets always have bright lights that point into their faces, which is not what you think you would want in a space helmet.

I also wondered if Doctor Robbie might have a bit of a "well, if it happens it happens" feeling, but also he might be like sailors of old, who never learned to swim because you'd only be prolonging the inevitable.

Keep in mind, he ended the last season borderline suicidal and is planning a long sabbatical after this season's "day." He's having a rough time.

the plaque in the foyer that Robby paused in front off was honoring the Emergency Department’s heroism handling the Pittfest shooting aftermath

so there’s that

it’s established that his grip on himself is tenuous at best despite how great he is at his job so this just seemed like ramming that point home in a single shot without having to recap the end of last season etc (and yes as you say JiC then the capper like a minute and a half later of the guy with road rash who’s told to always wear his helmet)

this GQ interview w Wyle is really interesting - lot of stuff i hadn’t heard before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cgd99yLijQ

Man, for a guy that was off my radar for so long (and tbh was never on my radar that much; didn't really watch ER), Wyle has become such a thoughtful, empathetic (relatively) elder statesman. I love people like this (like Springsteen, for example), who didn't go to college or embrace higher education (or any traditional education, really) but somehow came about their wisdom and intelligence and curiosity naturally, through life, through experience.

otm

hurry up

Aaaaand two episodes in and we've got our first penis of the season.

Amazing priapism scene - they must have needed to shoot a few takes to keep the giggles to a minimum

lol that was really something!

i feel dumb not realizing that that was how you treated it. way more labor-intensive than I realized

but guys, i’m worried about Louie. he seemed kinda short of breath at the end there…

oh and popping that dislocation back in was cool as hell

Yeah, the dislocation was crazy.

Robbie's teasing of Al-Hashimi (like in the scene with the baby) are riiiiight on the edge of open hostility. That relationship's gonna go very far south in a couple of hours and it's already extremely nerve-wracking to watch.

This season is already so good.

The priapism scene... I know the frontal male nudity barrier was broken on HBO years ago, but is that the first erect one shown?

i would like to unwatch the maggots though D: D:
i dont know why i didnt expect it but that was real hands over the eyes tell me when its gone moment

I assumed roaches.

hate for things to be predictable but at some point smarty new guy is gonna get a come-uppance and slacking Joy is going to do something amazing right? Because they're telegraphing her incompetence WAY too much.

maybe Joy is a spy from admin & she’s filming them

I wasn't expecting maggots; I was expecting roaches or maybe another rat.

I don't think Joy is incompetent, she just seems lazy and DGAF, which makes me wonder how she made it all the way through medical school. I would like to see smartypants new guy go down a Whitaker-in-season-1 gauntlet of bodily fluids.

otm

OR give him the Jerry in ER treatment & get a horse to poop in his face for lols

Yeah I thought something was going to leap out of the cast, but the maggots were somehow worse...

A co-worker noted the following today, "the fact that there were none in Heated Rivalry but a lot in The Pitt is expert level trolling by HBO".

Not saying they need to handle another huge mass casualty incident this season. I assume the writers wouldn't be that formulaic. But the bacon grease stock car family had me imagining a grisly pile-up at PA Motor Speedway.

Very proud to have called (while catching up tonight) the maggots! Think the baby cliffhanger from last week to this episode was some BS, tbh. You don't end episode one with her literally rendered speechless, and even have another doctor bring it up this episode, and then not resolve why she was so concerned.

Smartypants new guy is going to turn out to be fine, especially once we inevitably get his sympathetic origin story. Or, who knows, maybe he and prodigy will get locked in an elevator or something. Joy ... she doesn't make sense yet, to have made it this far but to be so checked out.

My prediction for the know-it-all intern is that he is going to fuck up badly and then have a very difficult time recovering from his error.

That's so obvious I could totally seem them going that direction, lol. Or he does a great job but still gets a dressing down for doing it at the expense of others on his team. Or maybe he'll have a drug addiction, lol. Or get locked in an elevator. Or do something heroic, like stay behind to defuse the bomb baby.

"I've learned everything there is to learn about medicine. I know more than all of you combined. No, it's true, I do. And I understand that that makes me unlikable. But if there's one thing I've learned from this ER, it's that life is about more than just knowing everything, and that friends can be more important than facts. And you know what? Learning that proves that I *don't* know everything. Now get out of here while I defuse this baby!"

i dont know why i didnt expect it but that was real hands over the eyes tell me when its gone moment

my wife screamed for probably one full minute

seen maggots a couple of times. usually under wound dressings in unhoused people — under a cast is a new one for me!

the maggots are what keeps your arm healthy

mh here for Big Maggot

I was surprised they didn't say this, mh.

