The Pitt by HEART Review: SDMHI Substack
medical dramas I ever watched, in fact, I wonder if it played a role in me choosing my vocation. Over the past 20 years, I haven’t found a close second. But I might have found it in “The Pitt” now showing on Max.
The show opens with Noah Wyle (Robby) entering the ER, greeted by chaos. This is an all too familiar scene in the everyday life of an emergency physician – it is like feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders every time you start a shift. Same chaos, just a different day.
Some scenes are so familiar. Nurses speaking over the doctor in a foreign language, the crazy naked patient running around, the overenthusiastic residents and medical students— who cluelessly ask – is it usually so busy? – only to be met with an eye roll and a remark from a senior – it gets much busier.
The medical scenes are unnervingly accurate, the shifting camera reflecting the multiple distractions in the ER. For a moment, I felt like I was back at work. I even felt slightly nauseated from the stress.
What resonated most, though, was the part where Noah Wyle (Robby) met his colleague who had just completed a night shift on the hospital roof. His colleague was despondent, having just lost a young patient to a motor accident. He contemplates the brevity of life after spending the last two hours coding him and wonders if he can find the strength to continue this career.
Robby remarks, “This is the job that keeps on giving nightmares, ulcers, and suicidal tendencies.” How true this is.
I look forward to what the rest of the episodes have to offer. It will be an opportunity for emergency staff to watch an ER shift as spectators and reflect on why we keep going back every day. It will be an opportunity for the rest of the world to understand what actually goes on in “The Pitt”. In the show, the team takes a minute of silence after every patient death to show respect. Do we even have time to grieve? It is so realistic that I suggest you do not watch it if you need a break from work. You will be better off watching the suave surgeon on “The Trauma code – Heroes on call,” currently the top show on Netflix.
“The Pitt” is now showing on HBO Max.
