Time Marches On (With Epic Cliffhangers) in The Pitt Season Two, Episode One, "7:00 A.M."
- Marielle Bokor
- 4 days ago
- 7 min read
In confessing my original reasoning for checking out The Pitt, I will immediately out myself as a lover of medical drama shows, going so far back as Doogie Howser, getting as corny as Diagnosis: Murder. I was that person getting infatuated with House, and…I've seen absolutely every single episode of E.R. multiple times.
Here’s my reasons for watching E.R. back in 1994 when it made its debut: I’m 12 (basically an adult) and this is a cool adult drama set in Chicago (which I then and still regard as the “coolest city on Earth). Anyway, add in a few doctor crushes, a whole bunch of natural curiosity for what it was like to work as a doctor or nurse, and any pre-teen’s love affair for “the drama” and you’ve hooked one for life. My reasons for watching The Pitt are eerily similar.
After all, they both have Noah Wyle. And you know what else they both do? A great job of making me recall the joy of “must-see-tv” and special event episodes of my past, and an even greater job at “the drama." The Pitt is great because it’s great TV, and it’s great because it’s spectacularly put together. It’s a clockwork of vignettes each with perfect timing and just enough intrigue, a whole deck of face cards with obvious chops acting their faces off, and the ability to say something intelligent and somewhat novel about it all.
As it turns out, “Noah Wyle’s in it” and “I like ER” are two very good reasons to watch The Pitt, and, honestly, two of the things that make it great. The Pitt is a flashy new HBO show, sure, and has the gorgeous cinematography and incredible team behind it that that entails, but it also understands what came before it, builds on it, and adds those little pieces of extra flair that get you gasping. Writing this while skipping the live feed of the Golden Globes, I’m gonna say right now it deserved every award it got, and so far I only know of the one for Best Actor in a Drama with, you guessed it, Noah Wyle. (Edit to add: The Pitt had a great night, winning Best Drama for Season 1)
It’s got everything I loved about all my favorite medical shows - a huge, beautiful cast of great actors both known and somewhat lesser known, a victory lap from Wyle that shows he’s got it all and he’s only getting better, and an impeccably written, impossibly exciting and action packed series that’s actually accurate and of its time, too.
Season 2 brings us right back in, after a night full of indecision, exhaustion and trauma - with a rockin’ coast into the ER on a motorcycle by Wyle. While they could’ve done “the next morning” we find out with a classic splash screen it’s July 4th and, through a quick walk down the hall where we see a plaque referencing the heroic actions of the Pitt staff during the shooting (ostensibly) we know it’s been a minute. Our day one newbs are clearly no longer newbs, and a new attending is in town. Uh-oh. We all know how that goes. A few “band name” jokes later we’re on the “new attending in town, nurses hate her” trope we’ve been super into on every other show. I’m taking the bait, she really seems like a know-it-all stick-in-the-mud, but also of course, impossibly gorgeous. She’s from the VA, and she invented patient passports.You can see how this is going already.. I eat a few more Cheez-Its. Oh my God, the first patient we let the new guys in DIED? Psych. It was a simulation. (See what the nostalgia does to me?)
Dr Robbie’s said about three words and she’s two into correcting him. This is gonna be great.
Without missing a beat we’re getting a few mid-level traumas so we can start guessing “who’s gonna crash first?” and both Dr. Robbie and our unknown quotient: Dr. Baran al Hashimi begin the stern vs. enlightened teacher battle. They trade passive aggressive teaching tips until Wyle comes out with this absolute killer of a burn and, while they’re working in a wide open chest on a beating heart, he says “Is the VA even a trauma center?”
Oh. My God. He really did say that. For the record, the VA is a trauma center - not for medic runs, but they walk in. Dr. Hashimi doesn’t even blink as she coolly responds with facts. Respect. They keep going tete a tete just short of an argument, I continue to eat Cheez-Its, and a cell phone goes off over and over again. Kids today. Cue risky-but-only-way lung turning procedure, and does that mean Dr. Robbie takes the point? It’s not that easy in this show.
The Pitt presents a lot of old medical show classics like competing attendings, complicated work relationships, doctor vs. administration - but it tips the clichés on their ear, and makes everything more meaningful. People act more like people than caricatures. Langdon returns to the fold, too, and not everyone’s ready to trust him again, but they at least try. The new nurse is shadowing one of our favorite characters in the entire show, Katherine LaNasa’s Nurse Dana Evans, who we established last season as someone who’s essentially the beating heart of the place, but who also suffered one too many assaults and was considering leaving. It’s great to have her back, and even better to see her with the newest of the new med students.
