New Hit Medical Drama On Max Breaks The Mold Thanks To Brilliant Gimmick
One of the greatest shows in history is ER, a medical drama that created the mold for the entire genre, but after 15 seasons and over 300 episodes, the series came to an end in 2009. Ever since, different medical dramas have taken a stab at becoming the next big thing, from The Good Doctor to Chicago Med, with mixed results. Debuting on Max on January 29, The Pitt dares to be different for a medical drama by embracing the “24-hour” gimmick, with each episode following one hour during the shift of Dr. Michael “Robby” Rabinavitch.
Real-Time Emergency Room
Played by ER breakout star Noah Wyle, Robby is the center of the chaotic maelstrom of a daily shift at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Hospital, the first on the floor for most of the characters in the cast. The patients have maladies ranging from a leg that was degloved, laced fentanyl killing college students, a nail in the heart of a construction worker, to an old man with gallstones. During the interactions with each patient, the large cast of doctors and med students gets to shine, showing their personalities and character traits as they bounce off the various medical issues.
In most medical dramas, the patients are the least essential part of the series, which will inevitably focus on either doctors hooking up or a gifted and talented medical prodigy. The Pitt, thanks to the quasi-real-time gimmick, barely stops to breathe to give the medical staff a chance to form any relationships at all, never mind a romance. Turns out, the solution to the predictable and dull medical drama was adding a running clock.
While The Pitt’s time gimmick is different, and currently, audiences are only three hours into the ten-hour shift, it’s the show’s status as a Max streaming original that lets it do something no other network drama can do: show blood and guts. The leg degloving is, hideously, depicted throughout the first hour as the leg looks worse and worse, giving the crew a chance to show off their practical effects skills. There’s no telling how far the show will go by the end of its first season, but seeing massive amounts of blood on-screen during a medical drama can be a bit of a shock for those raised on ER and Chicago Hope.
Already One Of Max’s Most Successful Shows
Between the episode gimmick and the abundance of blood, the cast of The Pitt brings the type of humanizing touch you’d expect from a medical drama. Isa Briones, Data’s daughter from Picard, and Fiona Dourif from Chucky are two of the more recognizable doctors, but it’s Gerran Howell as med student Dennis Whitaker, that stands out in the first three episodes as he goes through a rite of passage in his first shift. Noah Wyle, back at home on the set of a hospital, is exceptional as Robby, and will immediately make you think of Dr. John Carter, but there’s more to his character that has yet to be revealed, with hints of a dark experience lurking in his past.
The Pitt reinvents the medical drama, and for the first three hours of Robby’s shift, it’s been an enthralling thrill ride that has already become one of the top five most streamed shows in Max history. Critics gave the show a 92 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes through the first three episodes, with the public right behind, at 91 percent fresh. Now that The Good Doctor has come to an end, Noah Wyle’s return to the emergency room will be the next big thing.
The Pitt is now streaming on Max, with new episodes airing every Thursday.
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