Some TV shows attract attention and awards due to hype or because they're at the forefront of a new trend. But others, like "The Pitt," receive accolades because of their expert craftsmanship and attention to detail. Nothing about it is particularly novel; even the real-time gimmick has been done before. However, it drips with quality, expertise, and meticulous craftsmanship. Episode 1 of Season 2, which begins at 07:00 A.M., reassuringly suggests that the award-winning HBO hit hasn't lost a single step during its hiatus.
Nothing has changed. The rhythm and pace are the same. Noah Wyle's Robby continues to guide us through the emergency department of The Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center (PTMC). The familiar faces from Season 1 are mostly back. There are brutal injuries and medical procedures immediately, but nobody seems particularly phased by them, nor by the little girl with suspicious injuries or the baby abandoned in the bathroom. These are people who have learned to expect the unexpected.
But some things have changed. AI is creeping into the emergency department, and Robby is trying to creep out. This is his last shift before a three-month sabbatical, and his replacement, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi), is at the forefront of all the cutting-edge newfangled ways of practicing medicine that don't exactly jive with Robby's maverick, laid-back approach. There's a conflict between these two and their contrasting methods on the horizon, I'm sure, but there's plenty more of the season to get into that. For now, Al-Hashimi mostly just follows Robby around to get a sense of how he works, while throwing out suggestions for campaigning against PTMC being jokingly—and accurately, in Robby's estimation—referred to as "The Pitt."
For his final shift, Robby has picked a doozy—the Fourth of July. Like Season 1, Season 2 of "The Pitt" unfolds in real-time across 15 hours, so even though Episode 1 mostly confines itself to patients with random injuries and old folks discovered during morning checks at retirement homes, you can virtually guarantee there's going to be some nasty firework business in the near future.
In the meantime, a lot of this premiere is about letting us see where everyone we recognize is at after the first season finale. Dana is largely unchanged, Mel is even more adrift than usual after being named for the first time in a malpractice lawsuit, something that is apparently a rite of passage but to her seems like the world is trying to swallow her up, and Samira's phone keeps going off (it's her mother).
However, some of the changes are far more profound. Whitaker has now become a resident, mentoring two students, and seems to be transformative in nature, resembling Robby himself. There's a delightful throwback when a patient from the nursing home with a DNR passes peacefully away, and Whitaker mandates a moment of silence while Robby, without his knowledge, watches from the doorway. Langdon also returns, but Robby is admittedly a bit less proud of him. He's back from a period of rehab and is on an apology tour, confessing to repeat alcoholic patient Louie that he stole his medication. Louie takes the news well, but Robby will be harder to convince.
It's only "7:00 A.M.", but we already have a handful of cases to keep our attention occupied. There's a grumpy guy with a possibly broken wrist and a potential head injury that McKay is trying to treat; at the moment, it's unclear what his injuries are, but one thing is certain - he doesn't want to be there. There's also a little girl brought in by her father's new-ish girlfriend, who has a cut on her chin and a list of other, older injuries that indicate potential abuse. Her urine sample is full of blood, which could indicate kidney damage caused by whatever left the giant bruise on her lower back or – gulp – vaginal damage. I'm not looking forward to this one developing.
Some cases are a bit lighter or perhaps won't be returned to – a nun with conjunctivitis offers incredibly believable makeup, but little narrative interest, and a very nasty-looking dislocation seems to be there just to elicit a wince from the crowd. But I'm already dreading the old lady with Alzheimer's being reunited with her husband, who I'm pretty sure was the DNR patient that Whitaker held a vigil for earlier, and I suspect we'll see more of the very dirty unhoused man whose smell is so pungent that it clears out half the ED.
And then there's the baby. Whatever's going on there seems to deeply unsettle Al-Hashimi, whose by-the-book attitude may very well be tested by whatever those results say. We're none the wiser until next week, though. Welcome to another shift at the Pitt. We're all in it together.