Just when you think everything’s going well, Dr. Robbie and Langdon butt heads for the first time, and where you expect a little grace, there isn’t. He’s not dealing with his addict friend, and instead is banishing him to triage. It’s an unexpected move for the “doctor who leads with his heart” but, again, that’s what makes it interesting. Meanwhile, Trinity, one of last season’s most complex and sometimes obnoxious students, continues to go big or go home and not understand when she doesn’t get all the attention.
While we still get the set pieces like “stinky homeless guy” we at least see him given compassion. If you’re getting into the Pitt for some good ol’ medical gore, you’ll get that though, and it won’t let up. I have to say that’s not my thing, but I am interested in the various conditions that come through the door and their solutions, and as I mentioned previously, I love trying to guess who’s most likely to take a turn.
I love the larger focus on the nurses in this season, with Katherine LaNasa doing a great job as an old hat who still cares, helping the young blood learn the ropes and survive her first day likely better prepared than our OG team of new docs, including learning things like STAMP to assess patients’ demeanor and identify threats.
I love how The Pitt continually pushes boundaries. Langdon directly addressing his addiction with a patient he stole from is interesting, if seeming rather risky for himself and the hospital. At the same time, we have a brand new baby left in the bathroom, causing a simmering, under the surface emergency while the entire ER searches for their parents and tries to address the child’s issues, and simultaneously, we see our first death of the season, which happens quietly and without all the blood and rush. It’s one of my favorite moments, because it’s played so well. An elderly patient goes V-TAC but has POLST orders in place, meaning no dramatic life-saving techniques. The only docs in the room are Whitaker, one of our favorite of S1’s fresh meat, and two of this year’s baby docs, both with a little bit of a bad bedside manner, who are now faced with not being able to perform any dramatic feats of doctory, and have to face death head on. It’s here that Whitaker reminds them, Robbie looking on from behind, that this is still a person, and they need to hold space for that in everything they do (or don’t do.) Is it a little heavy-handed? Sure. But it’s still a lesson worth reiterating in today’s world.
In the final stretch of the debut episode we get a kindly power pothead of an elderly woman with a surly son, and we see Santos struggling with a badly bruised young girl whose case seems open and shut for abuse. It’s the type of issue we know she struggles to let go, but it’s unclear whether this is cut and dried as it used to be.
Langdon’s alcoholic gets handed off to Whitaker, and we return our attention to the abandoned baby, and learn a few things about the Safe Haven law and what it means for babies over and under 28 days old - if that’s something that can be determined, and if it should mean a difference in care. The Pitt consistently challenges the status quo of our medical system while it challenges the tropes of a standard medical show, while also celebrating both, and it’s this linewalk that makes it as great as it is.
Instead of going rogue this time, Santos takes her potential abuse case to both attendings, who support her and hear her out on her care plan, which includes looking for more signs of trauma but involves the proper professionals from social work to also make their appearance.
Our stinky guy gets his glow-up with no shots at his humanity or need, and we encounter a bit of danger with a patient whose mental status we can’t quite figure out who’s just a little too kicky around Dr. McKay (Fiona Dourif) and though nothing happens per se, it’s not without the ominous undertone of something waiting to happen.
Back with the baby, everything seems fine until a note gets passed, and everything screeches to a halt….
Until next week.
And that’s a wrap, because it has to be. There’s never been a better use of this one hour at a time conceit, as much as I hate to wait one whole week to go one more hour into another shift.
After waiting so long for Season Two, such a classic mid-action cliffhanger infuriates me in all the best ways. We just got caught up with everyone, strings have been dangled, and just like with a real life trauma one ER (like the one I recently found myself in for six hours) there’s no telling just how many things can take a turn in just a little bit of time.
If you somehow missed The Pitt the first time around, I envy you and your ability to binge watch right through. I’d tell you to take your time but I know it’s a fool’s errand. With pacing so frenetic yet well managed, all the familiar trappings of a “medical drama” with more grounding and more twists, and a huge list of characters that are well thought out, it’s hard to stop once you start, unless you have to, like we who are “all caught up” do.
Until next time