TV’s best drama is back – and yes, we’re still in safe hands

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The Pitt (season two) ★★★★½

In healthcare, a lot of value is rightfully placed in “continuity of care”. It’s the belief that patients are best served by building relationships with regular physicians, people who have all the right information and expertise – and most importantly, those who have earned your trust. The same is true in TV.

The Pitt proved this in its first season, a word-of-mouth hit enriched by the creative talent and experience of ER alum including R. Scott Gemmill, Joe Sachs and Noah Wyle. But this much-celebrated medical drama is even better in its second season, delivering the required doses of raw emotion and unflinching gore (it’s just nine minutes until a man’s chest is casually opened like a book) and now operating from a more stable base of characters we already know and are ready to root for. And better yet, we only had to wait a year to see them again.

Noah Wyle returns as Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch in season two of The Pitt.

This season takes place 10 months after the events of season one, with all the action going down on a Fourth of July holiday. It’s Dr Robby’s (Wyle) last shift before riding his motorbike off into a well-earned three-month sabbatical, prompted by his breakdown during the mass shooting the last time we saw him. And, just like a movie cop one day out from retirement, that means he’s bound to have another rough day.

It’s also Dr Langdon’s (Patrick Ball) first shift back after a mandatory break to treat the prescription pill addiction that got him dramatically kicked out of the ER, and charge nurse Dana (Katherine LaNasa) is thankfully still at her station despite intimations that the PittFest shooting – never mind the carpark assault – was her last straw. The effects of that day are deeply felt, though only occasionally addressed in the show, with each character scarred, strengthened or humbled in small yet affecting ways.

One drawback of the first season, necessitated by the real-time structure, was the way each character was overburdened with expository dialogue, often summing up grand motivations and morals in load-bearing lines that felt clunkily counter to the naturalistic action. There’s less of that this time around. Though there’s no shortage of topical cases and issues to discuss: from the application of AI in medicine to the collection of evidence for sexual assault, the quality of care for incarcerated or unhoused patients and the profound failures of US health insurance. The show wears its politics proudly.

And yes, it will also test the limit of how many notable things can happen in one day. After viewing nine of the season’s 15 episodes, I can tell you the ER is being further pushed to breaking point by two events I haven’t even mentioned above. But it’s a credit to the construction of the series that this onslaught of drama doesn’t feel too indulgent or saccharine.

Katherina LaNasa (right) returns to the second season of The Pitt.

In a more soapy drama like Grey’s Anatomy (no shade, I’m still watching), each of these cases would be drawn out over a full episode, wrung for tears. But here, you’re given about 20 seconds to sit in horror or grief before the camera whips to the next crisis, allowing just enough time to catch a purposeful glance from another character on its way.

Much has been made of the way that this show struck a chord with healthcare workers – the creative team is committed to total veracity and has captured the true nature of this hard work. But it’s also a hugely affecting watch for anyone who’s been on the receiving end of that care.

Watching these episodes it wasn’t a death or major trauma that made me break, it was the way a nurse offhandedly embraced a patient’s family member who was struggling to understand what was happening around her. I know what that hug feels like. For me, it came from the overnight nurses at the Royal Children’s Hospital who took my (now healthy) baby from my hands and allowed me to sleep; the emergency room doctor who took time to give me a sandwich and a breast pump at 3am. For you, it’ll probably be something else; some small detail or quiet moment you’ve never seen fully rendered on screen.

Believe the hype. This show resonates for a reason.

The Pitt returns to HBO Max on January 9.