2025 was a mediocre year for movies, but television was HOT HOT HOT! And that all started in January of 2025 with the series premiere of THE PITT. This ER meets 24 HBO drama quickly took the place of THE BEAR in my psyche as the TV show that gives me the most anxiety while watching. And that isn’t a knock to THE BEAR, which I still love. I’ve just gotten used to nerve-racking kitchen chaos, and now I’m all stressed out about the life-or-death hospital chaos. Season 1 covered so much ground, I didn’t know where they would go this year. But THE PITT is back, and it’s better than ever.
I watched a lot of ER when it originally aired, especially in the early seasons. The same applies to the real-time show 24, which premiered in the early 2000s. Even before viewing a single frame, I was hopeful that THE PITT would be superb, and it is. Before tackling hour 2 of this season, I want to give the creators of this show some extra accolades for including actors and characters this week that are underrepresented on our screens. 8 AM features trans/non-binary actor Becca Blackwell as social worker Dylan Easton, and 2 disabled actors playing disabled characters: Christopher Thornton as Dr. Caleb Jefferson, and Diana Elizabeth Jordan as patient Linda Stevens. Visibility matters!
Now it’s important to know that I feel a deep sense of protection over the younger characters from season 1: Dr. King (Taylor Dearden), Dr. Whittaker (Gerran Howell), Dr. Javadi (Shabana Azeez), and Dr. Santos (Isa Briones). Like I DO NOT want anything bad to happen to them, each role is not only perfectly cast, but each of these characters is so well written and stands out in a series with a huge cast. The creators could have easily made them second fiddle to star Noah Wyle as Dr. Robby, but they’re fully fleshed people. Smart, naive, emotional, inexperienced, driven, and empathetic. The likability of each of them helps drive this show. It reminds me of when Wyle was introduced on ER as 3rd-year medical student John Carter, who became not only one of the most popular characters on the show but also on 90s television. And having THE PITT on HBO, where characters can speak and react more realistically than they could on a network TV show 30 years ago, really helps.
The doctors in THE PITT are only on their second hour of a long shift, and so much is already going on. I appreciate that the writers never back away from tough plotlines, and each separate thread is treated so thoughtfully that they’re all memorable in an hour filled with criss-crossing stories.
One of the overarching narratives this season involves the introduction of Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), an equal to Dr. Robby, who wants to introduce generative AI to the ER staff to supposedly make their jobs easier. I’m very curious about where this will all end up, because anyone who has used or even seen AI knows it’s never perfect, and any small mistake could cost a patient their life.
And then there’s all the injuries, blood, and the rest of the icky medical stuff that you can only see on HBO or a streaming network. THE PITT does show it all, so be warned, there’s a lot of that this week. And there’s even a patient with a symptom that has been played for laughs on other TV shows, but not here. Our doctors show genuine empathy as they care for a particular medical emergency that could have easily turned into a punchline.
THE PITT might take its inspiration from ER and 24, but it’s really unlike anything on TV right now. In a world with so many formulaic medical shows that solve their patients’ issues within 1 hour, the serial format here is winning.
THE PITT streams on HBO Max Wednesday nights starting at 9pm ET/6pm PT.
