Earlier than “The Pitt” debuted on HBO Max, Warner Bros. and the present’s creators confronted a lawsuit from Sherri Crichton, widow of “Jurassic Park” writer Michael Crichton. The author beforehand created “ER,” which starred Noah Wyle as Dr. John Carter and was written and produced by R. Scott Gemmill alongside John Wells, who additionally served as its showrunner. These are the identical males liable for growing “The Pitt,” and the Crichton property wasn’t precisely joyful about them making what they noticed as a blatant “ER” rip-off.
In the event you ask Wells, Wyle, and Gemmill, nonetheless, they’d a really particular aim in thoughts with “The Pitt” — one which clearly separates the present from “ER.” As Wyle informed Selection, “Our intent with ‘The Pitt’ is to look at and contribute to the general public dialogue on the challenges dealing with emergency medical suppliers within the post-COVID world.” Within the collection, we see this represented by way of Wyle’s character, Dr. Michael Robinavitch or Dr. Robby. The senior attending doctor on the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Middle ER skilled the loss of life of his mentor first-hand through the international pandemic and remains to be reeling from the expertise all through season 1 of “The Pitt.”
However whereas this need to showcase the impact that COVID had on docs is central to “The Pitt,” the present feels prefer it’s about a lot greater than this. Certain, we see the gradual breakdown of Dr. Robby, however it’s propelled by an entire lot past the lingering reminiscence of getting to drag the plug on his mentor. All through season 1, which depicts a full 15-hour shift within the ER, Dr. Robby and his staff are confronted with myriad tragedies and traumas, all of which coalesce right into a type of ever-growing darkness looming over their day. By the tip, then, we get an actual sense of simply how laborious it’s to be an ER physician, whatever the international pandemic. In a bigger sense, the present seems to be making a degree about how we are able to by no means actually know what sort of pressures individuals are dealing with or what they are going by way of of their private lives. For Gemmill, who’s credited because the creator of “The Pitt,” it appears that evidently this was the actual level of creating the collection.
The Pitt is about greater than realism
A giant a part of what makes “The Pitt” so efficient is its outstanding medical accuracy. By the tip of the primary season, you are feeling as if you happen to’ve witnessed a shift in an precise ER play out in actual time, which very a lot looks like the purpose of the present, particularly contemplating Noah Wyle’s feedback concerning the experiences of docs in a post-pandemic world. (It additionally helps that “The Pitt” has a secret weapon for retaining issues extraordinarily sensible.) However the collection clearly is not simply an try at recreating the realities of the ER on a Warner Bros. soundstage. There’s one thing greater at play behind the hassle to showcase the struggles of ER docs, and R. Scott Gemmill has an perception into what that may be.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the present creator was requested what he would love viewers to get from the present and highlighted hope as a very powerful take-away. “I wish to suppose that our present provides hope,” he remarked, “Not to surrender, that there is nonetheless actually good folks on the market.” Gemmill went on to spotlight the “divisive” time wherein we reside, including:
“And but, there are folks, nice folks, working, 24/7 across the clock to be there once we want them, our first responders. And I’d simply hope that individuals respect that. And if there is a unhappy episode the place anyone dies and it makes you are feeling one thing, then use that chance to name your mother, hug your children, and keep reconnected with one another.”
Whereas “The Pitt” is filled with tragedy and heartbreak, a few of which is actually gut-wrenching to expertise, Gemmill sees his present as in the end attempting to supply one thing constructive, which fits past merely displaying audiences how laborious it’s to be a health care provider.
The Pitt writers need you to be kinder to folks
In his Hollywood Reporter interview, R. Scott Gemmill went on to restate the significance of hope to “The Pitt” and the way he himself hopes that it’s going to encourage audiences:
“I feel that is a very powerful factor for us is simply to offer a hopeful hour of tv that possibly makes you concentrate on being slightly nicer or kinder to somebody in your life. If we might try this, then we have carried out job.”
Whereas the impetus for creating the collection may nicely have been the worldwide pandemic and its impact on the medical group, clearly “The Pitt” grew into one thing extra because it developed. Dr. Robby is absolutely the one member of the staff whose pandemic recollections are proven in any element. The remainder of the characters on “The Pitt” are all coping with their very own issues, which run the gamut from workaholism to drug habit. In the end, this array of non-public points solely helps to reinforce that feeling that you simply by no means actually know what somebody goes by way of. Certain, it is Dr. Robby who finally has a panic assault and fully breaks down, however you get the sensation that any one of many ER workers might find yourself in that very same place after spending sufficient time of their career. When coupled with the present’s outstanding capability to make its characters really feel like actual folks, it is a very efficient technique to evoke empathy from the viewers and speaks to Gemmill’s need to affect folks to be kinder of their private lives.
“The Pitt” additionally conveys its message about being kinder to folks in way more simple phrases. At one level, for instance, Taylor Dearden’s Dr. Melissa King visits a affected person with autism and manages to ship a lot better care than Patrick Ball’s Dr. Frank Langdon just by being calmer, kinder, and extra empathetic. It feels slightly didactic on the present’s half, however it additionally bolsters the try to encourage kindness amongst audiences
Demonstrating the challenges confronted by healthcare employees was clearly an enormous motivating pressure behind “The Pitt” then. However the broader themes of kindness and empathy are the actual guiding ideas right here — which we might all the time do with extra of. If solely we did not have to attend till 2026 for “The Pitt” season 2, which has been formally greenlit.
