The Pitt Season 1

Noah Wyle was an emergency room doctor on the first medical drama I can remember. He played John Carter on the aptly named ER. I was only a kid when I first saw the series and definitely didn't understand much of it. I just recall watching it religiously with my mom. Now, just about two decades later from when I first saw ER, Noah Wyle returns to an emergency room in the character of Dr. Michael "Robby" Robinavitch.

While the actor might be the same, the show itself is dramatically different from what I remember. I was just a kid and that's certainly a contributing factor. However, I remember much more focus on interpersonal drama and especially romance playing a role in ER. While there are elements of those in The Pitt, the entire season takes place in one day and that doesn't leave much room for them to really blossom. I do consider that a good thing.

Instead, the hour an episode format highlights many of the factors that our doctors have to go through in this day and age. From people diagnosing themselves to parents fighting against life saving procedures because of things they have read online, The Pitt does an amazing job handling these new struggles that Wyle's John Carter certainly didn't have to deal with too much on ER.

The entire season builds up to the crescendo that are episodes twelve through fourteen that cover 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM when a mass shooting event at a local concert floods the emergency room with over 100 victims. Without spoiling anything beyond that, the entire cast shined in those three episodes with all of them getting their own spotlight a time or two. All three episodes were anxiety inducing seeing what unfortunately too many of real life emergency rooms have likely dealt with more and more.