Culture Crash: Why “The Pitt” Stands Out From So Many Other Medical Shows

Last year, HBO Max’s new series The Pitt was a little medical TV show that could. It was touted for being a Noah Wyle star vehicle that put him back in an emergency room and surrounded him by a cast of relative unknowns to deliver one of the simplest pleasures we have: a fun week-to-week TV drama. What happened next was The Pitt became an absolute juggernaut, eventually winning both the Golden Globe and the Emmy for best drama series.

Now the show is attempting to follow their stunning success up with a second season. Part of what gives me confidence in The Pitt’s season two is that the formula behind The Pitt isn’t a big secret. Every week, audiences get interesting medical cases. Over the course of the season, simmering tensions will build and various plot threads will all start coming to a head at the same time. Many of the episodes will end on a cliffhanger, and audiences will wait on baited breath to find out if everything’s going to be okay. Sometimes, it won’t be.

I don’t mean to sound dismissive, because this is exactly what so many of us want out of a TV series. Highly serialized prestige dramas can be wonderful outliers, but traditionally TV has been an art form defined by consistency. If I’m going to tune in on a weekly basis, I usually want to have some inkling of what’s going to be in store. This is similar to how beloved hospital shows – like ER or Grey’s Anatomy – have played out in the past, but it’s also worked across genre for shows like LOST or The West Wing.

**I don’t know every twist and turn The Pitt has in store for us this year, but I know I’ll watch with eager anticipation every time.

The Pitt streams on HBO Max.

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