Caught up the first ep - they must have changed the makeup team, everyone looks distractingly glam compared to the drawn and sallow look I loved in S1.

agree there’s a (v subtle) yassifying/netflixing where the contrast has been bumped just a little, the makeup sharpened just a little. it’s not super egregious tho imo

Maybe they're gonna do a sort of hyperreal makeup-assisted gradual thing of making the characters look worse later in the shift lol

An observation I had about broccoli guy and Dr. Robby butting heads with Dr. al-Hashimi: the lawsuit talk from previous scenes gets brought up again, with the seeming implication that al-Hashimi is a worse doctor, mainly interested in covering her own ass, compared to Robby who is flexible and responsive to his patients' needs... But that's not what's happening here at all! She wants the paralytic immediately because that's the standard of care; he wants to rule out all the easily fixed possibilities before committing to a course of action that will tie up more of the ED's limited resources. He's speaking from experience, but it's not medical experience, it's para-medical (heh), managerial, administrative stuff. And it could come back to bite him!

Second paragraph makes it sound like broccoli guy is butting heads, oof, bad writing.

Broccoli guy is written to be on Robby's "side" so to speak, with his post-save appearance to express gratitude and talk about his crazy overbearing wife. Women be nagging! First Gloria and now Dr. al-Hashimi...

My point in writing all this is that the show seems smart enough, and woke enough (cf last season's explicit discussions of implicit bias) to hopefully zag away from what it seems to be setting up: another woman of color, confident but clueless, serving as a season-long thorn in Dr. Robby's side.

An observation I had about broccoli guy and Dr. Robby butting heads with Dr. al-Hashimi: the lawsuit talk from previous scenes gets brought up again, with the seeming implication that al-Hashimi is a worse doctor, mainly interested in covering her own ass, compared to Robby who is flexible and responsive to his patients' needs... But that's not what's happening here at all! She wants the paralytic immediately because that's the standard of care; he wants to rule out all the easily fixed possibilities before committing to a course of action that will tie up more of the ED's limited resources. He's speaking from experience, but it's not medical experience, it's para-medical (heh), managerial, administrative stuff. And it could come back to bite him!

― Tell me who sends these infamous .gifs (bernard snowy), Monday, January 19, 2026 3:54 AM (nineteen hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I was wondering about that scene too. I'm not an expert in bronchoscopy, but a quick lit review I looked at yesterday suggested avoiding paralytics was not necessarily outside standard of care. the idea being avoiding more complications and intubation if the procedure is judged to be simple enough. as fate would have it I'm working tonight and the colleague I mentioned earlier is to, and I was just talking to him about the show and that scene in particular. he said he'd have gone with ketamine alone too

your point about the gendered dynamic is fair though. the sorts of people depicted that way do indeed suck, but they could have made one of them a guy

Think the baby cliffhanger from last week to this episode was some BS, tbh. You don't end episode one with her literally rendered speechless, and even have another doctor bring it up this episode, and then not resolve why she was so concerned.

This is an obvious setup for some personal or past ER trauma that will be fleshed out somewhere around hour seven.

xp I stand corrected! And I love imagining y'all (working in an ER? or other hospital setting?) talking about this medical drama.

Now I want a scene where all the juniors and the nurses and staff are talking about a case on a TV show. Okay not really, unless they can make it feel sort of organic, like season 1's ambulance theft betting pool

he’s an ER doc, I’m an internist, but 90% of the patients I see are in the ER since there are never any beds in the hospital, so I’m there all the time. he was a writer for jimmy kimmel before getting into medicine and also has a screenplay to a john cena movie to his credit, which I had no idea about. he was showing me some of his notes he was exchanging over email with the pitt writers, pretty cool though I eventually had to look away because I didn’t want spoilers!

my 17-y-o son is like why is it all the tings helping out the boner guy

at that moment dr al-hashimi walks in and he's like oh my god another one

tings?

that is london slang for "girls" which i personally find kind of offensive though my son keeps trying to reassure me that it's not

ah lol thx!

ting tings

this is old i think but i’m rewatching ER currently so this kinda hits

(pitt opening credits done ER style)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oRN_i77Ygk