Let me start by praising The Pitt, the riveting medical series now streaming on HBO Max. The lead character, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, is the senior attending physician at the emergency department of a fictional Pittsburgh hospital. Each episode follows him and his team of attending physicians, nurses, residents, and medical students through one hour of a hellish 15-hour shift. And by the end, Dr. Robby’s self-awareness, self-control, empathy for others, and cool expertise have made him the doctor we all want to see in a crisis.
Noah Wyle, who co-created The Pitt and stars as Dr. Robby, is best known for having played Dr. John Carter in ER, the beloved medical series that ran on the NBC broadcast network from 1994 to 2009. After that marathon role, Wyle vowed never to play another doctor. But during the pandemic, he and veteran ER producers John Wells and R. Scott Gemmill got together on Zoom to deplore what they saw as the ill-informed opposition to masks, vaccines, and other efforts to contain the Covid virus. They vowed to “make a show that brings back into sharp focus what an objective medical fact is.”
Comments