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Join Telegram ChannelMore than 15 years after the closure of Cook County's emergency rooms, we immerse ourselves in those of Pittsburgh through this new medical series which shares the same DNA: that of the hyperrealistic chronicle of a profession on the verge of implosion.
What's up doctor? After failing to restart EMERGENCIES at the end of the pandemic – having failed to reach an agreement with Michael Crichton's beneficiaries – Noah Wyle and the producer John Wells decided to invent a new medical series. Chicago is over. It is now the Pittsburgh hospital which has come under the microscope in The Pittwhich has just debuted on the Max platform in France. More specifically, it is therefore the establishment's tense emergencies (“the pitt”, understand “the mine”, is the nickname given to emergencies in the United States) which serve as an electric arena for medical intrigues.
For 15 hours and 15 episodes, we live at the frenetic pace of the team of Doctor Michael “Robby” Rabinovich and his team. Inspired by the real-time concept – made famous by the series 24 Hours – each episode focuses on detailing an hour of a hectic shift, where doctors, interns, externs, nurses and patients coexist in precise chaos.
Hyper realistic, often trashy, the series will stop at nothing to immerse us in the exhaustion and tension of these caregivers on the front line. Certain very intense (not to say gory) scenes sometimes make you want to look away, as the pain is palpable, as the technical gesture borders on clinical brutality. Beyond the images, it is also the modern health system which is exposed in its smallest details and dysfunctions: lack of resources, administrative pressure, impossible ethical choices… The Pitt is a raw, unvarnished statement.
Borderline documentary at times, fiction fortunately takes over thanks to a fantastic gallery of protagonists in blouses drawn with almost surgical precision. We quickly learn to love the arrogant Dr. Langdon, the brilliant Dr. Mohan, the empathetic Nurse Evans, the uncomfortable Dr. King or the gifted little 20-year-old student… Even if he is true that it is difficult not to watch around the corner for the entry on stage of a Dr. Ross or a Dr. Greene, stethoscope beating the rhythm around their neck. But no, they won't come. The Pitt is not EMERGENCIES.
Even if it is good to EMERGENCIES that The Pitt borrows its DNA, reconnecting with a lost priority of the television medical genre: putting medicine at the center of the story. Far from the melodramatic excesses of Grey's Anatomy and its clones, the series goes back to basics. It's too much, some will say, as the dialogues are so technical. It's hard not to be drowned in so many medical terms, drug names and care procedures. Half the time, we don't understand what they decide, why some nod their heads and others inject a particular product. But that was already the case with EMERGENCIES. And we all learned on the job what “NFS, chemistry, iono” meant, from hearing Doctor Carter shout it to his interns between two fibrillations.
There, Noah Wyle no longer called Carter, but he is still as consumed by the job, carrying his charisma into this chaotic arena where everything seems on the verge of imploding at any moment. He is the conductor of lives on borrowed time. With his hands nonchalantly buried in the pockets of his hoodie, he directs, commands, supports, yells, like the boss of the EMERGENCIES that he has always been for us. Even though we know that a white coat does not make a doctor, at this stage, we would be ready to let him operate on us with an open heart!
The Pitt, season 1, in 15 episodes, to watch on Max from January 10, 2025.