Caveat Emptor: Frank discussion of depression, trauma, self-harm, suicidal ideation and sexual assault.
The older I get, the more fucked up the world gets, the more I reflect on my personal heroes and how they’ve evolved as I’ve aged. When I was 6 my heroes were Batman and Doctor Strange. At 12 it was The Doctor. At 16 I started looking for real world heroes (though I still admire the fictional ideal.) Ulysses Grant, Ernest Hemingway, Hedy Lammar, Rosa Parks. All worthy heroes, certainly. But now, starting down the barrel of 27 years and life not getting any easier, I find myself admiring more down to earth figures. Mr. Rodgers, John Candy, Rosa Parks still. The people who were just good, salt of the earth types just trying to do good and spread joy through their lives.
As a sort of segue, I’m thinking of “good people” as a theme while watching the second season of the Pitt. A few posts back I made the comment that the Pitt was essentially the story of side characters being presented as the main characters. I’ll hold to that, but I will amend that statement to say that the second season includes a greater depth of character to the protagonists of the show, as any good second season should.
The Pitt is defined emotionally by two interlinked themes, empathy and trauma. As healthcare workers, the characters of the Pitt must have empathy for their patients, and give them the best possible care. But that doesn’t mean that their patients have empathy, and that’s a major source of stress. Well, that and the causally horrifying amount of death they deal with on daily basis. The first season opened by examining how the healthcare workers at the Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center were scarred by the COVID-19 pandemic. Some have adapted to cope healthily with the trauma, some are struggling. The first season closed by re-traumatizing the main cast with an overwhelming mass casualty event. That trauma, and many, many interpersonal conflicts hang over the second season.
Interpersonal conflicts. Ooof. Remember that empathy I spoke of before? Just as much as the patients don’t exactly have empathy for their caregivers, the doctors and nurses of the Pitt don’t always have empathy for their coworkers.
E.R. veteran Noah Wyle deserves a hell of a lot of praise for his performance as Dr. Robby, the Pitt’s troubled lead. Last season saw him finally break down after barely holding himself together since the pandemic. It’s not a pretty sight. Now, he’s on the verge of a 3 month sabbatical, and he’s eager to go, he needs the vacation. But he can’t let himself leave the Pitt. He seems to show the biggest change in character between the two seasons, while he remains polite with patients, his frustrations with doctors, nurses and other caregivers frequently boil over. Over the course of the season it’s heavily implied that he’s planning on hurting himself on the trip, possibly killing himself. Yet he confesses to a friend that his active suicidal thoughts happen while he’s working. He just wants to ride off and doesn’t really care about the future at this point.
Of course it doesn’t help that the Pitt season 2 is set over the 2026 July holiday weekend, (2 months away guys) and it’s busier than usual. When cyberattacks at nearby hospitals force the Pitt to shut down their computer systems and treat patients with analogue systems, everyone feels the crunch.
Returning characters from the first season are welcome, even if they all face their own demons. Dana (played by Katherine LaNasa), the charge nurse running the whole emergency department is a welcome face, but she has her own traumas to face. (She’s my favorite character, not going to lie.) Last season she was brutally assaulted by an unhappy patient and has started carrying a tranquilizer syringe to protect herself and her nurses. She goes full Mama bear to protect new nurse Emma (Laëtitia Hollard), who is assaulted by patients at two separate points. (Emma seems fine by the end of season, but who knows what the future holds.) Dana’s calm facade snaps when she’s protecting Emma, but otherwise she remains the steady rudder guiding the Pitt, teaching nurses how to deal with patients with great care and empathy. Episode 7 and 8 of the are their highlights; Emma and Dana collect evidence from a rape survivor, and are shown to treat her with great humanity.
The doctors in training return from last season, with more layers of their personality onions being stripped away. Dr. Trinity Santos (Isa Briones) continues with her abrasive personality, this time struggling to keep up with her charting and the difficulties of her private life. She is responsible for exposing another doctor’s drug habit and feels the pressure of silent judgment from her peers. She’s implied to be self-harming from the pressure, and out of all the characters, doesn’t seem to be able to ask for help.
