The Pitt review: Noah Wyle’s compelling medical drama evokes deja vu, but that’s not a bad thing

If you hear that actor Noah Wyle and producer John Wells has teamed up with Warner Bros to make a medical drama set in an emergency department, of course you’re going to be hit with a wave of deja vu.

So what looks like ER, quacks like ER but isn’t ER? The Pitt.

Where The Pitt differs is its structure. It borrows from 24 in that each episode represents one hour, this time in a 15-hour shift in an ER in a Pittsburgh hospital.

Wyle plays Dr Michael Rabinavitch, but everyone calls him Dr Robby. He’s the doctor in charge of a throng of nurses, including head nurse Dana Evans (Katherine LaNasa), the residents and a team of newbie student doctors on their first shift.

It’s chaos the moment the clock ticks over. The waiting room is full of would-be patients, some of whom become increasingly agitated as the hours go by, including one man who actually says he should be given priority because he has “better” insurance than other people. America, right?

In the 10 episodes out of 15 made available for review, the staff deal with a range of patients, including a young drowning victim, a non-English speaking woman who was pushed off a train platform, two university students who overdosed, a woman worried about her son’s mental state, a woman who may be the victim of sex trafficking, two joyriders who stole an ambulance and a man his wife suspects of molesting their daughter.

Some of the cases stretch over half the season while others are in and out. But each of these scenarios reveal something about the core characters we’re following as they go about their jobs. While one is told to leave their personal experiences out of the room, another revels in it.

The Pitt patiently and deftly reveals who these people are, showing the audience rather than telling them. It’s excellent character work.

Wyler’s Dr Robby bears the trauma of losing his mentor and friend to COVID in the same hospital and this shift is the anniversary of that death. Fiona Dourif’s Dr McKay is a fourth-year resident with a history of addiction, Dr Collins (Tracy Ifeachor) is trying to hide her pregnancy, while Patrick Ball’s Dr Langdon is a hot-shot star doctor who is clashing with the brash student Dr Santos (Isa Briones).

Young Dr Javad (Australian actor Shabana Azeez) is a prodigy and only 20 years old but has the determination to prove her worth on her own, especially when the others discover her mother is a formidable surgeon at the same hospital.

This is all unfolding against the backdrop of an emergency room under challenge and under-resourced with the spectre of its administrator (Michael Hyatt) threatening to sell it to a corporate group which will devalue patient care over profit even further.

The Pitt is a slick, almost throwback TV series that captivates with its well-paced balance of multiple storylines and characters. It goes down very easily.

How much does it remind you of ER? More than a little. But ultimately that’s not even for us to decide but for either the courts or the army of lawyers who are battling it out over a copyright lawsuit.

Oh yes, The Pitt is being sued by the widow of Michael Crichton, who co-created ER, and it’s being alleged that Wyle, Wells and Warner Bros had been working with the Crichton estate on an ER reboot or revival when the deal went south. Not long after, The Pitt emerged.

For audiences, the similarities work in The Pitt’s favour, which, at the very least, carries with it the goodwill of its association with Wyle and Wells and their legacy from one of the most iconic medical dramas of all time.

There’s been something of a surge of scripted medical shows in the coming months which also includes St Denis Medical, a Scrubs reboot, Watson, Doc and Brilliant Minds. Perhaps we are all ready to stride back into those hospital rooms after COVID turned everyone off from ever having to look at a face mask again.

If you’re worried The Pitt will be too triggering because of its COVID flashbacks, don’t worry, it’s used very sparingly.

The Pitt is on Binge from Friday, January 10