The Pitt

I worked in EMS after training at a large teaching hospital. I rarely watch medical shows because the portrayal of medicine is so dumbed-down and inaccurate. I understand that it's a show and some license will be taken, but at least put in some effort to help me suspend disbelief. The Pitt puts in major effort to get it right (which I expect from creator of 'Southland' John Wells, one of the few cop shows that did it more accurately than most). ER's are places of extreme excitement, sadness and humor (the rat scene alone beat many comedies made today). It's fun to be a couple episodes into a medical show and looking forward to more instead of rolling my eyes and moving on.

Being Hollywood we get the usual moralizing, but most shows lecture while delivering inane dialogue with one dimensional characters. Give me a solid story in a realistic setting with great characters and I can sit through a fair share of finger-wagging. It's great seeing Noah Wylie in a hospital again, especially as a veteran doctor surrounded by fresh-faced medical rookies like he was in ER. The acting has been great from everyone. I recognize so many of these personalities from a career around this environment. The Pitt is a great new show.

I never watched many medical shows until I retired. Didn't want to bring the hospital home with me. Shows like House may have had good actors but were unrealistic fantasies when it came to real medicine. After retiring I watched all 15 seasons of ER over a few months. That show captured the reality of ER medicine as well as hospital politics, although it compressed time. Things happen fast, but not that fast or intense over an entire day, and not nearly as many open chest heart massages occur. But you really did get to see what it was like. Now The Pitt brings the same flavor of show as ER was. So if you enjoyed watching ER, you will like this.

I'm a board certified EM physician who has worked in big trauma centers and small but busy community ER's. Most medical shows are hyper unrealistic, which normally leads to absurd requests from patients. I'm only one episode in, but this is the first show (besides scrubs) that paints an accurate picture of what it's like to work in emergency medicine. Bravo to the consultants they got for this one; clearly they consulted an emergency medicine physician or three. I look forward to watching the rest of the series. Future medical series should follow in The Pitt's footsteps and actually consult a real physician if you want it to be accurate.

There are a million doctor/hospital shows out there so you really need to be special to stick out and The Pitt absolutely does that. It's not hyperbole when I say it's by far the most realistic hospital show that's ever been made. I'll be shocked if this show doesn't get nominated for a bunch of awards, especially Noah Wyle in the lead role. I've always like Wyle but this is career defining performance. He's fantastic in every scene. I'm a binged, I love to binge watch shows, so much so that even for the shows that come out weekly I wait until the entire season is over before I start it so I can binge it. This is the first show I've ever seen that I can only watch a few episodes at a time because of how intense each mood each episode is. I'll still watch a few episodes each day and binge the entire season within 5 or 6 days but it's a work out doing it. I'm so glad that people have enjoyed it so much that it's already been renewed for another season.

The Pitt is easily the best hospital series I've ever seen. It's been praised up and down by just about everyone and for good reason. It currently has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. This show will have you in your feelings so much by the time you finish even one episode you'll be as exhausted as the employees of The Pitt. I didn't think the every episode is an hour (like 24) would work for a medical show but I was wrong. It not only works but is a big reason why this series is so good. The pacing of each episode makes them fly by. No show or movie you've ever seen will prepare you for the experience of watching The Pitt. With how many medical series that have been made it's amazing that the genre was able to come out with such an original show as The Pitt.