Victoria Javadi (Shabana Azeez) struggles to pick a specialization as she ends her fourth years of medical school, dealing with the pressure of her mother’s overbearing expectations and her father’s quieter pressures. Dr. Mel King (Taylor Dearden) struggles with being named in a malpractice lawsuit, and general loneliness stemming from her sister moving on in life. Dr. Cassie McKay (Fiona Dourif) shows a little more stability than last season, proving herself a competent doctor with (possibly) a better love life than last season. Dr. Dennis Whitaker (Gerran Howell) has grown since last season, showing more confidence in his procedures while also demonstrating great empathy in dealing with patients and fellow doctors. One great moment in particular shows Whittaker comforting a traumatized new doctor who just lost in first patient in the worst way possible. This new doctor, Ogilvie (Lucas Iverson) is cocky and flippant, if competent enough, but losing his first patient on the table pushes him over the edge. Whitaker, who had been annoyed by Ogilvie’s attitude all day, comforts him, advising him on how to deal with the difficulty.
Also returning is Dr. Frank Langdon, (Patrick Ball) the addict that Santos exposed last season. He’s just completed rehab and is back to work, but isn’t as confident as he used to be. While he tries to make amends with his colleagues and patients, he’s distressed by the pushback he receives. Dr. Santos in particular doesn’t want him back, and Dr. Robby doesn’t trust him. The season implies he might relapse into drug use, but he manages to survive the day without relapsing.
This second season introduces a few new characters, Dr. Baran Al-Hashimi (Sepideh Moafi) being the most important. She’s poised as Dr. Robby’s replacement while he’s on sabbatical, and the two don’t exactly get along. Dr. Al-Hashimi wants to update the Pitt, and while Dr. Robby resents to the intrusion, her suggestions aren’t exactly unfounded, even if they’re not always good suggestions. For instance she pushes an AI transcription software to help with charting and ordering medications. But, she notes, doctors still have to proof read the transcription as it’s only 98% accurate, apparently. This plotline doesn’t feel like a cheap shot at AI, by the way. It’s depicted more as an active experiment than a takeover, even if it’s not that helpful. Dr. Al-Hashimi is at least depicted as being right in her criticisms of Dr. Robby's brusqueness and occasionally harsh moments. She's a great character and I hope she's in the next season.
So it’s another stressful day at the Pitt. People clash, tensions and the temperature rise. And yet, through it all I find myself marveling over the small moments. An important plot point early in the first season shows the death of a man who worked on Mr. Rodgers’ Neighborhood, and his children finally bonding over his deathbed. That idea of being a neighbor, and bringing people some form of kindness and comfort remains an important theme in the second season, and, frankly, it’s why I watch The Pitt. You can talk about the show’s subtle (or not so) politics, or realistic approach, or it’s phenomenal writing (mostly; my one niggle with the show is there’s an occasional moment where the dialogue feels like it’s addressing the audience instead of the other characters. It isn’t frequent but feels awkward to hear; however I’m willing to give it a pass because it usually happens when the characters are speaking about some kind of industry failure and how they have to deal with it. If it takes fourth wall break to get effective change in the real world, I’m all for it.) You can and should talk about all of that. But I’m going to talk about the quiet moments of humanity.
I mentioned Whitaker comforting Ogilvie, but he also encourages Langdon and helps him regain confidence. A Muslim nurse comforts a Jewish burn victim who suffers PTSD from the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. The hospital staff help an overweight man in need of a risky surgery reconnect with his sister. Dana and Emma show kindness to a homeless man, giving him a haircut and shower. The nursing staff comforting a woman detained by ICE agents. Dr. Robby’s friend Dr. Abbot encourages him to come back alive from his trip and to seek help. In the end, the day shift gathers on the roof of the hospital and watches the 4th of July fireworks.
Notably, Dr. Robby doesn’t leave on his sabbatical at the end of the season. Instead, he’s finally shown comforting a foundling baby that things will be OK. He’s convincing himself, yes. But it’s one of the rare times in the show that he appears with his guard down.
The older I get, the more fucked up the world gets, the more I want to be like Mr. Rodgers and John Candy (he could have been a wonderful cast member of the Pitt, now thinking about it.) Here’s hoping that everything will be OK.
Cheers.
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